After this game, Arsenal's position as the leader of the standings is still stable, although Liverpool beat West Ham United by four goals at home in this round of games, but there is still a seven-point gap from Arsenal. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

Arsenal did not stop in Liverpool and returned to London that evening, and Arsene Wenger announced a day off for the players to relax.

A day later, Arsenal regrouped and the whole team was once again in a state of rearmament.

This time, though, they are not preparing for the league, but for the FA Cup semi-finals.

The FA Cup is played in a single-elimination format, with a draw deciding home and away, with a replay at the visitors' home stadium on a different date if the two teams are tied within 90 minutes, and a 30-minute extra time in the event of a draw, with penalties still unscored.

In this competition, it is actually subdivided into many stages, such as the wild card competition, which is the participation of teams from the ninth division and lower in England, with a total of more than 400 teams participating.

This was followed by the preliminary round, which featured 131 teams from the eighth division and 203 teams from the wild card round.

Then there are four rounds of qualifying. And that's not all, after the qualifying rounds, it will be the final stage. And the final stage is also divided into several rounds, so that the number of games is actually a headache.

Premier League teams are already heavily tasked with the league, and it would be unpleasant to let them start with the most basic wildcard games, which means they will play almost ten more games in the season, which takes the time and energy that no team will accept.

Therefore, the FA Cup can be regarded as very humane, and the teams in the Premier League and the Championship will only participate after reaching the third round of the final stage.

After reaching the semi-finals, the format will also change, and the previous rematch rules will be abandoned in favor of a real match-winning event, that is, even if there is a draw within 90 minutes, there will be no rematches, but will go directly to extra time, or even penalty shootouts, until a winner is determined.

Arsenal's League Cup and FA Cup matches this season were not in the predetermined battle plan at all, so they have always allowed substitutes and reserve players to improvise, and the result gave the club a big surprise, not to mention the League Cup, was eliminated from the semi-finals, and the FA Cup game actually went directly to the semi-finals.

That means they have a chance to compete for another trophy this season.

As a result, Arsene Wenger adjusted his team's strategy in time to keep his first-team players ready for the FA Cup semi-finals. The strength of the first-team squad as a whole is definitely stronger than the mix of substitutes and reserves, and the disadvantage is that they have barely played in the FA Cup this season, and he fears that the first-team players are a bit of a stretch and will not be able to adapt to the rhythm of the FA Cup.

But in any case, having reached the semi-finals, Wenger still trusts his first-team players more, and he is also determined to win this game.

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On the other hand, Everton also has the belief that the kettle will be broken.

Their performances in the league have been up and down this season, and whether they can finish in the top six at the end of the season is like a suspense movie, and they can't be sure at all, so their hopes of entering Europe are more focused on domestic cup competitions.

The FA Cup winner has a ticket to the Europa League.

Everton put more energy into the FA Cup despite their poor league record, and their performance was indeed worthy of their efforts, making it all the way to the semi-finals, just two games away from winning the title.

At this time, it is simply impossible for them to give up easily.

And, speaking of which, they also have an extremely huge grudge against Arsenal. Not to mention a double in the league this season, they were beaten in the second league meeting, which made their quest for a top-six finish even harder. Now the two teams will meet again in the semi-finals of the FA Cup, and if they lose again, they will not only lose face, but also the hope of entering the European arena will be drifted away with the wind.

Everton and Liverpool in the same city are bitter enemies for a century, and the relationship between the two teams is like that between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.

If in the past, when Everton took a step forward and a step back, it was harmless, and if they lost, they would have lost, as long as they could add to Liverpool's blockage, then they would have kept their hands and feet happy, but at this juncture when it was about their vital interests, they could only not give an inch.

Everton's belief in winning is extremely strong, but they have a clear understanding of their own quality, and they know that they are far from Arsenal in terms of overall and individual ability, so they must look for other solutions.

Arsenal is actively preparing for the game, and Everton is not idle, actively preparing for a strategy to break the enemy.

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Five days later, the two teams met again, again at Goodison Park.

There is no way around it, and Arsenal don't want to play here, but they were unlucky in the draw and were drawn by the visitors, so they could only play two away games in a week, and the location was exactly the same.

The two teams are also old acquaintances, not familiar, a few days ago, the two teams just did a game, in this case, the two teams basically did not carry out any temptation, directly put the military horse against each other.

The game only lasted more than ten minutes, and Arsenal clearly felt the change of the opponent, in fact, Everton's "kraft candy" general pestering efforts still did not fall, but increased their pressing movements, ran more actively on the field, and used physical confrontation to interfere with and hinder Arsenal's advancement. And at the same time intensified the intensity of the counterattack.

This is also Everton's helpless move, in terms of overall strength and individual ability of players, the two teams are not comparable at all, and it turns out that just by relying on the "eighteen stickers" of pestering people, Everton may not be able to contain Arsenal, Arsenal's overall propulsion ability is very strong, and the speed and accuracy of transmission are not comparable to other Premier League teams, their passes are pervasive, they can be called the nemesis of a pestering team like Everton, plus there is a "tower tactic" that can be changed at any time, they want to defend to the death, completely untenable.

Therefore, Everton learned to be obedient, while defending, they must also threaten the opponent's defense with fast and sharp counterattacks, so that Arsenal can throw a mouse, and the pressure on their defense will be reduced. Of course, the kung fu of "kraft candy" still can't be lost, this is their biggest ability to fight the Premier League, which can't be lost.

Not to mention, such tactics have indeed achieved good results in a short period of time, Arsenal has been a little tired of Everton's "sticky" skills, and now the opponent has increased their defensive movements, and even interrupted their offensive from time to time, which makes their attacking rhythm never find a correct point.

And the opponent's foul is also very smart, either a small action, or it is far away from the goal, in short, it does not give Qin Shou a chance to attack the goal directly from a free kick.

And Everton's counterattack was also simple, direct and fast, which caused a lot of trouble for Arsenal's defense, which made the Gunners even more jealous and did not dare to press too forward.

In this situation, the game went almost exactly the same as it had been a few days ago, with both teams helpless in the first half, with the score remaining 0-0 until halftime.

The first half was uneventful, but the second half was destined to be full of ups and downs.

At the beginning of the second half, Everton, who had been relying on counter-attacks to threaten the Arsenal defence, took the lead in ushering in a good chance to score, a passing error on the Arsenal midfield line led to the opponent's on-the-spot counterattack to advance to the penalty line at a very fast speed, and finally Everton midfielder Gareth. Barry fired a low shot past Petr Cech.

The goal sent Goodison Park into jubilation, with tens of thousands of fans hoping to avenge the team's league revenge in this game, and saw the final ticket coming to them.

But the excitement lasted less than two minutes, Arsenal's counterattack came as fierce as a storm, and in the 48th minute, after Qin Shou broke through continuously, he suddenly hit the goal with a heavy artillery shot at 28 meters of the goal, which made Everton goalkeeper Howard have no reaction at all, and the score became 1:1.

Qin Shou's goal completely sounded the horn of Arsenal's counterattack, and three minutes later, Qin Shou assisted Sanchez to form a single goal, Sanchez did not let the opportunity slip away, and shot low to help the team score two goals in five minutes and complete the score overtake.

The score was behind, and Everton, who had no way out, began to attack on all fronts. Arsenal, on the other hand, was fearless and put on a posture to attack the Toffees.

Under the rage, Everton broke out with great energy, and the offensive was like a tide, but Arsenal was not far behind, and the attacking firepower was the highest in Europe, and the firepower was full, and the balance of victory quickly tilted towards them.

Unlike the previous game, Arsenal's goal in the FA Cup semi-final was very lucky, in the 73rd and 81st minutes, Giroud received assists from Qin Shou and Cazorla in succession, and scored a brace to help the team extend the score advantage to three goals, and Arsenal led 4:1.

The tide is over, and Everton can't afford to turn back.

The final score was fixed at 4-1, and after the referee's whistle, Goodison Park was thrown into a sigh of loss and gloom, while the Arsenal players celebrated excitedly on the pitch, and the substitutes and coaches rushed into the pitch en masse to join in the team's revelry.

Reaching the FA Cup final is something to be excited about, and regardless of the final outcome of the league and Champions League, Arsenal have at least one title to compete for this season, and the possibility of success is huge!

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Link: /info/1004190114 (To be continued.) )