Goals from Lucas Perez and Theo Walcott allowed Arsenal to overcome a spirited and resilient Sutton United side at a packed Gander Green Lane on Monday night to book a spot in the quarter finals in the FA Cup. Arsene Wenger’s side was trashed in Munich during their Champions League first leg encounter but a 2-0 victory against Paul Doswell’s men would’ve eased the pressure off the Frenchman for now.
Although the Gunners weren’t at their free-flowing best, they managed to play some delightful, eye-catching football that clearly saw them being the better side among the two teams. The home side, on the other hand, looked as if they were at war, combative and determined to make sure Arsenal were kept at bay.
However, Arsenal’s quality was too much to handle for a side that was placed about 105 teams below them, and Lucas Perez, played through by Granit Xhaka, gave his side the lead when he cut in from the wide right and whipped in a wicked effort past Sutton keeper, who seemingly should have done better but may have been disrupted by Walcott’s presence in the box.
Sutton continued to try and frustrate the visitors but it only led to Arsenal pushing bodies forward and Alex Iwobi and Walcott coming close by close and long range efforts, respectively. Sutton were almost awarded a lifeline when David Ospina, who looked nervy and shaky throughout the game presented the ball straight to Adam May, but his shot went wide. 1-0 at the break and Sutton’s fairytale run in the FA Cup was only alive for 10 minutes more after the restart.
Theo Walcott grabbed his 100th goal for Arsenal as he finished calmly after timing his run well. Some neat link up play saw Monreal sweep in a cross from the left only for the English winger to guide into the net.
Sutton’s only effort that came close was through Roarie Deacon, who struck the cross-bar from a long range as his shot dipped. The fatigue then started kicking into the home-side and Arsenal had managed to keep the score line only at 2-0 till the final whistle.
