Barney Ronay was at Wembley. Here’s his report. Enjoy that one ... and thanks for reading this one. Nighty night!
Pep fronts up. “We didn’t play good. Our only regret is that we didn’t play the first half like we did the second. We didn’t play good on a day when we had to. We started low. The way you have to play these games, we were not ready. They defended deep, but defended well. It happened against Liverpool as well. We knew it, but we weren’t good. We wanted to be in the final to stay in rhythm [for the Champions League] but we missed this chance.”
A word with Mikel Arteta. “I am extremely happy and glad for our players. I am sad we can’t enjoy this moment with our fans. You have to try to give your best, take your opportunities and put every body on the line. For me they are the best team in Europe, the way they play, but we did our job. There is a great chemistry between our players and they deserved it. I wasn’t on the pitch, so congratulations!”
A word with the magnificent David Luiz. “It was a great result against one of the best teams in the world. We did that because we were humble, we understood the way we had to play, we took our opportunities to score, and we were mature to understand what level we are in this process. We are in a good process with an amazing coach who wants to bring us the best football, but it is not zero to 100. We have to understand that day by day. We are improving and I am happy for the team, who deserve it. The team understand the modern football where everybody has to defend, has to fight, to have spirit, to play every ball 100 percent. The City team is miles in front of us, but we were humble and we deserved it.” He then acknowledges - very politely, with no hint of aggression - that a lot of people criticise him for his mistakes, and it’s clear that it sometimes stings. Well, he deserves all the plaudits he’ll get for tonight’s performance. He was a rock.
Arsenal celebrate as City slink off. Pep Guardiola’s side - who dominated possession but rarely found a way through - can concentrate on the Champions League. Arsenal meanwhile look forward to another final against one of their great historic rivals in this competition, either Chelsea or Manchester United. Every single player in red was magnificent tonight. The defence really dug in. Special mention should go to David Luiz, who gets plenty of pelters for his off-days, so fair’s fair when he delivers. Kieran Tierney caught the eye, yet again, taking a crucial role in both of the goals. And that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang isn’t half bad, is he. To think he missed the easiest of the three chances laid on for him!
FULL TIME: Arsenal 2-0 Manchester City
The holders are out, the apprentice having beaten his old boss. Arsenal are worthy winners, and are now three from three in FA Cup semi-finals against Manchester City. They’ve won all three as underdogs. This might be the sweetest yet, with a sense that something is happening under their new manager Mikel Arteta.
Updated
90 min +6: Arsenal have done a proper number on City here. They’re 60 seconds away from their 21st FA Cup final.
90 min +5: Mendy sends a low cross in from the left at speed. Martinez punches unconvincingly, but it doesn’t fly towards a blue shirt and Arsenal get away with it. It’s not been City’s night at all ... but Arsenal fully deserve the win they’re so very close to securing.
90 min +4: And so Arsenal carefully, and stubbornly, waste a fair few seconds faffing around in that corner.
Updated
90 min +3: Willock, chasing a long ball, purchases a cheap free kick off an extremely frustrated Laoporte, deep in City territory on the right.
90 min +1: Maitland-Niles intercepts and blooters upfield in the hope of releasing Aubameyang, who is on a hat-trick. Too much juice. Straight through to Ederson.
90 min: De Bruyne clumsily clatters into Maitland-Niles, who goes down for his free kick, and takes his own sweet time to get back up. A masterclass in clock management. But Arsenal aren’t there yet. There will be seven minutes of added time!
88 min: Changes all round. City replace Silva with Fernandinho, while Arsenal are forced to replace the stricken Mustafi, limping off with what looks like an unfortunate muscle injury, with Holding. Kolasinac also comes on, for Ceballos.
87 min: Aubameyang is down too, though it looks as though he’s just having a rest. Yep, he’s back up again. He can kick back with cigars and brandy later. He’ll have deserved them.
85 min: Mustafi goes down screaming in a footrace with Sterling down the City left. He was falling of his own accord, and then Sterling accidentally landed on his foot. On comes the trainer.
Updated
83 min: Laporte’s last shot was dismal. This one, though ... wow! He takes a touch, 30 yards out, just to the left of centre, and pearls a fierce curler towards the top right. Martinez is beaten all ends up, and the ball is travelling, baby. But it whistles a millimetre wide right of the post, and Arsenal breathe again. Pep can’t believe what he’s just seen. A realisation washes across his face: this might not be City’s day.
81 min: It’s attack versus defence now. Defence is currently winning.
79 min: Laporte shoots from distance. It nearly clears the stand behind the goal. No need for this sort of desperation yet.
78 min: Another Arsenal change, as Lacazette is replaced by Torreira.
77 min: Rodri loops in from the left. Foden wins a header, but it’s a weak one and Tierney is able to clear Arsenal’s lines.
75 min: City continue to probe, this way and that. But there’s no way through. Sterling heads for the byline to the left, but runs the ball out of play, Bellerin refusing to give an inch. He screams at the referee in frustration, but it’s a goal kick.
73 min: Another glorious goal by Arsenal, and a real sucker punch, because it had been all City in the second half. Sterling tries to hit back immediately, jinking down the left and shooting from a tight angle, but Luiz flies across to bravely block.
Updated
GOAL! Arsenal 2-0 Manchester City (Aubameyang 71)
Kieran Tierney is some player. His pass started the move for the first goal; now he’s heavily involved in the second. He plays a long pass up the left from deep. Pepe holds it up on the halfway line, and rolls it back. Tierney, tight on the touchline, slides another long ball forward to release Aubameyang, who is clear, played miles onside by Mendy in the middle. Aubameyang reaches the box, draws Ederson, and slots between his legs.
Updated
70 min: The game restarts, and Arsenal are once again forced right back. Rodri swings in from the right, a ball that earns another corner. But De Bruyne’s delivery is no good, and Arsenal go up the other end ...
68 min: That’s drinks!
Updated
67 min: Foden’s very first act is to win a corner down the right off Maitland-Niles. The set piece is worked long to Mendy, on the far side. He hooks it back, and De Bruyne is free, just to the right of goal! He could shoot, but opts to fire into the six-yard box instead, where Silva tries to poke home, but under pressure from Xhaka, diverts the ball wide instead.
Updated
66 min: City make their first changes. Foden and Rodri come on for Mahrez and Gundogan.
64 min: It’s certainly not a clear and obvious error, so on we go. City take the corner. Luiz misses his header on the edge of the six-yard box, and the ball smacks a surprised Sterling straight on the beak. It wafts softly into the grateful arms of Martinez.
63 min: Sterling dribbles with purpose down the left and into the box. Mustafi sticks out a leg and guides the ball out of play ... though he takes plenty of man afterwards. Sterling is livid, right up in the ref’s grille, and VAR will take a look at it. It looks a well-timed challenge.
Updated
61 min: De Bruyne gets the free kick up over the wall and back down, but the ball flies wide left and ripples only the side netting. Martinez may well have had that covered anyway. But it’s as close as City have come.
60 min: Luiz comes through the back of Jesus, just to the left of the Arsenal D, and this is a free kick in a very dangerous position.
59 min: Much less nonsense this time, and Arsenal deal with this one easily enough.
58 min: De Bruyne nearly bursts clear into the box down the right, but is forced to settle for a corner. From the set piece, a comic-book cloud of nonsense erupts, with boots and fists sticking out of it. The ball pinballs around awhile, then squirts out of the melee and inches wide right. Another corner coming up.
56 min: Gundogan makes good down the middle and sprays a pass wide right for the increasingly influential Mahrez. The cross that follows is cleared easily enough, but Arsenal aren’t playing with quite the same confidence right now, sitting back and asking for trouble.
54 min: Mahrez drops a shoulder to sashay into the box from the right, sailing past Maitland-Niles with ease. He tries to catch out Martinez at his near post, shooting for the bottom right, but the keeper reads the intention well and snaffles with a strong hand.
53 min: Arsenal show in the City half for the first time since the restart, Maitland-Niles getting the better of Walker down the left. But having done the hard work, he hoicks hopelessly over everyone in the box and towards the opposite flank, which is totally unpopulated.
Updated
52 min: Mahrez crosses deep from the right. Mendy, out on the left-hand edge of the box, tries an ambitious screaming volley. He connects pretty well, but it’s straight at Martinez and gathered without drama.
51 min: De Bruyne was uncharacteristically ineffective in the first half, but he’s been everywhere since the restart. Now he’s sent into the Arsenal box on the right by Mahrez, but his low fizzing cross isn’t quite accurate enough. This is much better from City, though.
49 min: Sterling misses another chance, though only by the width of a cigarette paper. De Bruyne floats down the left, sent free by Silva. He looks up and rolls a ball into the box, perfectly teed up for Sterling on the penalty spot. Sterling sends a first-time shot whistling millimetres wide of the bottom right. Martinez was never getting there.
48 min: ... Sterling blooters miles over the bar from 12 yards. He had enough time and space to do better.
47 min: The second half starts like the first, with City hogging possession and on the attack. Mahrez makes his way down the right and wins a corner. From which ...
Updated
Arsenal get the ball rolling for the second half. No changes by either manager. Pep sent City out early, incidentally, with a flea in their ear I’ll be bound.
A reminder that should this game end in a draw, we’ll be going to extra time and penalties if needs be. Both managers can make five subs during the regulation 90 minutes, in a maximum of three batches. If we go to extra time, they’ll be allowed a sixth.
Half-time entertainment. The winner of this semi will go on to play either Chelsea or Manchester United, who face off tomorrow evening. Ahead of the big match, Frank Lampard has been at the old mind games.
HALF TIME: Arsenal 1-0 Manchester City
City flew out of the blocks, but Arsenal found their feet quickly and very much deserve their lead. They could easily have notched a couple more, as well. Plenty of work for Pep Guardiola to do at half-time; he’s currently being out-thought by protege.
45 min: City earn another corner out on the right. Arsenal half clear, but De Bruyne slaps a shot goalwards. It’s straight into the ground, though, and loops gently into the air. Sterling tries to help it on with a flicked header, but it’s well over the bar and he was offside anyway.
44 min: Xhaka thinks about shooting from distance, but opts instead to release Maitland-Niles down the left. Maitland-Niles tries to catch Ederson out with a shot towards the near post from a tight angle, but the keeper handles calmly.
43 min: Silva, Mendy and De Bruyne paint some smooth triangles down the left, but then they get a little jagged, rather like the mosaic pattern on their shirt. The move breaks down. Nothing’s coming off for the cup holders at the moment.
41 min: The second corner’s not so good. It’s not often you get to think this, so we may as well take the opportunity when it comes: Manchester City could do with hearing the half-time whistle.
Updated
40 min: A City corner on the right. And it’s a complete non-event, Luiz clearing easily. Arsenal break at speed, Bellerin crossing deep from the right towards Aubameyang. Garcia is forced to head behind for a corner, from which Mustafi flashes a header towards the top left. Ederson reacts well to tip over the bar. He needed to intervene.
38 min: Martinez and Xhaka pass it around the back, taking things right to the brink. Twice Sterling nearly intercepts, but eventually the ball’s calmly looped out to the left, allowing Tierney to burst up the wing, beating the City press. He should be released with a crisp one-two, but Maitland-Niles misplaces the return. That’d have been quite something had it ended in a goal.
36 min: Arsenal’s confidence has blossomed, and now they’re stroking it around in the expansive style. Now it’s City’s turn to chase shadows. You don’t see this too often. Maitland-Niles and Tierney take turns to make dangerous runs down the left, but neither can find a killer pass at the end of them.
Updated
34 min: Arsenal win more midfield ball. Pepe is sent striding down the left. He hooks towards the near post, where Ederson claims. The keeper had to make that, because behind him, Lacazette was ahead of Mendy and waiting to tap in. This is extremely impressive from Arsenal.
32 min: On the touchline, Pep’s anger has mellowed into concern. Arsenal are playing City at their own hard-pressing game, just as they did against Liverpool during the week. The plan’s working again. Currently.
Updated
30 min: Ederson shanks a dismal clearance straight to Ceballos, who pings forward to Aubameyang. The goalscorer tries to tee up Pepe, but gets it all wrong and City are able to swarm and clear. Somewhere, in a parallel universe, Arsenal have scored three.
28 min: As a result, City snap into every challenge again, back to their first-ten-minute selves. Mendy strips Mustafi down the left and pulls one back, only for the ball to be hacked clear. Then Bellerin plays a dreadful blind pass in from the left. The ball flies straight to Sterling, who tees De Bruyne up for a daisycutter. Xhaka bravely throws himself in front of the piledriver, and Arsenal clear yet again.
26 min: Pep isn’t happy. He’s got the funk. During the break, with steam parping out of every facial aperture, he claps his hands hard and loud, right under the collective nose of his team. A demand that City wake up. They started brilliantly, but have allowed Arsenal to come straight back at them in style.
Updated
24 min: Mustafi stands on the back of Silva’s heel. That’s very clumsy, and looks awful, but there’s a suggestion he slipped, and it certainly wasn’t intentional. No punishment, other than a free kick that comes to nothing, and that, ladies and gentlemen, is drinks.
22 min: Another loose pass upfield by Laporte, who slaps the ball straight at Aubameyang. The City defender is fortunate that the ball gets stuck under the striker’s feet and he can’t advance as he’d like towards the area.
20 min: Typical of the brilliant but enigmatic Aubameyang to miss the easy chance and convert the difficult one. Such a fine finish ... and what a pitch-length team move, the ball played out from the back, left to right then back again. Wow.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Manchester City (Aubameyang 18)
Or it may not! Tierney slips a ball inside from a tight spot on the left. Lacazette shuttles it towards Bellerin on the right, who further shifts it wide to Pepe. Pepe curls a cross towards the far post, where Aubameyang sticks out a right leg and adroitly steers a sensational volley across Ederson, off the base of the right-hand post, and in!
Updated
16 min: Arsenal should be leading! Luiz intercepts a really poor Laporte clearance, chesting down to stride into space and firing an instant low pass down the middle. Aubameyang is clear! But he opts for power instead of placement, and it’s straight at Ederson, who parries clear. That could prove a huge miss.
14 min: Ceballos dinks cutely down the inside-right channel, releasing Lacazette, who rounds Ederson on the outside before walking the ball into the net. But the flag had gone up for offside. VAR checks, just in case, because they’ve paid for the kit and they might as well stick their neb in, but it was clearly the correct decision. Still, that’ll give Arsenal some hope after a difficult start.
Updated
12 min: Pepe tries to find Aubameyang with a long hoick down the left, but it’s easy meat for Garcia and City start with the passing again. Arsenal are really struggling to get out of their own half.
10 min: Arsenal are under the cosh already. First Mustafi is robbed inside his own box by Sterling on the left. He’s very fortunate that Xhaka comes across to blast away from danger just as Sterling was shaping to shoot. Then De Bruyne dinks one in from the left. Mahrez heads back across the face of goal, Xhaka again hooking clear with the danger signs flashing. City have enjoyed 83 percent of possession so far. But then Arsenal started like this against Liverpool midweek, and look what happened there.
Updated
8 min: Mahrez is sent scampering into space down the right. For a second it looks as though he’s going to race clear, but Tierney and Maitland-Niles stay on his shoulder and combine to bundle out for a corner, from which nothing occurs.
6 min: The numbers on the back of the new City shirt are long and tall and thin, in the old-school Italian style. Very classy, very pretty. City look good. Arsenal have a lovely new shirt of their own to come; just not today.
4 min: Ceballos is stripped by a combination of Jesus and Silva, 25 yards from his own box. The ball’s sent towards Sterling on the left. He reaches the box and fires low and hard into the middle. Tierney does extremely well to hook out for a corner, while under severe pressure. Nothing comes of the set piece. City were nearly off to a dream start, Arsenal the one they’ll have been fearing.
Updated
2 min: City are wearing their new shirt, inspired by the famous mosaics located in the creative hub of Manchester’s Northern Quarter, it says here. They’re quickly on the front foot, Mendy and Sterling probing down the left, De Bruyne then trying to release Sterling down the middle with a longer pass. Arsenal haven’t had a sniff yet. Early days, early days.
Updated
Manchester City kick off ... but only after all the players take a knee of solidarity, fairness and love. Black lives matter.
Updated
The teams are out. Arsenal are in their famous red shirts with white sleeves; City wear their equally renowned sky blue. Both sides passionately hoping they’ll be back here in a fortnight for the most surreal FA Cup final in the grand old tournament’s history. We’ll be off in a minute!
Updated
Mikel Arteta speaks to BT Sport ... “It was a really nice victory [Liverpool] against the best team in the PL. It gave us good confidence, the sort you need against a team like City. I can imagine how City will play, but we will have to be at our best.”
... and so does his former boss Pep. “They are more solid at the back now, and have always had quality in the middle. What I am most impressed about is that they have a good team spirit, I see everybody follow the manager, everyone is committed. And you see it. The FA Cup, you know better than me how beautiful the tradition. Unfortunately there are no people, but we are here.”
No fans at Wembley today, of course. Not allowed. That hasn’t stopped this Manchester City supporter coming down to stand outside the ground and swing like a mother. Not sure what sweet notes are pouring out of his horn like honey. Odds on it’s Blue Moon, though perhaps it’s something similarly apt by Trane or the Prez.
Arsenal make five changes to the team sent out to shock Liverpool 2-1 on Wednesday night. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Dani Ceballos, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, Shkodran Mustafi and Hector Bellerin replace Reiss Nelson, Bukayo Saka, Lucas Torreira, Rob Holding and Cedric Soares.
It’s five changes for City too, from the team that beat Bournemouth 2-1. Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling, Riyad Mahrez, Aymeric Laporte and Eric Garcia replace Phil Foden, Bernardo Silva, Fernandinho, John Stones and Nicolas Otamendi.
Updated
The teams
Arsenal: Martinez, Mustafi, Luiz, Tierney, Bellerin, Ceballos, Xhaka, Maitland-Niles, Pepe, Lacazette, Aubameyang.
Subs: Macey, Holding, Sokratis, Kolasinac, Torreira, Smith, Willock, Nelson, Saka.
Manchester City: Ederson, Walker, Garcia, Laporte, Mendy, Gundogan, D Silva, De Bruyne, Mahrez, Jesus, Sterling.
Subs: Carson, Stones, Zinchenko, B Silva, Rodrigo, Fernandinho, Cancelo, Otamendi, Foden.
Referee: Jon Moss (West Yorkshire).
Updated
Preamble
This will be the third time Arsenal and Manchester City have duked it out in the FA Cup semi-finals. City, pretty much the finished article, are strong favourites to beat the Gunners, who are not, not yet. But history - plus Arsenal’s staunch display against the new champions Liverpool the other night - suggest all is not lost.
City were favourites three years ago, too, and on that April 2017 day at Wembley, set about showing why. They had a goal incorrectly disallowed. They were controversially denied a strong penalty appeal. They hit the woodwork twice. Sergio Aguero made the breakthrough, but Arsenal stayed in touch, Nacho Monreal forced an equaliser, and Alexis Sanchez prodded a winner in extra-time. Pep Guardiola ended the season trophy-less for the first time in his career. What a fraud! He’ll never win anything at City, on a wet night in etc., and so forth, and so on.
Then back in 1932 at Villa Park ... well, let’s hand you over to the man from the Manchester Guardian, whose report was headlined FULL-BACK’S BLUNDER GIVES ARSENAL UNDESERVED SUCCESS, and who may or may not have had some skin in the game. “Rochdale could not have been more completely overplayed ... in 88 minutes the Manchester goal was only once in danger, in that period their goalkeeper did not catch, kick or turn aside a single shot ... at half-time an elderly Birmingham gentleman told me he had never before seen so one-sided a semi-final, and he had seen one nearly every year since Villa won the cup in 1895 ... ‘Manchester City ought to be four goals ahead at least,’ he said. I asked if he were counting potential penalty goals. ‘No, that might have made the score six or seven.’”
City launched yet another attack on 88 minutes, only for Arsenal to intercept and counter. “Joe Hulme kicked the ball forward speculatively, and it promised to pass out of play midway between the goalpost and the right corner flag. Jack Lambert pursued it, and Billy Felton, the City right full-back, confident that it would go dead, contented himself with trying to impede Lambert’s pursuit. So they reached the line when, by a freak of fortune, the ball struck Lambert’s heel and it remained in play. Felton’s impetus took him over the line. Lambert was the first to turn round, kicked the ball over to the left - and there was young Cliff Bastin, three yards from the goal and not another opponent within speaking range. Bastin shot, Len Langford fisted at the ball, it went straight up in the air, hit the crossbar, dropped back on the line, bounced against the post, and even the spin was in Arsenal’s favour, for it broke into instead of away from the net. What a tragedy. Lambert and Bastin hugged each other like a family reunion ... Jimmy McMullan stood dumbfounded like some great engineer whose life’s masterpiece had been demolished by a paroxysm of nature.”
So there you have it. City are the form horse ... and they’ve won the last seven meetings between the two teams by an aggregate score of 20-2 ... but Arsenal have history on their side. Just about a perfect set-up for a classic FA Cup tie, then. It’s on!
Kick off: 7.45pm BST.
Updated
