Report: Swansea 2-2 Arsenal
Vintage FA Cup drama was in full flow at the Liberty Stadium as a 2-2 draw in which both teams surrendered a lead means Swansea City and Arsenal will have to do it all over again in a replay of this tie.
If the first half had been cautious and cagey from either side, the show after the restart was pure action. The Gunners began the second half with a bright effort and in truth, much of the football of the last 45 minutes belonged to them, but Michu stung Mertesacker and the Arsenal back-line with a ball over the top and a cute finish when he went up against Szczesny to hand the hosts a lead against the run of the play in the 59th minute.
Arsenal’s response was very urgent. Giroud was in the thick of the action upfront as he tested Swansea’s resolve with the help of service on the left by Ramsey and Gibbs.
Indeed, Swansea looked to have robbed Arsenal of a place in the fourth-round until the final ten minutes when substitute Podolski turned and shot to capitalize on a corner-kick which was not cleared properly to level matters for Arsenal.
Momentum belonged to the visitors at this point and so it was of little surprise when Gibbs exchanged neat passes with Giroud and sublimely volleyed the ball home only two minutes after Podolski’s equalizer to hand Arsenal a 2-1 lead with just six minutes to go.
Gibbs had scored a goal to remember and it deserved to be the winner, but with the game in their hands only for the first time today, Wenger’s men always feared another defensive capitulation could present the Swans a late equalizer. And those fears were realized when Graham was allowed to freely shoot into the roof of the net after a corner-kick was poorly defended.
On the 16th of January, there will be a second meeting at the Emirates stadium to settle matters.
when reamsay and wilshere start arsenal never win. english core my ass. 2 overrated english media made players. jack wilshere is a very overrated palyer since hes bein hes had 1goal and 1 assiast.
You Moron! Wilshere over rated!? You clearly know nothing about football! Ramsey I agree is no good for Arsenal but to say Wilshere is over rated is a shockingly ignorant statement! Fool!
wilshere???!!! u don’t know who u are talking abt or u don’t watch football matches! ramsey i agree.
Who needs vanpussy when u got Gibbsy? Who needs song when u got OG12? Some real moments of genius inbetween a whole lot of crap!
Arsenal are so frustrating with their kamikaze football. A draw is a fair result but arsene Wenger has surely gone stale. Playing Ramsey ahead of poldolski and the ox. Still implementing zonal marking. A change- up is needed. What we waiting for?
Continually letting our best players leave yet struggle to sell our worst. Giving average players big contracts but are reluctant to give our top players the going rate for a player of their calibre. I wont lie…all the top football clubs in England have gone backwards in recent years but arsenal have by far dropped most in standards. Football now is about money. If you have a sugar daddy to buy whoever does help. Even if you didn’t have a sugar daddy you need a manager who will spend what it takes to win. I.e sir Alex.
Did anyone notice as soon as we upped the tempo we were far superior and as soon as we dropped of they got straight back in to it.If it wasnt for some very suspect defending and some sloppy passing we would have been all over them.
Great goal by gibbs by the way. An other top flight team that goal would of won the game. Stop the mistakes. Have composure on the pitch. Mertz, scezney, bacs, rambo, im talking to you. Arsenal have to stop the rot NOW before the damage is irreparable.
Consteny is not a good defender at all
I urge wilshere, cazorla n podolski to leave arsenal. Arsenal will just drag them down. They’ll waste their careers and time staying with arsenal. Sagna and ramsey should quit football. They’re not footballers. Stupid. I think ramsey is better of being a salesman n sagna can become a clerk. Really stupid n useless.
whats so good about jack wilshere beside the fact hes english??? wilshere needs to get drop for rosicky
I urge wilshere, cazorla n podolski to leave arsenal. Arsenal will just drag them
down. They’ll waste their careers and time staying with arsenal. Sagna and
ramsey should quit football. They’re not footballers. Stupid. I think ramsey is
better off being a salesman n sagna can become a clerk. Really stupid n useless.
t/day AFC was very sharp especially in the 2nd half.poor players: sagna,ramsey. good: arteta,mert,giroud,kosc,walct. excellent:cazorla,gibbs,szczesny,podolski.
I still believe the bg is an accident waiting to happen. He maybe able to read the game but he lacks pace as when the Swan scored their first goal.Arsenal lack someone to run at defenders. This will scare the shit out of the latter. Diaby is unfortunately injured.
One more thing is the defence and the speed of the gunners attack.
When the swans scored their 2nd goal,the defenders were ball watching. Why not be like QPR who closed down the blues whenever there was agoal threat.QPR had their gk to thank as well.
The gunners still like to pass their their way to goal. I believe it is one or five passes too many. It’s too slow and predictable and often the the threat is snuffed out before the gunners can even shoot.