Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored twice for Arsenal at a brilliantly empty Wembley stadium while Arsenal endured massive pressure from Manchester City for much of the 90 minute to seal a spot in the FA Cup final. For Pep Guardiola it was a frustrating night in North London. City lost its first FA Cup draw since February 2018, occasionally committing suicide against opponents ready to sit down and defend themselves with real resistance.
As for Arsenal, this felt like confirmation of a bent corner. For the second time in four days, Mikel Arteta’s team produced a hectic defensive discipline performance against one of the Premier League’s reigning powers, not only absorbing pressure, but breaking through a real incision. Granit Xhaka was a calm and efficient presence in the midfield. Nicolas Pépé used his speed in an advisable way, stretching City on the left flank. The signs are here of something beginning to stir.
Wembley is a gloomy place at best, and these are by no means the best. By the day of the FA Cup semi-final, the vast gray halls were a ghost town, bars, sweet cars, and closed doggie stands, a reminder of the havoc the current crisis has wreaked on the FA’s finances.
In the beginning, Wembley was a sad place, the absurdly excitable tones of the PA stadium bouncing off the empty stands.
Guardiola had sent an initial XI packed with ball players, with İlkay Gündoğan as the only real defensive presence in the top six. The city started in a sprint, flooding Arsenal’s goal from all angles. And Guardiola certainly expected something similar to Liverpool’s game in the Emirates midweek, where David Luiz, yes, that David Luiz, had led the deepest and most insightful defensive performance of this season’s overflow section.
For this game, Mikel Arteta converted Kieran Tierney in the last three, with Shkodran Mustafi chosen as David Luiz’s central partner. Filmmakers call this kind of thing “casting against the guy”; often, it should be said, with surprising results.
City had 90% possession in the first ten minutes, forcing Arsenal to return to their own goal, and almost at the same time sometimes when the red shirts held a deep double-banked bridgehead. But it was Arsenal who had the first really clear opportunity with 15 minutes to go. David Luiz took a poor clearance from Aymeric Laporte from the air and played a simple direct pass through the bowels of the city midfield to Aubameyang, unmarked in front of the goal. His shot was powerful but direct to Ederson.
She felt like an ominous ominous. But apparently not Aubameyang, who opened the scoring four minutes later at the end of another move that found zero resistance from the sky blue shirts. Héctor Bellerin fed Nicolas Pépé to the right. His deep cross curved through the defense of the City unhindered, and he found a wonderful short-range ending from the narrowest angle.
At the line of contact, Arteta hit the air and leaped onto his chalk rectangle.
Arsenal continued to alternate deep defense with moments of counterattack. The city still had most of the ball. But there were hasty clearances and some confusing passes. Mustafi pulled a flying save from Ederson, heading a corner toward the goal. And despite his fuzzy possession, City still hadn’t managed to shoot the target when the halftime whistle blew.
City left again early after the break. They started with a more familiar type of urgency, David Silva taking the ball in deep positions and causing a small exchange of passes that saw Raheem Sterling shoot deep with a clear vision on goal.
For a time it was more of the same, only more: more sky passing patterns, more deep defense. It took Arsenal eight minutes to build a movement in the middle of the city.
However, they looked grim and solid as City passed the ball across the face of that double defensive bolt. It’s been some time since Kevin De Bruyne seemed so awkward on the ball. After an hour, the Premier League’s best midfielder had completed just 66% of his passes.
Guardiola’s team needed a moment of inspiration. De Bruyne almost provided it, shooting a free kick over the wall and into the side net. Sterling fell under a challenge from Mustafi in the area, but Arsenal survived the VAR checkup. Moments later, Sterling made a horrible foul in front of the goal. Taken by surprise by a corner flight from the left, he was only able to weakly deflect the ball from his nose when any kind of header seemed like a goal.
And it was Arsenal, crouched behind their guard throughout the half, who scored a second with 71 minutes to go. It was made by a wonderful diagonal ball behind City’s high line from Tierney. Once again, all it took to send Aubameyang was to break free from Eric Garcia. The end was a beautiful thing, Aubameyang galloping, moving his hips to change the angle and sliding the ball under Ederson to make it 2-0.
The city still pressures. Laporte fired a shot outside the post. But despite all their pressure, they continued to meld into the stamina and swift energy of an enormously impressive Arsenal team.
.
