FA Cup: Chelsea join Arsenal in semi-final

Two London clubs, Chelsea and Arsenal, have qualified for the semifinal stage of the 2019/20 Emirates FA Cup.

While Arsenal survived a late scare to overcome Sheffield 2-1 earlier on Sunday, the Blues needed just a lone goal to edge out Leicester City in the other quarter-final tie played at the King Power Stadium.

Ross Barkley provided Chelsea with the only goal that sent the Nigerian duo of Wilfred Ndidi and Kelechi Iheanacho as well as their Leicester City teammates out of this season’s FA Cup.

With Iheanacho and Ndidi out, Manchester United’s Odion Ighalo is the only Nigeria international left in the hunt for the FA Cup crown this season.

Ighalo actually scored one of the goals that helped United to a 2-1 win over Norwich City at Carrow Road.

For Arsenal, Mikel Arteta’s men went into Sunday’s game high on confidence following their perfect outing last time against Southampton in which they secured an away win and also kept a clean sheet.

That victory was needed to give Arsenal some form of confidence having lost back-to-back games against Manchester City and lowly-rated Brighton.

Thankfully for Arsenal, they had a nice start in Sunday’s game with Nicolas Pepe giving them the lead in the 25th minute from the penalty spot.

It appeared the game was headed for extra-time when David McGoldrick cancelled out Pepe’s first-half penalty in the 87th minute.

Arsenal responded with an injury-time winner through Dani Ceballos to seal their return to Wembley and move two wins closer to lifting a first trophy under Arteta, who was appointed Unai Emery’s successor in November.

Speaking to BBC Sport after the nervy win, the Arsenal coach stated that the task is to win the title and find a way to qualify to play in Europe

He said: “It is a great opportunity to try and win a title and play in Europe.

“I knew Sheffield United were going to have moments. They are so good at their game plans and putting teams under pressure. We conceded form a long throw which is so hard to defend. But we were able to win the game.”

The last semifinal ticket will be contested between Newcastle United and Manchester City.