MOTD- Arsenal 4-1 Everton

By on March 8, 2014

Just the fact that Arsenal have a win on their backs as they enter a grueling run-in to the season should have made manager Arsene Wenger breath a huge sigh of relief, but to progress to the FA Cup semifinal, bringing his side within touching distance of their first trophy in nearly a decade, at the same time makes the 4-1 victory over Everton even more than satisfying for The Gunners.  It wasn’t a piece of cake either.  Defeating an Everton side that had only barely lost to Chelsea just a few short weeks ago might’ve seemed a daunting challenge pre-match, but the way Arsenal bossed their visitors throughout the game, bar a short period after Everton scored their only goal of the match, proved that they deserved to be now just one win away from just their second cup final since 2006.

Further conformation came in the way they scored the opening goal of the quarterfinal tie only six minutes in, with just four neat passes moving them from being pressured in the back by Everton to Santi Cazorla running off to the races via a wonderful flick from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.  The Spaniard slipped it out left to Mesut Ozil, who slotted a low first-time finish into the bottom corner from fifteen yards out.  Boom! Arsenal were in front.  Everton players didn’t know what had happened.

Arsenal had been on the back foot in the opening stages, yet suddenly they were alive with new heart.  Yaya Sangogo’s rising effort from the a tight angle would have been heading into the top corner moments later, only for Joel Robles to tip it wide, which he was forced to do again to keep Oxlade-Chamberlain’s heat-seeking missile from the resulting corner from nesting into the top corner itself.  The end-to-end action continued, and Bacary Sagna’s wayward cross nearly found it’s way into the back of the net as Robles actually pushed it back towards his own goal onto the angle of the left-hand post and crossbar.  The next goal seemed bound to come soon, but there was no telling which side would net it.

Sure enough, the goal came a little over a half hour in, in the form of an Everton had equalizer. Ross Barkley received a headed Everton clearance barely outside his own penalty area and took it up-field.  The midfielder ran, and ran, and ran, and ran all the way up towards Arsenal’s eighteen yard box before cutting a cross back towards the far post from the right, which Romelu Lukaku came in to tap past Lukasz Fabianski.  The equalizer took some of the spunk out of the match, but come the second half it became top-notch English football once again.

Barkley wasted a golden chance to make it two for The Toffes eight minutes into the second period, blasting Lukaku’s cut-back over the bar from eight yards, but it was Arsenal who retook the lead when Gareth Barry stuck a leg out to trip up Oxlade-Chamberlain on the Everton byline.  It was a stonewall penalty, yet Arsenal were given a slight scare when Mikel Arteta was forced to retake the spot-kick he had tucked into the bottom corner.  However, there would turn out to be no drama as Arteta also bagged the retake, curling an unstoppable effort into the top right corner.

The home side sat on the one goal lead coming into the final minutes of the match until Olivier Giroud put the game to bed by placing Sagna’s cut-back from the right into the bottom corner, thus letting Wenger sit back and relax.  Giroud then bagged a second to put the icing on the cake in the eighty-fourth minute, with Tomas Rosicky playing it inside to Ozil, who laid it off to Giroud for the Frenchman to pass it into the back of the net past a helplessly out of position Robles.  That goal, which sealed Arsenal the win, could prove to be the one that lifts The Gunners’ momentum coming into their newly booked FA Cup semifinal and, of course, their last few Premier League and Champions League matches.
Man of the Match: Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.