Monday, February 18, 2013 The FA Cup Chelsea avoid Gunners’ fate
Chelsea avoided becoming the latest victims of the FA Cup’s spate of giant-killings as the holders eased into the fifth round with a 4-0 win over League One minnows Brentford on Sunday.
Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool are among a host of Premier League clubs to have been embarrassed by lower league opposition this season, but Chelsea overcame a slow start to their fourth round replay to eventually cruise through thanks to second half goals from Juan Mata, Oscar, Frank Lampard and John Terry at Stamford Bridge.
It is still too soon to declare Rafael Benitez’s team back on track after an inconsistent campaign, but at least there was no humiliation here.
Chelsea, who have won the Cup four times in the last six seasons, will travel to Championship side Middlesbrough for their delayed fifth round tie on February 27.
On Saturday, Arsenal’s hopes of ending their eight-year trophy drought suffered a huge setback after they were dumped out of the FA Cup at home to second-tier Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.
Colin Kazim-Richards scored the only goal in Rovers’s 1-0 victory when he followed up in the 72nd minute, with a strike that went in off the post, after Gunners goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny failed to hold Martin Olsson’s shot.
Arsenal, who haven’t won a major piece of silverware since lifting the FA Cup in 2005, must now raise their spirits for a last 16 Champions League first leg tie on Tuesday at home to German giants Bayern Munich.
But this defeat can only add to the pressure on long-serving Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, whose side are a massive 21 points behind Manchester United in the Premier League.
The Frenchman, who had never seen Arsenal lose to lower league opposition in the FA Cup since taking charge in 1996, said: “I couldn’t see how we could lose the game because we had a lot of the ball and they had one shot on goal.
“But they defended well and it’s the kind of game you can lose if you make a mistake at the back like we did.
“We don’t need to think too much about the eight season (trophy drought), the players who played today didn’t play eight seasons ago and we must focus on the next game.”
Blackburn defender Scott Dann said: “We knew we had to dig in and cut down the space we gave them. We did that very well.”
Everton, the other Premier League side in FA Cup action on Saturday, were held to a 2-2 draw by giantkillers Oldham after the third-tier side grabbed a dramatic equaliser in the fourth minute of stoppage time.
RESULTS
4th rd replay
Chelsea 4 (Mata 54, Oscar 68, Lampard 71,
Terry 81) Brentford 0.
Saturday
5th rd
Arsenal 0 Blackburn 1 (Kazim-Richards 72)
Luton 0 Millwall 3 (Henry 12, Hulse 36, N’Guessan 86)
Milton Keynes Dons 1 (Bowditch 61) Barnsley 3 (Dagnall 3, 90+1, Harewood 19)
Oldham 2 (Obita 13, Smith 90+5) Everton 2 (Anichebe 24, Jagielka 48)
From www.thedailystar.net
Source:
http://premierleague.firstgofirst.com/2013/02/17/chelsea-avoid-gunners-fate/