Arsenal 2-0 Manchester City: Arteta stuns Guardiola at Wembley

Nobody truly knows what’s going to happen when two teams compete against one another in a high stakes encounter, and on Saturday night, that trend continued as Arsenal stunned the football world to beat Manchester City and book their place in the 2020 FA Cup Final.

An all-star showing

It was the kind of match that you’d expect the Gunners to slip up on, and for many fans, they were almost certainly thinking that they were going to let it slip through their fingers until the second goal went in. When looking back on it now, though, it’s pretty clear to see that Mikel Arteta put forward the perfect game plan for his side.

City were able to push Arsenal back in a big way throughout the first 15 or so minutes of the game, but to their credit, Arsenal didn’t cave. They steadied the ship and went after Pep’s men as and when they found an opening, and that strategy paid off when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang poked his side into a first half lead.

One step away

Last season’s FA Cup winners had a handful of opportunities to get back at Arsenal, but none of them really tested Emiliano Martinez in a big way. As the second half went on it was starting to look like they were running out of answers, and then, Arsenal really did put the final nail in the coffin courtesy of yet another Aubameyang strike. City were simply going through the motions from that point on, whereas Arteta was quite clearly on cloud nine.

Many questions will be asked of Guardiola and his team, but they can’t allow themselves to dwell on this for too long. They need to re-shift their focus to the UEFA Champions League, which is another competition that the majority are favouring them to win. Arsenal will still try and push for a place in the top six of the Premier League, but either way, they know that they’re just one more Wembley win away from another trophy and a place in the UEFA Europa League. Now, they’ll have to wait and see who they’ll face in the final: Chelsea or Manchester United.

Match Report

Arsenal: Martinez (7), Tierney (7.5), Luiz (8.5), Mustafi (7.5), Maitland-Niles (7.5), Xhaka (7), Ceballos (7.5), Bellerin (7), Aubameyang (8), Lacazette (7), Pepe (7), Willock (6), Holding (6.5), Torreira (6), Kolasinac (6)

Manchester City: Ederson (6), Walker (5), Garcia (5.5), Laporte (5), Mendy (4.5), De Bruyne (6), Gundogan (5), Mahrez (5.5), D.Silva (5), Sterling (4.5), Jesus (4), Foden (6), Rodrigo (6), Fernandinho (6)

Referee: Jonathan Moss

Goals: Aubameyang x2

Yellow Cards: N/A

Red Cards: N/A