Nathan Ake scored the surprise winner for Manchester City in their 1-0 FA Cup fourth round win over Arsenal, helping his side face the Premier League leaders ahead of next month’s top flight caused a psychological blow.
Mikel Arteta prioritized Arsenal’s title challenge, with his side opting to rest six regulars for the trip to the Etihad, but a powerful City XI struggled to find a way out until full-back Ake was replaced by Julian Alba Reese hits the ball to the bottom corner (64) post.
Pep Guardiola did not appear to be happy with his side’s first-half performance, with Leandro Trossard drawing attention in his first Arsenal start, while John Stones appeared to suffer a hamstring injury. But the Manchester City boss ultimately prevailed over his former assistant The home team Arteta narrowly won.
City will now be favorites to win the game after losing to Southampton in the Carabao Cup and complete their six FA Cup run with a second FA Cup title under Guardiola The championship is the icing on the cake. The draw for the fifth round will take place on Monday, with the draw taking place in the week commencing February 27.
It’s a far cry from Arsenal’s thrilling clash with City’s neighbors Manchester United last weekend, but it adds an extra allure to their upcoming Premier League clash, with February 15 set to be the 2022/23 title target. Key dates for the land.
Arsenal will be disappointed to be knocked out – but hopefully they can give it their all, build on the positive aspects of this performance and be the ones to celebrate when the two sides meet again in a few weeks’ time.
Player ratings
Man City: Ortega (8) Lewis (6) Stones (6) Akanji (7) Ake (8) Rodri (6) Gundogan (6) De Bruyne (6) Mahrez ( 6) Harland (6) Grealish (7). Substitutes: Laporte (7) Alvarez (7) Walker (5) Bernardo Silva (6) Arsenal: Turner (6) Beverly (6) Holding (6) Gabriel (6) Tierney (6) Partey (6) Xhaka (6) Vieira (5) Xaka (5) Trossard (8) Nketiah (6) Subs: Saliba (6) Lokonga (6) Zinchenko (6) Martinelli (7) Odegaard (6) Man of the Match: Nathan Ake
How Manchester City knocked Arsenal out of the cup…
Sky Sports pundit Roy Keane called Arteta’s team selection a huge gamble ahead of kick-off as he criticized the Arsenal boss for the massive changes he had made to his defense and suggested a heavy defeat could weaken the Gunners Mentality in the Premier League. arsenal fans will remember The 2007/08 title race fell apart after a weaker side suffered a crushing cup defeat to Manchester United.
How the teams lined up
FA Cup fixtures
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- City have fielded a strong team and there are only two changes from their win over Wolves in the Premier League. Stefan Ortega came on in place of Ederson and Nathan Ake replaced Aymeric Laporte.
- Arsenal rested six regulars in this cup tie, with Aaron Ramsdale, Ben White, Olek, Sander Zinchenko, William Saliba, captain Martin Odegaard and Gabriel Martinelli coming off the bench . Leandro Trossard started.
But despite Rob Holding needing to be substituted at half-time, the retrained visitors were prepared for a physical contact with Erling Haaland in the closing stages of the opening game which resulted in him being sent off. A yellow card and walks the tightrope of disciplinary action.
He limited City’s top scorer to an ambitious acrobatic maneuver with a lob over the bar in the box for the first 45 minutes, but Arteta was sent off when Holding was sent off in a devastating defeat. The north London derby of last season may have come to mind.
Kevin De Bruyne was closest to Manchester City before the break. But Arsenal posed a real threat in that period, with Trossard impressing down the left flank, alongside Takehiro Tomiyasu and Eddie Nketiah and testing Stefan Ortega himself.
In the end it was City who broke through in the second half, with Alvarez slamming towards the bottom of the post shortly after being sent on, with Jack Grealish twisting and turning before feeding Ake a cool pass to Matt Out of Turner’s reach.
Arteta sent key man Oleksandr Zinchenko – back to his old club – Gabriel Martinelli and the Gunners responded almost moments later when Granit Xhaka’s pass looked The rise was perfect for Nketiah before Stones’ substitute, Americ Laporte, stepped in.
Martinelli appeared to be the most likely route for Arsenal to score in the closing stages, but the 14-time FA Cup winner had no way out. Their focus will now be firmly on the challenge of the Premier League in the coming weeks until European competition resumes, with City dreaming of domestic competition. Succeed on multiple fronts.
When is the draw and when is the FA Cup fifth round?
The FA Cup fifth-round draw will take place on Monday night, with the draw scheduled for the week commencing February 27.
Guardiola: Tense games against really tough opponents
Man City boss Pep Guardiola on ITV: Tight game. A very difficult opponent, they made it a man-to-man opponent. We realize it’s going to be difficult to get through the process because our libero is the goalkeeper, but Kyle and Bernardo’s contributions are very important and help us control the game and play long balls better.
Arteta: We have big things that we haven’t sorted out
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta on ITV: We are disappointed. We could have gotten more out of the game, but one action determined a very tense and competitive game. Unfortunately we were out.
We had a lot of control in the second half, we had big situations where we didn’t let them go and you need to do that in those games.
There are many positive things we can do. I think the way we approached the game and the way we competed in the game was really good because it’s hard to do that against this unbelievable team and we played them head-to-head.
Asked what they need to learn from this game, he said: “In big moments in big games you have to make a difference and that’s how you beat these teams.
Keane: FA Cup not Arsenal’s priority but loss will hurt in coming days
Roy Keane on ITV: Difficult to assess Arsenal tonight because they have launched the team. Looking at the starting lineup, you can tell it’s not their priority. They want to get that Premier League title.
But I know the players will be down for the next few days because they don’t want to be beaten.
They’ll recover and if they go on to win the league they’ll say they have to sacrifice the game but when you make so many changes, especially defensively, you send the message that you Didn’t really care that much – that’s not a good message to send.