This is the end of the road for cup dreamers Leyton. They were promised a trip to Vegas if they drew against us at home and they did that.That was their chance... and that was the only one we'd give them. More than 9000 fans made the short trip to Ashburton Grove- more in hope of an upset than genuine belief- and well their hopes were shattered.
With our Dutchman predicted to be out for at least a month, Chamakh took up the mantle of attacking spearhead again. Samir Nasri, Jack Wilshire & Arshavin were on the bench if help was needed to sort out the game.
The first half was pretty much our half. We dominated possession and scored pretty early: Rosicky got lucky when he made a run into the right side of the box and his low cross found Chamakh. Marouane made no mistake and slotted it low and away from the keeper. Our game went down a bit after that and some misplaced passes later, a searching cross from Gibbs found Bendtner and his header was nothing short of brilliant.We suddenly started looking sharp, all the passes made were the right ones, and again, Bendy cut in from the left and shot a curler that just went around Jones and into the net. What a way to answer his critics. The three men who really had a lot to prove (Bendtner, Chamakh & Rosicky) made the real impact in the first half.
Leyton had a spell of about 10 minutes in the opening of the second half in which they looked threatening. They broke through twice and delivered dangerous looking crosses, but we coped well, got our footing back and never looked back. Rosicky got a knock on the head and looked to be in some discomfort.Wenger right away made the call and Samir Nasri came on for him. It looked more like a precautionary move than anything. About 15 minutes into the half, Gibbs weaved his way past to defenders and was brought down in the box by Revell: PELANTY!! Bendtner duly stepped up and slotted his third for the night. This was the first hat-trick by an Arsenal player in the FA cup since Ian Wright in 1993.Wenger took him and Diaby off soon after and brought in Wilshire and Clichy. Wilshire seemed to be rather enjoying himself, getting adventurous with the ball with all the back-heels and Clichy, just seven minutes after his introduction, scored a goal; his first since 2008 and 2nd overall for Arsenal. A ball from Eboue found its way over a full box and onto his feet and he slotted it in first-time. Leyton had a late chance when Dean Cox broke through the defence, but the ball was shot wide off the goal.For full highlights from the match you go here.
We had another debutant today: Conor Henderson had a decent game. A few mistakes were made, but that's to be expected- it's only his first game and he can improve from this. Arsene said"Conor Henderson is technically very good... he would have been involved before but he was injured." These are good words, and true, he has the potential to become a very good player. I sincerely hope that he'll stay with us for the forseeable future.
Now, a mouthwatering tie at the Old Trafford is ahead of us in the quarter-finals... but that'll have to wait- there are other matches to be worrying about. When asked about this, Wenger said "The league is the most important because you win the league after 38 games... it will be a tight, exciting run-in. He went on to say "Chelsea's win keeps us even better in the title race... it just depends on us now... it is down to our results, our consistency."
The post-match press conference with Arsene Wenger is below:
I have to say this- our reaction to Sunday's disappointment was the right one and I hope we can carry this form on into this weekend's fixture against Sunderland, and Barcelona after that.
Also, from now on I will keep predicting results (I seem to be good at it), and maybe our good luck will continue. Have a good day gooners & goonerettes...
©goonerburgh
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