<\/p>\n
Arsenal prevailed 2-1 in a pulsating FA Cup tie against Liverpool at Emirates Stadium to book their place in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n
An early four-goal blitz set Liverpool on their way to a 5-1 Premier League demolition at Anfield last weekend, but Arsene Wenger’s men managed to survive another shaky start and opened the scoring after 16 minutes thanks to Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.<\/p>\n
Lukas Podolski made it 2-0 for the increasingly confident Gunners early in the second half, but Steven Gerrard reduced Liverpool’s arrears from the penalty spot after Luis Suarez was fouled in the 59th minute.<\/p>\n
Suarez had another strong penalty appeal turned down as Liverpool applied the pressure, but Arsenal held on in a thrilling finale to set up a home clash with Everton in the next round.<\/p>\n
As predicted by AE Football, Wenger’s team selection suggested he had one eye on Wednesday’s Champions League last-16 tie with Bayern Munich, as seven changes were made and Yaya Sanogo was given his first start.<\/p>\n
Brendan Rodgers’ men showed their Premier League title credentials at Anfield and threatened to tear through the Gunners again.<\/p>\n
First Gerrard slid a pass through to Daniel Sturridge, who shot into Lukasz Fabianski’s legs when he should have done better.<\/p>\n
Then Suarez lofted the ball over a static Arsenal defence and, with angle always becoming more acute, Sturridge fired into the side-netting.<\/p>\n
Arsenal had few moments of respite and had a promising counter-attack brought to an abrupt halt when Gerrard was booked for tripping Oxlade-Chamberlain, who was the hosts’ most-threatening attacker in the first half.<\/p>\n
Suarez, with one goal in his previous six games, was denied by the feet of Fabianski in the opening seconds of the second half and was made to pay.<\/p>\n
A rapid counter-attack set Oxlade-Chamberlain on a dazzling run down the right and he cut the ball back for Podolski to tuck in.<\/p>\n
Still Liverpool looked the more dangerous side. A Suarez shot dipped narrowly over before Ozil forced Brad Jones to save sharply at the other end.<\/p>\n
Sturridge was denied by Fabianski before Podolski clumsily tripped Suarez from behind and referee Howard Webb pointed to the spot. Gerrard sent Fabianski the wrong way.<\/p>\n
The Poland goalkeeper had to get his timing spot on and did when Sturridge attempted to round him moments later following a defence-splitting Philippe Coutinho pass.<\/p>\n
Liverpool appealed for another penalty when Oxlade-Chamberlain mistimed his tackle on Suarez, whose exaggerated tumble meant Webb was unmoved. Replays suggested the official was wrong.<\/p>\n
Liverpool introduced Jordan Henderson, who underwent a small operation on a wrist injury on Thursday, and continued to go forward, with Suarez becoming increasingly influential and twice testing Fabianski.<\/p>\n
Arsenal were playing on the counter-attack and substitute Santi Cazorla wasted a good opportunity set up by Oxlade-Chamberlain, who was then tripped by Gerrard.<\/p>\n
Liverpool should have leveled when Fabianski failed to meet Gerrard’s free-kick and Daniel Agger headed off target as Arsenal survived to keep their FA Cup dream alive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal prevailed 2-1 in a pulsating FA Cup tie against Liverpool at Emirates Stadium to book their place in the quarter-finals. An early four-goal blitz set Liverpool on their way to a 5-1 Premier League demolition at Anfield last weekend, but Arsene Wenger’s men managed to survive another shaky start and opened the scoring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1912,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60,80],"tags":[37],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1908"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1910,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1908\/revisions\/1910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/africanexaminer.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}