Olivier finally puts Imps to the sword
■ Olivier Giroud got Arsenal’s second as the Gunners blasted Lincoln City out of the FA Cup.
THE score suggests that Arsene Wenger cruised into his 11th FA Cup semi-final.
Rarely, though, has he done so with so little fanfare.
No manager in history has won more FA Cups than Wenger, but the possibility of him lifting his seventh 10 weeks from now hardly registered at the end of one of the most difficult weeks of his tenure.
Arsenal haven’t lost against a non- League club since 1911 when they had Woolwich in front of their name and nobody expected them to lose this one.
Once Theo Walcott saw his shot deflected off defender S am Habergham in first- half stoppage time, the already-remote possibility of Lincoln City piling more misery on the beleaguered Frenchman disappeared.
Along with it went what’s been dubbed “The Imp-possible Dream”.
Olivier Giroud’s second removed all prospects of a comeback and Luke Waterfall’s own goal just before the hour made the scoreline look more respectable.
Alexis Sanchez scored number four in the 73rd minute and Aaron Ramsey completed the destruction of the competition’s giant- killers with a fifth two minutes later.
It’s 103 years since a non-League club reached the Cup’s sixth round and the odds against Lincoln dumping the Gunners were something akin to Barcelona overturning a 4-0 first leg deficit or Leicester winning the Premier League.
It just couldn’t happen! Danny Cowley’s team had already beaten Burnley, Brighton and Ipswich, but surely they could never win at the Emirates.
Wenger has been king of this particular castle for a long time. The ground hasn’t had any other manager since it opened in 2006, but there’s been a growing sense among the supporters that his rule is coming to its natural conclusion.
Many are now actively agitating for that, with dozens staging a street protest outside the stadium before the game. Yet there are
Alexis Sanchez is tackled by Bradley Wood at The Emirates. different noises coming from a boardroom that has made no managerial change for more than two decades.
There’s a new two- year contract sitting on the table waiting to be signed. Though this week chairman Sir Chips Keswick made a rare public statement to suggest the decision will be mutual, most observers believe that it’s ultimately Wenger’s choice.
Wenger has fielded less-than-fullstrength teams throughout the competition, but it’s a sign of the pressure he’s under that he took no chances with his line-up.
The first chance went to Ramsey, side- footing Hector Bellerin’s pass wide of a post.
The second was closer, Walcott’s low drive being turned onto a post by keeper Paul Farman.
Lincoln’s best hope was always going to be a set- piece, using the brute strength of Matt Rhead, who used to construct JCVs and is built like one of the machines he worked on.
The Gunners, who lost Alex Oxlade- Chamberlain to injury just before the half-hour, then had a real scare when Nathan Arnold cut into their box unchallenged and Petr Cech had to fly across his goal to tip away his shot.
Farman scrambled a Mesut Ozil curler round a post and, just when it began to look like Lincoln were going to get back to the dressingroom at 0- 0, Walcott broke the deadlock.
Farman kept Lincoln in the game just after half- time when he saved superbly from Giroud, but the Gunners should still have scored because when the ball came back to Kieran Gibbs he headed over.
But Giroud did get the second after 53 minutes when Bellerin got round the back of the visitors’ defence and crossed low.
The third was an own goal from Waterfall six minutes later and you just had to hope then that Lincoln were not going to be humiliated.
Unfortunately the discipline that has been the hallmark of Cowley’s side crumbled as Sanchez scored a fourth and Ramsey walked in a fifth.
For the last 20 minutes the Lincoln penalty box resembled a shooting gallery with Arsenal firing at will.
It could have been more – Farman brilliantly clawed away a Sanchez shot – but Lincoln deserve to be remembered for what went before rather than the final slaughter.