Arsenal have beaten Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final today, to seal their place in the final.
The Gunners haven’t enjoyed the best of seasons, with our team struggling in mid-table for a number of months, but after Mikel Arteta was brought in in December, the club has very much been on the up.
The coach brought in a whole new lease of life, and had the team fighting for each other, and that new way belief was on show for all to see today.
Arsenal have overcome a City side who were able to rest key players in midweek having sealed their Champions League qualification already, but the Premier League runners-up were not able to get a grip on the game.
Man City started the game on top, but around 15 minutes in our team had settled and was starting to get on top.
David Luiz put Aubameyang through in on goal with a delightful through-ball, but our main failed to keep his composure and blasted straight at the on-running Ederson.
We wasn’t left to rue that for long however, as Nicolas Pepe guided a delightful low ball across the box into the path of Aubameyang to fire us into the lead.
We continued to keep on the front foot for the remainder of the half, while keeping our rivals with limited touches inside our box, but we were unable to build on that lead before the break.
Both sides remained unchanged going into the second-half, and the game remained mostly the same too.
Manchester City were having long spells on the ball, but were getting frustrated as they failed to break Arsenal down, and they will have been even more annoyed when Aubameyang broke free down the left-side and cleared away from the defenders to go one-on-one with Ederson, only to nutmeg the Brazilian into the centre of the goal.
Our opponents tried to change the game by bringing on Rodri and Foden, but despite their efforts, Mikel Arteta’s defensive plan was not to be beaten.
Has Arteta finally fixed our defensive issues? Will Martinez get his chance to continue as number one when Leno returns?
Patrick
