Arsenal and Manchester City Get Through For Next FA Cup Match

(Reuters) - Arsenal returned to form with a 5-0 drubbing of Leyton Orient and Manchester City eased past Aston Villa 3-0 to reach the FA Cup quarter-finals on Wednesday.

Nicklas Bendtner fired a hat-trick as Arsenal recovered from their League Cup final loss to Birmingham City in a one-sided fifth-round replay against Orient to set up a titanic quarter-final against Manchester United.
The Gunners' victory was never in doubt after Marouane Chamakh and Bendtner put Arsenal 2-0 up and Arsene Wenger's side bounced back emphatically from Sunday's shock defeat by Birmningham.
Manchester City also reached the last eight with an easy win over much-changed Aston Villa team and they face Championship side Reading who beat Premier League Everton on Tuesday.

"It was important we came back from Sunday's defeat with a win," Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger told reporters.
"We are having a fine run apart from Sunday's defeat which came under special circumstances. But we played very well tonight."
The Gunners, held to a 1-1 draw by third tier Orient in the first game, were looking for a rapid response after Sunday's painful 2-1 loss when they conceded a last-minute goal to Birmingham after a mix-up between goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny and defender Laurent Koscielny.
But there were no mistakes at the Emirates where the crowd were subdued until Arsenal took control of the game.
Chamakh settled nerves with a well-taken side-footed goal, his first since November, after seven minutes before Bendtner headed the second, Arsenal's 100th of the season in all competitions.
Orient, who scored in the last minute to take the tie to a replay, had chances in the opening stages with Dean Cox almost cancelling out Arsenal's opener after 14 minutes.
But despite a spirited performance from the visitors, Arsenal were too sharp and had too much guile, and that included 19-year-old midfielder Conor Henderson who had a fine debut.
Bendtner's second just before halftime exposed the gulf in class between the teams when he beat off defenders before firing a curling shot past goalkeeper Jamie Jones.
Jones had no chance of saving his 62nd-minute penalty either before Gael Clichy wrapped up the win with an angled left-foot drive 15 minutes from time.
EARLY GRIP
Manchester City took an early grip at Eastlands with Yaya Toure opening the scoring after Villa failed to clear a corner in the fifth minute.

Ferguson Was Unhappy With The Referee?

Ferguson was unhappy with Atkinson both for awarding Chelsea's matchwinning and for not sending off David Luiz moments earlier when he appeared to foul Wayne Rooney - himself the beneficiary of some lenient refereeing at the weekend. Ferguson said: "The penalty kick was so soft. Deary me. But we played very well. It was a great performance by us. We didn't deserve that. "That's three years in a row (at Stamford Bridge) referees' decisions have changed the game." On the Luiz decision, he added: "It was incredible. Even before that he'd done Chicharito off the ball. He'd done him late. Nothing done, the referee's in front of it. "He does Rooney clear as day, (the referee is) six yards from it, he doesn't do anything. That changed the game. "These are decisions that change the game. And he's going to be refereeing every week. "But I'm proud of the players. They've endured a lot of decisions against them but they've come through it, they've done their best. They've created good chances. "They didn't deserve that." Asked if Chelsea were back in the title race, he added: "If they get decisions like tonight then it can change everything. "They got a lot of decisions tonight that surprised me." Carlo Ancelotti admitted Luiz had perhaps been fortunate. "There was a lot of intensity and it was not easy for the referee to decide every time," he said. "David Luiz could be lucky but there was a lot going on on the pitch so the referee decided he didn't see this." The Chelsea boss is now hoping this performance can spur on his team as they look to get back into the battle at the top. "It was a good performance and we are still alive," he said. "We played well, it was a very difficult game and we found a fantastic opponent but the team played really well to still go forward when we are losing 1-0. "We kept going with strength, intensity and power in our performance. "It was really good but if you don't play well, you cannot beat Man United." The victory leaves Chelsea 12 points behind United with a game in hand. "This improves our table, but we don't have to look at that, just stay focused on our other games," he said. "Our next game is on Monday so we prepare for that. "It's far to Manchester United, but our performance was important, there are a lot of matches and we are ready to play at our best." Frank Lampard admitted the title was still a long way off despiet the victory. Asked if Chelsea, 12 points back with a game in hand, were now firmly back in the title race, Lampard told Sky Sports 2: "I don't know about firmly back in it, it's still a lot of points. "But all we could do today was win the game, try to show a signal that we're trying to get back in it and close that gap. "We did that today but there's still a long way to go. Man United are deservedly top but we've got some fight as we showed tonight."

Arsenal Need To Reorganize For Upcoming FA Cup replay and Champions League Match

SOCCER : ARSENAL HAVE vowed not to let the shattering League Cup final defeat to Birmingham City derail their pursuit of the season’s bigger trophies as thoughts begin to turn to the remaining three prizes for which the team are competing.

They play Leyton Orient at the Emirates in an FA Cup replay tomorrow – win that, and they will travel to Manchester United for a quarter-final – while they face Barcelona at the Camp Nou holding a 2-1 advantage from the first leg.

In the Premier League, the trophy manager Arsene Wenger appears to want the most, they sit four points behind leaders Manchester United with 11 games to play. They might take heart from the fact United still have to visit Chelsea, Liverpool and the Emirates.

“Mentally, the cup final was a huge blow, but we really have to focus on our other targets now,” said striker Marouane Chamakh.

“We’re lucky that we can play again straight away (against Leyton Orient). We have to forget the final quickly and make sure that the defeat doesn’t stay on our minds. We will bounce back. We still have a lot of big games to play and we will fight on until the end.”

Midfielder Tomas Rosicky added: “We’ve three trophies to go for and we need to pick ourselves up. We’ve got a game on Wednesday and we have to perform. The season doesn’t finish now, we are in a good position in other competitions so we have to forget the Carling Cup.”

Most of the players are still smarting after the 2-1 defeat, which was inflicted in the final moments at Wembley following an excruciating mix-up between Laurent Koscielny and goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny which allowed Obafemi Martins to tap in the winner for Birmingham.

To make matters worse, Arsenal are also anxiously awaiting the results of a scan on Robin van Persie’s knee. The striker damaged it while scoring his team’s equaliser and he is a doubt for the second leg of the Champions League last-16 tie in Barcelona next Tuesday.

Arsenal’s irritation was also reflected by Jack Wilshere, who revealed his annoyance at how Barry Ferguson had ruffled Koscielny’s hair as he sat hunched in despair after the winning goal.

“Well done to the BCFC player who slapped Koscielny on the head when they scored, very big of you,” Wilshere said on Twitter.

So far, Birmingham have not commented.

Guardian Service

A Blow For Arsenal Despite A Win With Stoke City?

SOCCER (23/2/11): Arsenal 1 Stoke City 0 ARSENAL ARE now only a point behind Manchester United but the price could be particularly costly after Cesc Fabregas and Theo Walcott both suffered injuries on what became a frustrating evening for Arsene Wenger’s team after the brightest of starts.

With Arsenal’s next outing the League Cup final against Birmingham City on Sunday, before an FA Cup fifth-round replay next Wednesday and the Champions League last-16 return leg in Barcelona the following week, Wenger will pray that Fabregas and Walcott can recover quickly from what appeared to be hamstring and ankle problems respectively.

Arsenal had required around 90 seconds to illustrate they were in slick working order, eight minutes to fully breach the Stoke City defence. Their opening attack featured Jack Wilshere marauding forward then linking with Fabregas on the edge of the area. The Spaniard delivered a perfect pass to place Walcott in behind the defence before he blazed a shot that beat Asmir Begovic but smacked off his right post and back into the goalkeeper’s hands. Already it appeared to be Arsenal’s three points to throw away, though this sense would become muted as the half wore on.

After Rory Delap had been jeered a couple of times for launching his long throws, which were repelled comfortably enough by Arsenal, the home side moved down-field and won a corner on the right. Wilshere’s left boot flicked this over and though Ryan Shawcross stuck his head on the ball he merely moved possession on to Nicklas Bendtner, who was lurking beyond the far post. He chose correctly in scooping the ball on to the head of Sebastien Squillaci, who was stationed in front of the goal, and the defender finished coolly for his first goal since joining last summer.

The next major incident was not pleasant for any Arsenal loyalist. On 12 minutes Wenger and his players faced the sight of an injured Fabregas sloping reluctantly off the pitch.

The captain was replaced by Andrey Arshavin, which meant Samir Nasri going inside to occupy Fabregas’s central position. While this did not cause any break in Arsenal possession it did stunt their earlier fluency, with many of their attacks becoming static around Stoke’s 18-yard line.

One sequence of passes ended with Arshavin unloading a shot that hardly threatened to double the score but this was as encouraging as it got for a side who were then offered a reminder of the effectiveness of direct play after 33 minutes. John Carew’s powerful 25-yard volley forced Wojciech Szczesny to fling himself across goal to keep the ball out.

Wenger’s men closed the half virtually becalmed. Nasri stepped up to pull one free-kick wide but, beyond Tony Pulis complaining after Jonathan Walters was booked for fouling Walcott, Fabregas’s exit had proved to have slowly drained the contest of quality and incident.

Nearly a year since these sides had met at the Britannia Stadium, where a challenge from Shawcross on Aaron Ramsey left the midfielder with a double leg fracture to provoke bitter feeling between Wenger and Pulis, the emotion began bubbling. It started with Carew and Johan Djourou having a mild clash near the corner flag that drew abuse from the home support.

Djourou then played a crucial role in stopping a Stoke attack. Jermaine Pennant collected possession from a throw on the right, motored down his flank, and then delivered the cross. Shawcross’s header was on target but it hit Djourou to go wide.

Robert Huth also came close to an equaliser when the Delap slingshot landed the ball in the area and the defender rose above a melee to head over.

Having missed badly after Arshavin had expertly teed him up in the area, a subsequent coming together with Dean Whitehead ended with Walcott carried off on a stretcher.

Guardian Service

ARSENAL : Szczesny, Sagna, Squillaci, Djourou, Clichy, Fabregas (Arshavin 14), Song, Wilshere, Walcott (Denilson 71), Bendtner (Chamakh 80), Nasri. Subs not used: Almunia, Rosicky, Eboue, Gibbs. Booked: Clichy.

STOKE CITY : Begovic, Wilson (Wilkinson 87), Shawcross, Huth, Pugh, Pennant, Whitehead, Delap, Whelan, Walters (Fuller 78), Carew. Subs not used: Sorensen, Higginbotham, Collins, Jones, Diao. Booked: Walters, Wilson.

Referee : Peter Walton (Northamptonshire).

Arsenal Tumbang Di Tangan Jonathan?

"Jonathan masuk menentang Arsenal dan menggelecek melepasi dua pemain pertahanan sebelum menjaringkan gol jadi ia mengangkat namanya. Maksud saya, mereka (Arsenal) baru saja mengalahkan Barcelona jadi ia sesuatu yang menakjubkan! "Saat-saat seperti itu boleh mengubah karier seseorang pemain.
"Saya memiliki memori indah buatnya. Dia benar-benar seorang lelaki yang baik.

"Apabila saya menyaksikannya, saya lantas terfikir dia mempunyai kualiti yang tepat untuk bermain di England." Baudu segera menghantar mesej kepada Tehoue - untuk membelikannya sekeping tiket bagi perlawanan ulangan di Stadium Emirates.

Beliau berkata: "Saya tidak pernah menaiki kapal terbang mahupun kapal laut tapi adalah menarik untuk menyaksikannya. Satu jemputan pastinya hebat, malah satu panggilan telefon untuk berkata 'Hello'.

"Kami pernah melahirkan beberapa pemain muda berbakat, seperti Michael Pereira yang kini bermain buat Real Mallorca. Begitu juga Jimmy Kebe yang bertindak baik di Reading.

"Kami ada seorang pemain remaja, pemain berusia 19 tahun yang amat bagus, dan kini berada di Toulouse.

"Anda patut memberitahu beberapa kelab Inggeris mengenainya! "Jika kami boleh membawa mereka ke Manchester United atau Arsenal, maka ia pastinya hebat!"


>PROFIL
NAMA PENUH: Jonathan Kahne Tehoue
TARIKH LAHIR: 3 Mei 1984
TEMPAT LAHIR: Paris, Perancis
TINGGI: 1.79 meter
POSISI: Penyerang
KELAB SEMASA: Leyton Orient
NOMBOR JERSI: 18
KARIER SENIOR:
* 2003-2004 SC Bastia
* 2005 Apoel FC
* 2006 R E Virton
* 2006-2007 FC Brussels
* 2007-2008 Kasimpasa S K
* 2008-2009 Konyaspor
* 2009-2010 UJA Alfortville
* 2010-kini Leyton Orient

Blues Are Out From The FA CUP (19/2/11)

Everton progressed through to the fifth round of the FA Cup after knocking out holders Chelsea on penalties at Stamford Bridge.
90 minutes of football failed to produce a goal but Chelsea thought they had done enough to set up a fifth round clash with Reading when Frank Lampard finally found the back of the net in the 104th minute.
However Leighton Baines took the game to penalties when firing home a spectacular free kick in the last minute of extra time.
Baines missed the first spot kick to swing the tie Chelsea's way again but both Nicolas Anelka and Ashley Cole also missed before Phil Neville slotted the decisive spot kick to send the Toffees through.
Manchester United made hard work of their fifth round clash before eventually edging out non-league Crawley Town 1-0 at Old Trafford.
Crawley matched United for large parts of the game but it was Wes Brown that finally broke the deadlock when he headed home Darren Gibson's cross in the 28th minute.
Richard Brodie struck the post deep in stoppage time but United to survived and will go into the hat for the quarter finals.
Elsewhere, Stoke cruised through to the quarter-finals with a comfortable 3-0 win at home to Brighton, with all the goals coming in the first half.
John Carew got things underway in the 14th minutes with a close range header before Jonathan Walters made it 2-0 with another header, this time at the near post.
Ryan Shawcross made it a hat-trick of headers on the stroke of half time to send the Seagulls crashing out.
Birmingham City also made light work of Sheffield Wednesday with a 3-0 victory at St Andrews.
Jean Beausejour opened the scoring after just six minutes before Obafemi Martins made it 2-0. David Murphy got the third after the break to put Birmingham in the draw for the quarters.

Arsenal Vs Barcelona (Champions League 16/2/11)

MATCH FACTS:
Arsenal have scored a joint-competition-high 18 goals in the Champions League this season.
Arsenal and Barcelona have been drawn together three times in Europe, the 1999-2000 Group Stage, the 2006 final and last season’s quarter final, with Arsenal winning none and losing three of the five games.
There have been red cards in three of the five matches between Barcelona and Arsenal.
No team from continental Europe has won away at Arsenal in the Champions League since Inter beat the Gunners 3-0 in September 2003 – a run of 36 games with the only defeats coming against English sides (Chelsea and Manchester Utd).
Only two teams (Barcelona and Manchester United have scored more than once in 33 Champions League games at the Emirates, with 21 sides failing to score at all.
Arsenal have won penalties in eight of their last 11 Champions league games at the Emirates Stadium and each of their last five.
Arsenal have kept just one clean sheet in their last eight Champions League games.
Lionel Messi has scored 13 goals in his last 11 Champions League starts including four in one game against Arsenal.
Arsenal hit the target with 63% of their shots in the Group Stage, the highest percentage in the competition.
Barcelona had the tightest defence in the group stage, allowing their opponents just eight shots on target against them.

Marouane Chamakh has scored three goals from just six shots in Europe this season.
Barcelona have made the semi-finals of the Champions League in the last three seasons.
Source: Eurosport / Opta