Sheffield United (0) 0 - 0 (0) Arsenal
Bramall Lane, Tuesday 1st March 2005
FA Cup 5th round replay
(Arsenal won 4-2 on penalties)
See also report on the first match)
Arsenal:
Almunia
Lauren Cygan Senderos Cole
Fabregas (Toure 90) Vieira Flamini (Aliadiere 113) Clichy
Ljungberg Lupoli (Quincy 45)
Arsenal's problems finding a fit or unbanned striker were
exacerbated by a minor injury to Thierry Henry, meaning that
we started the game with Freddie partnering young Arturo Lupoli
up front. Lupoli didn't see much of the ball and didn't really
look up to it yet, and the arrival of Quincy Owusu-Abeyie in
his place at half time made a big difference. Nice to see
Aliadiere getting on the pitch in extra time.
Perhaps we shouldn't feel pleased at needing penalties, but given
recent events and the makeshift forward line, let's just
celebrate it. It also has to be said that United have shown plenty
of good qualities (Cullip notwithstanding - and he was absent
from this replay) and very much deserved to run us this close.
The midfield had an unusual look to it with Fabregas playing on
the left and Clichy on the right. But both had a good game, and
the effectiveness of the Cole-Clichy combo on the left comes as
no surprise.
The first half was patchy and fairly even, but after Quincy
came on, playing deeper and hence seeing more of the ball
than Lupoli (and looking a lot stronger generally) our
attacking started to dominate.
Still, United could have taken the lead within a minute when
a ball down their right wing found Andy Gray beating the offside trap.
He ran into the box drawing Almunia towards him, and played a nice
cut-back to Tonge who managed to avoid being distracted by the huge
open space between him and goal, and chipped it over the bar perfectly
from 5 yards out.
Soon after Gray caught Cygan on the head with his boot as the Arsenal
defender stooped ever so slightly to head clear. But Pascal receovered
and had a good game. Overall we were defending quite well, but
Freddie still doesn't look comfortable up front and neither him nor
Lupoli could hold onto the ball long enough for a meaningful attack to be
created. They did create a half chance on 16 minutes though when Cesc fed
Lupoli on the edge of the box on the left and he played it to Freddie on
his right. Freddie tried to flick it goalwards first time, with the outside
of his right foot, but it went 2 yards wide.
Kenny in the United goal was nursing a thigh strain but wasn't being tested.
Apparently they had brought another keeper back from a loan at the weekend
in order not to have to play Kenny, only to find that because he'd been
out on loan for the first game, the other guy wasn'y eligible to play
in this one.
Early in the second half we had a let-off when Montgomery, who'd played
so many dangerous balls from the right wing at Highbury, did it again.
It evaded a couple of strikers in our box but fell to Harley who
made a mess of it from 6 yards out. Up the other end, Kenny was
at last called into action, making a save from an angled drive
from Quincy. Then Kenny got a hand to a cross from Quincy only to
see it fall to Cesc, but made a good save with his foot when
the Arsenal man fired goalwards. Moments later Vieira's pass split
the defence and gave Cesc another chance, his shot beat the keeper
but Geary managed to scoop the ball over the bar.
Another chance for Cesc and another close call, after a terrific run from
Vieira set him up for a thunderous rising shot that had Kenny beat but
clipped the top of the bar.
Vieira, incidentally, was at his imperious best. He was being closely
marked with a Blades player practically in his shorts for the whole
game, but time and again he managed to win the ball and create space
for himself to start an attack.
The last 20 minutes of normal time were virtually all Arsenal, although
United skipper Chris Morgan came close with 10 minutes to go
when he flicked a long Bromby throw just over the bar. Kenny
made another save from Cesc after Quincy set him up.
In injury time there was a brilliant save by Almunia when
Harley got his head to Geary's cross.
Not many chances in injury time, the most notable being a
miss from 6 yards out by Cygan and a Kenny save from Aliadiere
who controlled a free kick wide of the right hand post with his
first touch for a year and shot with his second.
Penalties were interesting. Almunia saved the second one only
for it to be taken again. Apparently he'd come off his line
although it was nothing compared to many that you see (including,
if memory serves, almost all the penalties in United's win over
West Ham in the previous round). But he did make 2 good saves which
were allowed to stand, one diving to his right and the other when
he went to his left but managed to get a foot to the ball when it
was played down the middle. He went the right way for all 5 penalties
that he faced (including the disallowed save, that is).
Kenny, on the other hand... well it looked like his injury caught up
with him. He kind of fell to his left for all 4 of them, and didn't
get near to any. Lauren, Vieira, Ljungberg and Cole made no mistakes
and booked a quarter final visit to Bolton on the weekend of March 12th.
Nice to be able to give undiluted praise to an Arsenal keeper. But
how long can the Lehmann-Almunia merry-go-round go round? And what
will it take for Stuart Taylor to get a chance...?
Full draw for quarter-finals:
Bolton vs Arsenal
Newcastle vs Tottenham
Southampton vs Man Utd
Blackburn vs Leicester | 
