ENGLISH FA CUP FOURTH-ROUND REPLAY: Arsenal 4 Cardiff City 0AGAINST strangely becalmed opponents this was the type of smooth and slick display with decisive end product Arsenal have struggled to find this season. What they need now is consistency. And to prove this can be done against better-class opponents than Dave Jones's men during this crucial closing phase of the season.
Cardiff improved slightly as the game grew older – one actual shot comes to memory from the second half – but, strangely, the guts and thunder were missing from the visitors. Arsenal will not care. What they have is a place in the fifth round against Burnley and their prolific number nine Eduardo back as a real going concern – two goals and some impressive touches confirmed it.
Eduardo’s return to first-team action a week shy of a full year since he suffered the sickening leg injury at Birmingham began with a well deserved cheer. The Brazilian-born Croat, whose first taste back in competitive action came for his adopted country last week, enjoyed a bright start as Arsenal’s penchant for fizzing ball and men into space threatened to produce a very early goal.
Cardiff were being turned too many times, especially down the flanks. Bacary Sagna had the first go, following a burst down the right by popping the ball up to Nicklas Bendtner. Kevin McNaughton allowed a free header but the Denmark striker could not convert. Eduardo followed this with a sublime cross-field pass from inside his half which twisted the Cardiff defence and had Vela running straight at Tom Heaton’s goal. A fierce shot was saved well low down.
Arsenal enjoyed several corners before Cardiff had managed their first. It came 25 minutes in, amounted to nothing, and by then the home team had the lead. Eduardo, always dropping deeper than Bendtner in what was a loose 4-4-1-1 Arsenal formation, played Vela in. This time the width came down the left and when the Mexican crossed the ball it was back at Eduardo. His header beat Heaton and his celebration was enjoyed among a huddle of team-mates.
Jones had every reason to fume at his team during the interval for the amount of time and airspace Arsene Wenger’s men were allowed. It had caused the first goal and what appeared the killer moment of the replay. When Samir Nasri delivered a corner from the left in the 33rd-minute, McNaughton and Jay Bothroyd tangled and Bendtner scored an all-too simple second.
Yet if that was a regulation finish, the Dane’s miss before the break was unbelievable. Vela’s turn and shot was saved. When the rebound came to Bendtner he had an open goal and the post to aim at – he somehow hit the latter.
Before the start of the tie Cesc Fabregas talked of how his return from injury was drawing closer. “Over the last few weeks I’ve only thought of my injury but I have responsibilities, I have to be next to my team-mates even if I’m not playing,” he said. The evidence so far was that his presence around training ground and changing room has been galvanising.
To describe Cardiff as spectators would be an exaggeration, yet this was the impression offered throughout. Still, at least before the hour mark Bothroyd did produce a shot that forced Lukasz Fabianski into a genuine save.
Any hopes of nicking the one that would have caused Arsenal concern were laid to rest when Eduardo doubled his tally with a penalty. The 25-year-old trotted off a little later. His replacement, Robin van Persie, added the fourth at the end.
Guardian Service
ARSENAL: Fabianski, Sagna, Toure, Gallas, Gibbs, Nasri (Ramsey 67), Denilson, Song Billong, Vela (Bischoff 74), Eduardo (Van Persie 67), Bendtner. Subs Not Used: Almunia, Wilshere, Clichy. Booked: Gallas, Bendtner. Goals: Eduardo 20, Bendtner 34, Eduardo 60 pen, Van Persie 89.
CARDIFF: Heaton, McNaughton, Purse (Blake 68), Roger Johnson, Kennedy, Burke, Rae (Scimeca 74), Ledley, Parry (Whittingham 68), Bothroyd, McCormack. Subs Not Used: Sak, Capaldi, Eddie Johnson, Comminges.
Referee: Mark Halsey (Lancashire).
