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FA Cup: Arsenal surprises and leaves Manchester City

2020-07-19T18:26:13.032Z


The Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang Gunners took the best of Manchester City in the semifinals of the FA Cup. They will face Manchester United or Chelsea in the final.


Perfect week for Arsenal. After Liverpool in the league, the Gunners dominated Manchester City in the semifinal of the FA Cup Saturday at Wembley (2-0), offering their coach Mikel Arteta the best victory of his young career on the bench. The 38-year-old Spaniard took his revenge on Pep Guardiola, of which he was assistant for three years on the bench of Citizens. A month ago, for the resumption of the championship, City had sharply dominated Arsenal 3-0. The Gunners will therefore have the opportunity to save their season in the Cup final on August 1 against the winner of the other half between Chelsea and Manchester United, Sunday at 5:00 p.m.

Just six days ago, Arsenal were at the bottom of the hole, after their defeat against their great rival Tottenham (2-1), who relegated him to ninth position in the championship. Since then, a surprise 2-1 victory over champion Premier League Liverpool and Saturday's victory have put the Gunners back on track. Mikel Arteta has he finally found the key, after a half-season at the helm of the Gunners? No hasty conclusion is possible, as six shots in total were enough for his side to score four goals for England's top two, clearly physically exhausted.

The confrontation, however, remained unbalanced on paper, Manchester City having won the last seven confrontations between the two clubs. As against Liverpool on Wednesday, the record holder of victories in this competition (13 trophies) essentially benefited from defensive errors by the defending champion.

Best intentions

A fluctuation in the placement of Laporte first allowed Aubameyang to try his luck (16th). Three minutes later, it was still the Franco-Gabonese who received a cross from Pépé to beat Walker and cheat Ederson with a volley volley (19th, 1-0). Two very risky reminders from the Brazilian doorman of City put his team in danger, especially at the half-hour mark, and conveyed the feeling that City had really not entered its match. A Mustafi head made the players of Guardiola (41st) tremble again.

At the break, the London advantage was logical, Manchester City could never be really dangerous. The slowness of the Guardiola players, the lack of movement and sequence, even the collective apathy, were glaring, and very unusual for this team. They had already experienced a drop in regime Wednesday in the championship against the relegated Bournemouth, who had shot twice more on goal (15 attempts against 8, an extremely rare statistic for a formation of Guardiola). The Citizens still won 2-1.

They returned from the locker room with better intentions, with two shots on target from Raheem Sterling (49th), each time served by De Bruyne, the only truly active Citizen in the offensive, in the midst of often passive, even invisible teammates (Mahrez , Sterling, Silva, Gabriel Jesus). Mahrez also had his chance five minutes later (54th), then De Bruyne on a free kick (61st), against an Emiliano Martinez who seemed to gain immunity with each opposing attempt. One of Arsenal's only counterattacks, ending with a deep pass from Tierney to Aubameyang, was enough to end the suspense (2-0, 71st). Arsenal never doubted, facing a very tired formation which now has three weeks to regain strength before the knockout stages of the Champions League return against Real Madrid.

Read also

  • FA Cup: schedule and results

Source: lefigaro

All sports articles on 2020-07-19

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