Report from Wembley:
It’s Arsenal’s day. A rare joyous moment for Arsene Wenger in the context of this season and a win that might just give him the encouragement he needs to sign that new contract. They’re into the FA Cup final, where they’ll face Chelsea, and they’re there because they showed spirit to recover from a goal down. Nacho Monreal and Alexis Sanchez scored the goals and Arsenal were dogged enough to hold out in the end. As for Manchester City, their first season under Pep Guardiola is fizzling out. Their last chance of a trophy has gone and they face a fight to hold off Manchester United in the fight for the top four now. They’re a point above United and host them on Thursday night. Thanks for reading and emailing. Bye!
Updated
Full-time: Arsenal 2-1 Manchester City
That’s it! Arsenal are in the FA Cup final thanks to Alexis Sanchez’s winner! Oh, Pep.
ET 30 min: Iheanacho’s offside. Arsenal have to hold on for one minute.
ET 29 min: Francis Coquelin replaces Mesut Ozil.
ET 28 min: Toure curls one wide from 20 yards. The Arsenal fans let out a relieved cheer.
ET 27 min: Toure can’t stop giving the ball away.
ET 25 min: Otamendi’s booked for clumping Ramsey’s heels.
ET 24 min: Navas slips a pass through to De Bruyne, whose cross shot slithers across the face of goal. The Belgian looks anguished.
ET 23 min: City have Arsenal pinned back at the moment, but Guardiola’s men are running out of time. “Anyone remember that first hour when this game was, pardon my French, naff?” says Matt Loten. “Me neither. These teams might not have the refinement of Chelsea or Spurs, but this has turned into a cracking watch.” It’s so flawed, though, both midfields leaving much to be desired.
ET 21 min: All of a sudden, De Bruyne romps through the middle, Arsenal all over the shop. He tees up Delph to his left, but the slightest of blocks from Bellerin takes the midfielder’s shot into the side netting. Some City fans think it’s in. It’s not. City still have a corner here, but Iheanacho heads wide.
Updated
ET 19 min: Toure’s free-kick is straight into the wall.
ET 18 min: In a deeper position now, De Bruyne slips a pass through to Iheanacho, who can’t take the ball with him. Arsenal survive. But it’s not long before they concede a free-kick 25 yards out. It’s to the left of the D and Toure fancies his chances.
ET 17 min: Delph shots well wide from 25 yards. “Bellerin’s hair is a clear example of the dysfunction at Arsenal,” says Matthew Carpenter-Arevalo.
ET 16 min: City get the final period underway. Iheanacho has come on for the wretched Sterling, City using the fourth sub granted to them in extra-time.
Updated
The officials want Manchester City to get out there, but a manic Pep Guardiola is still doling out instructions. Kelechi Iheanacho is coming on for Raheem Sterling.
Half-time (extra-time): Arsenal 2-1 Manchester City
Arsenal are 15 minutes away from another FA Cup final and I’m not sure how Manchester City get themselves out of this mess.
ET 15 min+2: Danny Welbeck should wrap it up, only to head Ozil’s cross wide from close range. Xhaka was also booked for that nonsense with Delph.
ET 15 min+1: Hector Bellerin replaces Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. Bellerin has cornrows. Okay.
Updated
ET 15 min: Craig Pawson has to sort out a melee, with Fabian Delph losing his cool after being manhandled by Xhaka. The City midfielder’s booked.
ET 14 min: With the outside of his right foot, De Bruyne finds Sterling on the right. He tries to set up Sane, but Holding diverts it behind for a corner, which comes to nothing.
ET 12 min: Sane’s been booked for dissent. How are City going to score without a striker on the pitch? Over to you, Fabian Delph.
GOAL! Arsenal 2-1 Manchester City (Sanchez, 101 min)
Mesut Ozil dinks the free-kick to the far post. It’s nodded down and although Danny Welbeck misses his kick, Alexis Sanchez gathers the loose ball and bundles it past Bravo from close range! Arsenal lead!
Updated
ET 10 min: This looks like Arsenal’s game to win. City are increasingly underwhelming. They’ve lacked intelligence and personality. Welbeck wins a free-kick deep on the left, Kompany clumsily bringing him down. And...
ET 9 min: Manchester City make a double change, Fabian Delph replacing Sergio Aguero and Fernando replacing Fernandinho. Kevin De Bruyne has moved up front.
Updated
ET 7 min: Ozil sends the corner to the near post from the right, but the unmarked Holding heads just over. What a miss. Fernandinho’s down, meanwhile, and Fabian Delph is going to come on.
Updated
ET 6 min: Welbeck, threatening since his introduction, robs Fernandinho, then bustles to the byline on the right. His cross is blocked. It comes to Sanchez. He settles for a corner.
ET 5 min: Glenn Hoddle’s wondering whether Claudio Bravo will take a penalty for Manchester City.
ET 3 min: After a hypnotic City passing move, De Bruyne tries to feed Sane, but he takes it out of play.
ET 1 min: This is the third time I’ve been taken to extra-time this week. Arsenal get us underway. Guardiola doesn’t have many game-changing options on the bench. Kelechi Iheanacho is there. The others are defensive players. Wenger can still call upon Theo Walcott and Alex Iwobi.
Full-time: Arsenal 1-1 Manchester City
We shall have extra-time.
90 min: There will be three added minutes. “Yeah, tis a pity Chelsea and Tottenham weren’t kept apart in the semi final draw,” says Simon McMahon. “Then we might have had a final for the ages, rather than a semi final. As it is, it’s hard to see either of these sides giving the Chelsea management and players sleepless nights.”
89 min: De Bruyne’s booked for a cynical trip on Sanchez. City are a weirdly slow team without Silva. They aren’t incisive enough.
86 min: Welbeck, using his pace, gallops after a long pass down the right channel. He takes on Otamendi, beats the Argentinian slightly fortuitously, then bends a shot inches past the far post when he could have set up Ramsey or Sanchez for a tap-in. Ramsey and Sanchez are fuming.
Updated
85 min: Otamendi and Fernandinho get in each other’s way and a high ball drops to Welbeck. He moves it on to Ozil, but Navas covers when he tries to find Ramsey.
83 min: Danny Welbeck replaces Olivier Giroud.
82 min: De Bruyne slides a pass to Sane on the left. The sliding Gabriel concedes a corner with an important challenge. De Bruyne lifts the corner to the far post and Fernandinho smacks a header against the bar! City have hit the woodwork again! The ball bounces back to Navas, who fires wide from 20 yards.
81 min: Ozil hares down the right, into the area, but he wants to come back on to his left foot and Otamendi stops him.
79 min: Yaya Toure hits the post! He started the move with a powerful surge through the middle. He found Sterling, whose weak shot was blocked and flew to Toure, who adjusted his body before hooking a low volley from 25 yards towards the bottom right corner. But Cech redeemed himself by feather the ball on to the base of the post and to safety!
Updated
78 min: Navas knocks a pass straight out of play. City have been poor since half-time.
74 min: Chelsea must be having a good old chuckle at the thought of playing one of these two in the final.
73 min: Arsenal’s fans are doing the Poznan.
Updated
GOAL! Arsenal 1-1 Manchester City (Monreal, 72 min)
From wing-back to wing-back. Oxlade-Chamberlain swings a fantastic cross to the far post from the right. Navas is outnumbered and Monreal, culpable in Aguero’s goal, arrives unmarked to hammer a low volley past Bravo with his right foot! What a response from Arsenal! Manchester City, though. They can’t defend.
Updated
70 min: Monreal win a corner for Arsenal on the left. Ozil takes it. But City aren’t in any particular danger.
69 min: Fernandinho’s booked for bringing Xhaka down.
67 min: Monreal hoicks a cross into the City area. Nothing doing. Arsenal had improved since half-time, but they have to show more invention and ability in the final third.
65 min: Against the run of play, then, Manchester City lead. But Arsenal look to hit back immediately and City look panicky at the back. The ball reaches Ozil on the edge of the area. He has a clear sight of goal after taking a touch, but screws his low shot wide!
GOAL! Arsenal 0-1 Manchester City (Aguero, 62 min)
This is wonderful opportunism from Sergio Aguero, a strange goal, but a piece of fine finishing from the Manchester City striker. The Arsenal corner was half cleared and Aaron Ramsey tried to beat Yaya Toure. To no avail. Toure robbed him, looked up and sprayed a pass over the top to Aguero. Nacho Monreal was the only Arsenal defender back. I don’t know why. They’re Arsenal. Aguero has the pace to get away, even when it looks like Monreal’s reeling him in. He takes a heavy final touch and it seems that the ball’s there for Cech to win. But the Arsenal goalkeeper’s slow to react and when he does advance, Aguero dinks it over him with the outside of his right foot.
Updated
61 min: City make a dog’s dinner of a four course meal on their edge of the area, Fernandinho blundering. Giroud menaces in the air, but it’s hastily knocked behind for a corner. And...
59 min: It’s all Arsenal at the moment, not that anything of any note’s happening. But the game’s being played in City’s half at the moment. City can barely string two passes together.
58 min: This has been the kind of game that makes it easier to understand why the Premier League has no participants in the Champions League semi-finals.
57 min: Sane teases Oxlade-Chamberlain on the left and leaves him on his backside before teeing up Sterling, whose scuffed effort’s blocked.
54 min: In significant news for both of these teams, Manchester United have won 2-0 at Burnley. They’re six points ahead of Arsenal, who have a game in hand, and a point behind City, who they visit on Thursday. Meanwhile Claudio Bravo is doing some interesting things and increasingly has the look of a goalkeeper who’s about to make a howling comedy error.
53 min: The free-kick’s pulled back to the edge of the area, where Xhaka’s in an ocean of space. His low sidefooter’s deflected wide. From the corner, Holding threatens, but Kompany defends solidly.
52 min: Sanchez turns adroitly on the left, leaving two City players for dead, and Fernandinho pushes him over on the edge of the area. Arsenal have started promisingly.
Updated
51 min: De Bruyne’s corner is headed down and wide by Otamendi.
50 min: Holding needlessly concedes a corner on the right, slicing behind when it was easier to knock the ball out for a throw.
48 min: Arsenal counter down the right, Ozil linking with Oxlade-Chamberlain. The ball’s lofted to the far post, Giroud challenges with Kompany and tries to knock it down for Ramsey. City concede a corner. It’s headed away.
46 min: Manchester City get the second half underway. Let’s hope it’s better than the first. “Is there any obscure law which can nullify this semifinal and let Spurs face Chelsea again in the final?” says Gary P. “Quality of football was of entirely different scale yesterday and Spurs deserve so much more to be in the final than any if these two ‘attractive’ teams.”
Half-time reading: Christopher Thomond’s FA Cup photo essay.
Half-time: Arsenal 0-0 Manchester City
Meh.
45 min+1: Koscielny bumps De Bruyne over to the right of the Arsenal area. This has been a scrappy, dirty game.De Bruyne manages to hit the one-man Arsenal wall with his free-kick, which pretty much sums up this half.
45 min: Oxlade-Chamberlain flings the free-kick to the far post. It always looks like it’s drifting behind, but Arsenal scream for a penalty when Navas tugs Sanchez back. Craig Pawson ignores their appeals.
44 min: De Bruyne handles on the left. Arsenal win a free-kick. They’re getting a lot of set-pieces. Perhaps Wenger’s learnt something from his recent defeats to Sam Allardyce and Tony Pulis.
41 min: On the touchline, Guardiola is full of grievances. It’s difficult not to sympathise with the Manchester City manager. He’s seen the officials deny his team a strong penalty claim and rule out a seemingly valid goal.
40 min: De Bruyne slips a pass through to Sane on the left. Sane manages to reach it before it runs behind and chips a cross over Cech. It reaches Aguero at the far post and he hammers it goalwards. Cech pushes it out - it looks like it’s over the line - but Sterling is on hand to volley home the rebound. City think they’ve scored. But they haven’t. The linesman’s flag is up. He thinks Sane went out before coming back in. It’s very tight. The replays suggest that the whole of the ball hadn’t gone out. Arsenal have got lucky here.
Updated
39 min: Giroud wins a free-kick for Arsenal on the left, going down as he challenges for the ball in the air with Kompany. Oxlade-Chamberlain knocks it in, Bravo flaps, but players are offside in the middle.
38 min: Aguero manages his first shot of the game, but he arrows it into the side netting from a tight angle on the right.
36 min: This game hasn’t really taken off yet. It’s not at the level of yesterday’s semi-final.
33 min: Aguero’s down after taking a knee to the back from Koscielny. Why is it that teams always think they have to kick Arsenal off the park?
31 min: Sane skedaddles to the byline on the left. Oxlade-Chamberlain concedes a corner. City take it short and end up on the halfway line.
29 min: Toure drives forward and prods a pass through to Aguero, who turns away from Oxlade-Chamberlain before going down in the area. The replays shows that Oxlade-Chamberlain tripped him from behind, accidentally but arguably illegally. That could easily have been a penalty to Manchester City, even if it would have been a soft one.
Updated
27 min: City continue to dominate possession. Arsenal are being outnumbered in the middle. They’ll want to sort that out.
26 min: De Bruyne’s deep free-kick is headed back into the middle by Toure. Arsenal get it away as far as Sterling, who loops a volley wide. Cech didn’t look bothered.
25 min: Sanchez slides to reach a loose ball and brings Fernandinho down on the right. He’s booked, arguably harshly.
23 min: David Silva, unable to shake off that knee injury and mightily miffed with Gabriel for the foul that caused it, is replaced by Raheem Sterling.
22 min: A free-kick to Arsenal on the right, Kompany tripping Ozil. It’s sent in by Ozil and headed away to the edge of the area. Giroud knocks it back into the danger zone and Koscielny volleys past Bravo, but the flag is up for offside. Koscielny was miles offside.
Updated
21 min: There’s a suggestion that Silva’s hobbling a little bit, which might be a legacy of that earlier foul by Gabriel. Raheem Sterling’s warming up. Silva’s been in conversation with Guardiola.
20 min: Possession: Arsenal 32%-68% Manchester City. Hoddle reckons Arsenal’s three centre-backs have to improve on the ball.
18 min: Navas’s low cross from the right runs all the way to Clichy on the edge of the area. He takes a touch before shooting with his right foot. I won’t insult your intelligence.
17 min: Arsenal struggle to clear their lines, Xhaka taking a chance on the left, and they end up conceding a free-kick. De Bruyne lifts it to the far post, but Kompany can’t do anything with it. He reckons it should be a corner, but he’s not getting one.
15 min: Oxlade-Chamberlain attacks down the right for the first time, easily beating Sane and crossing into the middle. Giroud’s unmarked, but he directs his header straight at Bravo, who makes an actual save. City counter through Aguero on the right. He stabs a cross towards the far post and Silva, of all people, nods it towards the top corner, forcing Cech to tip it over. Nothing comes from the corner.
Updated
14 min: Otamendi pings a diagonal pass towards Aguero on the right. Aguero tries to nod it down for the onrushing De Bruyne, but Cech gathers.
12 min: Arsenal scheme for the first time on the edge of the City area, Sanchez nutmegging De Bruyne and feeding Ozil on the left. His cross is scooped clear by Kompany, Toure completes the job and Gabriel fouls Silva.
10 min: This is quite the farce, De Bruyne colliding with a dozy linesman as he tries to take City’s corner on the right. Whoops. Eventually the linesman gets out of the way and we go again. De Bruyne whips the corner in, but the whistle blows for a foul in the middle.
9 min: It might not surprise you to learn that City are seeing most of the ball. Space opens up for Silva for the first time and Arsenal are in trouble. Silva slides a peach of a pass through to Aguero, but his first touch invites a challenge from Koscielny, who foils him. Corner to city.
Updated
6 min: It’s been a fairly cagey start. We’d already had a zinger from Willian by this point in yesterday’s semi-final. But these two sides are feeling their way into this one.
5 min: Navas has a dash up the right, but his cross is cleared. I might place that sentence on file. “Non-partisan cheer of the day - good to see Vincent Kompany upright, on both legs, and looking ready to play football,” says Charles Antaki.
3 min: Sane drifts inside from the left, De Bruyne drifts inside from the right. Sane finds De Bruyne, who decides to have an early sighter from 25 yards. He cuts across his shot, though, and it fizzes harmlessly wide.
2 min: Glenn Hoddle is one of the pundits on BT Sport this afternoon. I suppose he approves of a back three, having used one with England at the 1998 World Cup.
And we’re off! Arsenal, in their red and white, get the game underway, kicking from right to left in the first half. Manchester City are in light blue and the atmosphere inside sunny Wembley sounds rather terrific.
The teams are out. The man with the microphone is screaming into it and loud music is pumping, because fans must not be allowed to let the atmosphere grow organically.
Updated
Son Heung-Min struggled at left wing-back for Tottenham yesterday, giving away a penalty rashly. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain seems more suited to the wing-back role than the South Korean, in theory, but his defensive qualities are sure to be put to the test by Leroy Sane on the left. Sane has scored two in two games against Arsenal this season.
“Slightly awkward,” says Hugh Molloy. “Arsenal had a back 3 when Wenger arrived and he even kept it for a bit. I can however confirm that Tony Adams had never eaten (or heard of) broccoli pre 1996.”
Ah, but when is a back three not a back three but a back five?
Arsenal stick with their revolutionary use of a back three. First Arsene Wenger brings broccoli, pasta, mineral water and sit-ups to the club, now a new formation. Will wonders never cease? Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Nacho Monreal are his Victor Moses and Marcos Alonso, his Kyle Walker and, er, Son Heung-Min. Up front, it’s Olivier Giroud instead of Theo Walcott.
Manchester City opt for a touch of control over pace. At the Emirates a few weeks ago, Pep Guardiola seemed to blunder by replacing Raheem Sterling with Yaya Toure at half-time; City no longer carried the same threat on the break and Kevin de Bruyne wasn’t quite as dangerous on the right as he was in the middle. But Guardiola has opted for that set-up from the start here. Toure joins Fernandinho in central midfield, De Bruyne starts on the right and Sterling starts on the bench. So does Willy Caballero. Shot-stopping’s Claudio Bravo’s between the sticks and he’ll be protected by Vincent Kompany, starting for for the third time in four matches.
Team news
Manchester City: Bravo; Navas, Kompan, Otamendi, Clichy; Fernandinho, Toure; De Bruyne, Silva, Sane; Aguero. Subs: Caballero, Zabaleta, Fernando, Kolarov, Delph, Sterling, Iheanacho.
Arsenal: Cech; Gabriel, Koscielny, Holding; Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey, Xhaka, Monreal; Ozil, Sanchez; Giroud. Subs: Martinez, Bellerin, Gibbs, Coquelin, Iwobi, Walcott, Welbeck.
Referee: Craig Pawson.
Updated
Preamble
It’s been 19 years since Arsene Wenger’s first FA Cup semi-final. Christopher Wreh, a man who once delivered a performance so bad that he became a substituted substitute, scored the only goal against Wolverhampton Wanderers as Arsenal continued their relentless push towards the Double. What a visionary Wenger was back in 1998. Wreh’s goal was created by a driving run from Patrick Vieira, an unheralded £3.5m signing from Milan who had formed an awesome Gallic midfield partnership with the no less mysterious Emmanuel Petit. Now Granit Xhaka struggles to live up to his £35m fee in Arsenal’s midfield. Things aren’t as they once were in north London.
That win over Wolves back in April 1998 kept Arsenal rolling. Manchester United, weighed down by injuries and indifferent form during the spring months, were in their sights. Wenger was the foreign genius, Le Professeur, finally a worthy adversary for Sir Alex Ferguson. Arsenal won the title with two games to spare when they walloped Everton 4-0 - Tony Adams, put through by Steve Bould, would you believe it? - and a fortnight later they beat Newcastle 2-0 at Wembley thanks to goals from Marc Overmars and Nicolas Anelka. Arsene appeared to know.
Wenger’s had a proud FA Cup record at Arsenal. Though there have been semi-final defeats to United in 1999 and 2004 and to Chelsea in 2009, they’ve also won the Cup in 2002, 2003, 2005, 2014 and 2015. The last of those triumphs, following on from that make-or-break win over Hull City a year earlier, was meant to mark the emergence of Wenger’s third great Arsenal side, the first of the Emirates era. Arsenal walloped Aston Villa that day. Wenger made a big call, leaving out Olivier Giroud for Theo Walcott, who scored the opener. Alexis Sanchez capped a fine first season in English football with a stunning goal. The future was bright. But here we are. Arsenal fans are split down the middle, locked in an interminable Islington hokey-cokey: you put your Wenger in, your Wenger out, in, out, in out, you shake it all about, you do the hokey-cokey and you turn around, Wenger out is the shout.
Yes, these are troubled times in north London. As far as we know, Wenger’s new contract remains unsigned. If it remains unsigned, he’ll be out of the door at the end of the season and Arsenal will be looking for a new manager for the first time since 1996. Many people say it’s time. Others are still hoping for a romantic ending. The only certainty at the moment is that this Arsenal team is not in a good place. Sitting in seventh place, they’re seven points off the top four and their long record of qualifying for the Champions League is under severe threat. Wenger looks tired. It could be time.
The pressure will only grow if Arsenal falter again today. There’s every chance. They’re not up against Wolves. It’s Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, a rather tougher proposition. But while Wenger increasingly looks like yesterday’s man in comparison to the new generation of coaches, it’s also true that Guardiola is a man under scrutiny.
Guardiola’s first season at City hasn’t completely gone to plan, even if it is early days and far too soon to make any definitive judgements. Knocked out of the Champions League in the last 16 by Monaco, they’ve also flattered to deceive in the Premier League, starting well before fading from the title race because of a lack of consistency and ruthlessness. Bad defending and occasionally wasteful finishing have been their main flaws; but more worryingly, City have hired a man with a glowing CV and obvious hunger, but this is the third successive season in which they’ve rather drifted away from the very top, suggesting that there are mental as well as stylistic flaws that Guardiola must correct.
A few weeks ago, City travelled to Arsenal a day after Chelsea had given hope to the chasing pack by losing to Crystal Palace. They drew with Arsenal despite leading twice, then lost to Chelsea three days later. They played good football. But their level oscillated in both games and they didn’t win either. Lose to Arsenal and all they’ll have to aim for this season is Champions League qualification. We’ll resist falling into the trap of pointing out that both managers could do with winning this FA Cup semi-final. But it’s fair to say that this is a game that has wider significance than this proud old competition. Wenger doesn’t need another FA Cup, but a pressure win over Guardiola would be priceless. Guardiola doesn’t need to prove his supremacy over Wenger, but he could do with a trophy sooner rather than later. Put it that way and life in the Christopher Wreh years does sound simpler.
Kick-off: 3pm BST.
Updated
