North London outfit Arsenal faced off against their league rivals Sunderland in the FA Cup at the Emirates on Saturday, as they looked to retain their title once agian. The third round clash saw the Gunners welcome Sam Allardyce’s side, who had failed to impress this season. The home side employed a similar formation of 4-2-3-1 like they have for most of this season, as they looked to win this game and advance to the fourth round of the cup competition. Further, it was the visiting side who had applied a 4-4-2 at the start, yet the plan did not really work out well for them.
On one side, it was Olivier Giroud up front looking to push for goals, while Steven Fletcher and Danny Graham tried to get the job done for their side, in the absence of Jermain Defoe who had scored a brace last weekend against Aston Villa.
Team selections and Formations
Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Cech; Bellerin, Gabriel, Koscielny, Gibbs; Chambers, Oxlade-Chamberlain; Campbell, Iwobi, Walcott; Giroud
Sunderland (4-4-2): Pickford; Yedlin, Coates, O’Shea, Van Aanholt; Lens, Toivonen, Cattermole, Watmore; Fletcher, Graham
The Scot got isolated in the game as Wenger employed Calum Chambers in a deeper role, due to which the duo failed to make a major impact on the match. Despite that, Sunderland still surprisingly took the lead after Laurent Koscielny ended up making a huge error at the back that gave Jeremain Lens the chance to score and put his side in the lead in the 17th minute.
The visitors could barely hold on to the lead for a period of 8 minutes as winger Joel Campbell made it 1-1 on the 25th minute and both sides could not score any more goals in the opening 45 minutes. The two sides went into the half-time break level in terms of goals, though the home side had the better chances, yet failed to capitalize. Theo Walcott and Campbell were playing some good football, as they ran and passed the ball around with some quick one-twos and Alex Iwobi looked very confident as the game went on.
The game restarted and there were still no more goals till the hour mark and Wenger finally decided to make a couple of changes on the 67th minute. Aaron Ramsey and Mikel Arteta were brought on into the game and an impact was immediately seen, as the former scored five minute after coming on into the game.
The Welshman gave his side the lead on the 72nd minute, while France international Olivier Giroud added yet another goal for his side on the 75th, to seal qualification to the next round. Hector Bellerin claimed a couple of assists for the second and the third goal and though the opponents tried their best to find a way back into the match, they failed to do so and there was just one winner on the night.
Wenger’s side will now face off against Liverpool in the Premier League, as they hope to retain their spot on top of the points table, with everything going good so far this season and the French manager will expect nothing less than a similar performance to secure all three points.