Masterclass from Rosicky gives Wenger an easy ride

AS Tomas Rosicky made his way off at the final whistle, two security guards hurried out of the tunnel and placed a shiny FA Cup on a plinth by the side of the pitch.

The temptation for Arsenal’s stand-in captain, after this dreamy individual performance, was to be done with it and raise the trophy in front of 4,000 travelling fans.

Rosicky dragged the holders through to the fifth round after a hard-working Brighton team had twice threatened to make a real Cup tie of it. Arsenal’s 34-year-old midfielder played as if it were an exhibition match.

‘If you love football, you love Rosicky,’ said Arsenal’s manager Arsene Wenger and he was right. Some of his passing was sublime.

There were five goals at the Amex Stadium and it makes sense to start with the best. Rosicky, rightly, was responsible for it in the 59th minute.

Before then his performance had been a majestic run through of flicks, backheels and turns that you would expect to see as part of a training ground warm down. In fact, Rosicky started the move with a backheeled reverse pass into the feet of Olivier Giroud. It was a Billy Bremner ball with bells on, a glance one way to fool the opposition defence and a pass in another direction.

Giroud, outstanding again up front for Arsenal, responded with a dinked chip into Rosicky’s field of vision on the edge of the area and he volleyed spectacularly beyond David Stockdale.

Rosicky was always one step ahead, always a fraction quicker to the ball, always able to lift it over the outstretched legs of Sam Baldock, Rohan Ince, Brighton captain Gordon Greer or his central defensive partner Lewis Dunk.

The scoreline suggests something a bit tighter, but truth be told Arsenal had slipped effortlessly through the gears in an impressive opening spell.

Theo Walcott scored for the first time in a year, linking up with Calum Chambers when the Arsenal right back burst down the right with just over a minute on the clock.

Chambers cut back for Walcott and the Arsenal winger gained a yard or more on Dunk before he drilled an effort beyond Stockdale. Arsenal scored again when Rosicky drifted in from the left and picked out Mesut Ozil, unmarked, inside Brighton’s area with his first reverse pass.

By the time Dunk reacted, Ozil had scored for the first time since his return from injury earlier this month.

To underline the gulf in class there was a moment between Arsenal’s opening two goals when Mathieu Flamini, Aaron Ramsey and Giroud left Brighton’s players eating grass as they ran through their defence.

Beyond that Walcott, who temporarily traded wings with Rosicky, could have had a penalty towards the end of the half when Bruno Saltor raised his hands inside the area.

For some reason referee Michael Oliver waved play on.

The Amex Stadium, bursting at the seams with a record attendance of 30,278, had fallen flat. Their fans needed a lift and they got it when striker Chris O’Grady scored five minutes after the break.

Arsenal failed to clear, with Nacho Monreal’s awkward, skied clearance making its way over the other side of the area towards Chambers.

The Arsenal defender failed to deal with it and O’Grady finished sweetly inside Wojciech Szczesny’s near post.

FINALLy the Amex stirred in the hope Brighton would go after Wenger’s team. Instead, Arsenal pulled clear again when Rosicky scored with that volley in front of his approving fans.

To their credit Brighton responded again, scoring for a second time when Baldock combined with Danny Holla to clip his effort beyond the onrushing figure of Szczesy in the 75th minute.

Wenger sent for protection, bringing on Alexis Sanchez to stretch the Brighton defence and adding Francis Coquelin to screening duties in front of the back four. They survived when Chambers handled, but the defender could not move his left hand out of the way when Adrian Colunga kicked the ball straight at him.

But Arsenal were always comfortable and, with a little help from Rosicky, they ran down the clock and made sure they are in the draw for the fifth round.

The challenge now is to win this trophy for the sixth time in Wenger’s spell as manager.

you cannot put it past them, particularly after Chelsea, Manchester City, Southampton and Tottenham all exited the competition on Saturday.

They are just two games away from a Wembley semi-final and favourites to retain the trophy.

And, crazy as it seems, Rosicky has only won the FA Cup once since his move to the Emirates in 2006. After this, the Czech deserves to get his hands on another.