It was a disappointing day for Chelsea and Arsenal fans in the FA Cup fifth round. Chelsea were held at home by championship side Birmingham City while Arsenal’s miserable week continued as they lost 2-0 at Sunderland.
A week after an added time Thierry Henry goal have Arsenal a 2-1 win over Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, Martin O’Neil’s team gained their revenge to cap off a horrible four days for Arsenal who were ripped apart at the San Siro in midweek.
Arsenal fans will point to the teams injury problems and they lost another defender today as Francis Coquelin limped off early on with a hamstring injury and his replacement Sébastien Squillaci, also had to leave the match due to an injury.
Kieran Richardson put Sunderland ahead with a deflected drive near half-time and a classic counter-attack from Sunderland with ten minutes to go resulted in an Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain own goal.
In the early kickoff, Chelsea were expected to have no problem beating Birmingham at Stamford Bridge. But they fell behind to the Championship side when David Murphy scored from a corner. Chelsea had an immediate chance to respond when Ramires was tripped in the box but Mata missed the penalty. Daniel Sturridge saved Chelsea’s blushes when he headed in Branislav Ivanović’s cross in the second half.
The draw will only add to the pressure on Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas who now faces a must-win match at Napoli in the Champions League in midweek. A loss in Italy and who knows if AVB will be on the touchline when the FA Cup replay at St. Andrews takes place.
Elsewhere, Everton booked a quarter-final place with a comfortable 2-0 home win against Blackpool, both goals coming in the first six minutes.
Norwich City were stunned by championship side Leicester as they lost 2-1 at game. Bolton were able to shale of their poor league form to move into the quarter-final draw as they won 2-0 at Millwall.