The Gunners were taken by surprise by a strong Championship side which is currently struggling in the lower part of the domestic 2nd tier competition. Fortunately Alexis Sanchez, brought his A game and gave Arsenal the chance to fight for the FA Cup trophy against either Aston Villa or Liverpool. Unfortunately this game pointed out a few major problems the North Londoners need to address in order to avoid having to go through extra time with teams like Reading. The defense was at times insecure, Szczesny was clearly lacking games and the attack could have done better but utimately Arsenal are going back to Wembley.

Luckily, Wenger’s decisions in the spending department paid off. Sanchez and Ozil shined, with the Chilean being clearly the number one player on the pitch. He scored both goals and closed the game in Arsenal’s favor. Paulista is also a player to be mentioned after coming on as a substitute for Mertesacker. The Brazilian seems to be fitting in perfectly and might become the number one choice for the Gunners’ defense. Cazorla, Ramsey and Coquelin were decent while Debuchy lacked game-time possibly which is fair enough. Welbeck failed to impress and was substituted with Giroud who proved once again he is one of the best in Wenger’s squad.

Player Ratings:

Arsenal: Szczesny(5.5), Debuchy(5.5), Mertesacker(6), Koscielny(7), Gibbs(6), Coquelin(6.5), Ramsey(7), Cazorla (6.5), Ozil (7.5), Alexis (8), Welbeck(6.5), Paulista (7), Walcott (6.5), Giroud (7)