Arsenal advanced in the FA Cup, defeating Sheffield United 2-1 with a last minute winner from Daniel Onions.
Arsenal dominated possession throughout the match but looked shaky on set plays where Sheffield United generated 7 shots. Those shots don’t include two which were ruled out for offside, one of which rippled the back of the net.
But it was a sweetly hooked penalty by Pepe which put the Gunners in front “against the run of play”. Arsenal hold-up man (without a mask) Lacazette earned the penalty when Chris Basham lived up to his name and bashed Laca’s achilles in the box. Referee Paul Tierney pointed straight to the spot and VAR upheld the decision because it was entirely correct. It was the kind of penalty which some classic football fans complained about and some Arsenal supporters aren’t used to seeing because the referees tend to be complete punks when it comes to awarding them to Arsenal. We see those called against Arsenal all the time but typically when Arsenal are fouled, the refs duck responsibility.
Sheffield United are a well drilled side and show what a good coach can accomplish even on a limited budget. Their midfielders harass and trouble their opponents and are able to play almost every position on the pitch. If they had a good striker they would certainly be higher up in the League table but as it stands they look likely to go back down to the Championship.
They are also a scrappy team and sometimes cross the line. But again Paul Tierney is such an awful ref that he allowed them to cross that line several times, kicking Danny Onions in the chest at one point and injuring Willock, Luiz, and Sead Kolasinac. Given the way he refereed the match it’s quite the mistake that he called that penalty at all. At one point he allowed Sheffield defenders to literally haul back David Luiz on an Arsenal corner, one which the Brazilian almost certainly would have scored from had it not been for the defender pulling his shirt.
Anyways.. I was hoping to get some data on pressures and whatnot but fbref (my new main source) doesn’t post that for FA Cup matches so I won’t bore you with data. Just know that this is the 30th time in Arsenal history that we have made it to the semi-final.
Arsenal have to play Man City, which will be a difficult match.
On a side note, I’ve seen a lot of news stories about Arsenal players these last few weeks: Ozil’s been left on the bench, Torreira isn’t featuring, I guess we are selling a kid I’ve never heard of, we re-signed a bunch of guys that I don’t care for, and so on. But truth told I just don’t have the energy to argue with people about this stuff anymore. It’s not that I don’t care about Arsenal (obviously) but it’s actually that I don’t care about arguing as much as I used to! LOL.
What I can say is that either these personnel changes will work or they won’t. hahahahah.. Argue with THAT!
not a good performance but cup games are all about advancing…doesn’t have to be pretty. “just win, baby!”
when you say sheffield united are going back down to the championship, i don’t think they will “this season”. maybe you’ve confused them with someone else.
Yeah, I was similarly confused by the “likely to go back down to the Championship” comment. Tim must have meant “eventually.” They’re currently above us in the table on 44 points!
We’re the new Everton. I’ve been saying this for years. Maybe we’ll start to get more hipster fans as a result? Or do they only wear the shirts from League One teams?
Great post Tim.
Great to be in the semifinals. Winning is all that really matters
We haven’t really had any great attacking performances this year no matter who the manager. Arteta has been able to get the squad to play with more intensity and organization and commitment on the defensive end which has made us more difficult to beat. Unfortunately we don’t have the attacking talent and there is not much he can do from a tactical standpoint that can make us a better attacking team. As you pointed out Sheffield Uniteds manager has a similar problem. He is a good manager with an undertalented squad. He can get them to play solid defense and make them tough to beat but they just don’t have the talent to score enough goals.
I agree about the lack of attacking penetration, but if you leave out your best attacker, Ozil, what do you expect?
Auba looks like a fish out of water without anyone to provide him with the important passes
I’m not sure you can label him our best attacker as he only has one assist to is name this season. he used to be good but on current form that is not the case.
I used to think Ozil & Auba could have been the new Bergkamp & Henry; I guess we’ll never know now.
Not in a million years. You can stop pondering about that, if you like.
In 2003 maybe they would’ve been. The game has changed a lot.
Reaching the semi-final of Europe’s oldest cup competition will never not be an achievement. But we know how this will end. Yet another day when Guardiola’s men will wipe the pitch of his former mentee’s team. The Gulf in class is just too intimidating for our lot, a perennial which is not going away anytime soon. City have lost to Chelsea, Spurs, Wolves, Norwich among others but they haven’t and won’t lose to us.
JJGSOL
Arsenal has not really had anyone who Is capable of providing Auba with important passes since he arrived and yet he tied for the leagues golden boot last season and this season he is only 2 goals off the top of the league goal scoring table. He has been scoring without the benefit of effective service for 2 full seasons.
Tim
I don’t think there is anything left to argue about in Ozil’s case. It looks like Arteta has given us the final answer and I assume he knows what he is doing. Mesut is almost certainly not in the plans for next season and the prediction after the Man City game that we might not see him again on the pitch in an Arsenal uniform may have been accurate.
A competent performance at Sheffield United takes us through to a tie that gives the pupil an opportunity to best the master. It may be as far as we go but it’s a game of 11 v 11 (hopefully) and in a cup tie anything can happen.
Tomorrow I hope to see a performance that goes beyond mere competence. Norwich haven’t won at our place since the opening weekend of the PL in August 1992 and have struggled for goals all season.
Our game at Letsby Avenue was 2 days after Freddie stepped up to take temporary charge, saw Norwich run through our porous defence to score two goals each of which were pegged back by Aubameyang and late on almost repeat the trick only to be foiled by Leno.
Our defence still isn’t up to snuff but it’s more organised under MA8 and it’s high time we started dominating games and taking our chances. Norwich will be fighting for their PL status and we can’t take them lightly but we should be better than them and we need to show it.
Go win, Arsenal!
Did any of you watch how effortlessly Man United brushed aside Brighton tonight? Ugh. It was hard not to take that personally after watching Arsenal labor to a defeat on that same ground just ten days ago. So what was United’s secret? Was it having a midfield?
Puts it in perspective, doesn’t it? Yes, our midfield is sub standard. Has been for some time.
Yes I was irked by that too and then saw they had Matic and Pogba in the engine room, plus this guy Bruno is apparently pretty good.
Definitely. Their purchase of Bruno was game changing. ManU already had good players but Bruno was the missing piece. I believe that they can really start to push for top 4 now. We have no midfield anymore. We just have a bunch of guys running about masquerading as midfielders. Hence the struggle we face in every game. That’s the reason our defense gets overwhelmed. As much as the youngsters are trying, we are very lightweight in that area. Our strikers are starved of good service in every game. Until Arteta finds some strong, skillful players who can control the game, we will be woeful.
“But truth told I just don’t have the energy to argue with people about this stuff anymore. It’s not that I don’t care about Arsenal (obviously) but it’s actually that I don’t care about arguing as much as I used to! LOL.”
Amen, brother!
There are so many what-ifs, whys and wherefores involving a large organization like Arsenal, or any other football club for that matter. You can debate until you’re blue in the face but at the end of the day, opinions are all we have. Some are better informed than others, but they remain opinions and depend on incomplete, dubious and sometimes downright dishonest information. Even the youtube scouting videos that show player positions and heatmaps to make a point use single instances in time and/or single matches. You just have to trust them that this is part of a larger pattern and that that pattern is meaningful. After a while it all becomes tiresome and finding distance from it is refreshing and satisfying, at least for me. Then I turn up and try to watch parts of these weird games if I can but to be honest Arsenal is just not a great product at the moment (and hasn’t been for a few years) so it’s difficult to get too excited about their ups and downs. I remain hopeful for the future but we are destined to remain in the post-Wenger morass for some time yet.
Dr Gooner.
None of us really know for certain what is going on behind the scenes with any real certainty but I always thought the. point of having a sports blog with a comment section was to give fans a chance to interact and discuss and debate their opinions.
Yes Bill, that is indeed the point. 🙄
🤣🤣🤣🤣 Dr
Arsene left us with a squad full of overpaid underperforming players where most of the critical players were on the downside of their career arcs. Similar thing happened at ManU when Fergie left. Its taken ManU a while and they still haven’t completely dug out of the morass
More than just the players, it’s about replacing a one man institution with another institution. There’s a power vacuum, a lack of direction, uncertainty all around, trust issues…. Man United spent plenty of money but struggled to find a unified direction as coaches and players and fans were constantly second guessing each other, at times very publicly. All of that sounds very familiar to us with good reason. Arsenal is rebooting from top to bottom and there’ll be lots of glitches, crashes, new parts and troubleshooting before the machine is humming.
Some good news Saka has signed a long term contract
That is excellent news. It’s not only that we’ve retained the services of a top talent but it also demonstrates that the contracts department can occasionally deliver.
Is anyone watching how effortlessly arsenal are brushing norwich aside ? the team that man u struggled against at the weekend and got taken to extra time in the cup… 😉
Heh.
Thanks to United for softening them up for us!
A goal from one of our midfielders. What a novel concept.
ceballos is the catalyst, brother. he’s ballin’ out of his mind!
Ceballos had a VERY good game. Encouraging.
Is he not going back to Madrid? I thought that was a done deal.
For me Ceballos is just OK. I have to judge him on a body of work and not just a couple of good games. I don’t think he’s physical enough to play in the base of midfield, nor is he quick or creative enough to play further forward. He would want to play in the hole behind the striker (who wouldn’t?) but I think we can do better in that position even with internal options.
I can see him growing into an accomplished shuttling midfielder, a bit like Kovacic or perhaps Veratti in the best version of him but Arsenal aren’t in a position to fork over lots of money on a long term contract for the player he is at the moment.
arsenal has agreed with real madrid to take him on loan an additional year. this was settled recently (within the past three weeks).
doc, i wasn’t saying ceballos is the answer for arsenal moving forward. i was just praising him for his first half performance today. he was very good. however, you’re right, the body of work is the true test. i also agree that he’s a skinny kid who may not be best suited for the premier league but, at his best, he can be formidable. with that, we have to remember that it was norwich city, the bottom team in the league.
Didn’t watch but I’ll absord highlights online. Some positive momentum is happening: 7 wins from our last 10, including 4 at home. Ceballos apparently was a beast today. Does this mean we no longer suck?
Of course Josh, I was giving a more 10,000 foot view and I fully realized you were only talking about him in terms of this game. If you’re right about another year on loan, I think that’s a win for Arsenal. He is a contributor and he can and likely will improve physically after his first year here.
haha I thought poaching was banned in england.. 3-0
why did we give soares a long term contract?
Was that goal by Soares his first touch in an Arsenal shirt? I wasn’t following closely enough.
I think he was on for about 10mins and had two or three touches before he scored.
it was missing before it got a deflection the anti arsenal PL will probably take it from him.
If not Soares, then we will certainly need someone like him. Bellerin is still playing like a shadow of his former self. Fitness issues? Where has his much vaunted pace gone?
I don’t see us having a chance of catching chelsea so I am hoping they get a good win at west ham and send the financially doped eastenders down next year.
best ground in the championship paid for by the people of london, thank you boris.
Busy Arsenal news day:
4-0 win
New board member Tim Lewis
Saliba will not play in France cup final but will return here
Saka re-ups with us, and singles out David Luiz for praise
Vivienne Miedema named football writers’ player of the year
Across all our teams, Sr men, women, academies, Viv will go down as one of the greatest Arsenal players of all time. She is a stone cold assassin in front of the net, provider as well as scorer, a team player, humble and hard working. We are so lucky to have her.
Purely as a matter of interest, are there any regulations that exclude women playing for the men’s team. Just wondered.
Miki has had his contract terminated? Is that true? 200k down the toilet each week wasn’t the best bit of business. I suspect Mesut will have to be next on the axe list. There is no way in a million years that we can afford to continue to throw good money after bad.
A competent performance beating a poor team with a couple of gifts but keeping a clean sheet. Encouraging progress in the right direction. Bigger tests to come.
Yes, Norwich were very poor. I can quite see why they are certs to go down. Sometimes you need games like that to get your confidence up. Arsenal tend to be a bit fragile in that department. Very impressed with Martinez in goal. It might be quite interesting to see what happens when Leno finally gets fit. The Guendouzi issue rumbles on. The latest quote I saw from Arteta was “Something needs to change. Nothing has changed”. If true, that doesn’t augur well. Might end up as a makeweight to bring someone else in. Who knows?