Sunday, February 16, 2014

Robbie Savage: How Arsenal turned the tables on Liverpool


Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker celebrates their FA Cup victory over Liverpool

In his regular BBC Sport column, Robbie Savage looks at Arsenal's thrilling FA Cup win over Liverpool.
This was a classic cup tie played at a high tempo and it was great to watch. Arsenal needed to produce a response after they were thrashed 5-1 by Liverpool at Anfield in the Premier League last week, and they did exactly that.
The Gunners had to battle hard to reach the sixth round but they did so through a combination of defensive resilience, some bad misses by Liverpool and a terrible decision by referee Howard Webb, which denied the Reds their second penalty of the match.
If Daniel Sturridge had taken his early chances, the game would have been very different but Arsenal scoring first meant Arsene Wenger's line-up was well suited to their task.