Sunderland 2 Arsenal 0

Feb 19 2012 by James Hunter, Sunday Sun

‘QUE sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be. We’re going to Wembley,’ sang the Sunderland fans.

There’s a long way to go yet, but their excitement is understandable after eight years without a cup run worthy of the name.

Until this season, Sunderland hadn’t gone beyond the fourth round since 2004 – now they find themselves in the quarter-finals, two steps from a first appearance at the new Wembley.

They booked their place in the last eight in style, seeing off an Arsenal side that is a shadow of the once formidable team that challenged Manchester United for domestic dominance in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Miles off the pace in the Premier League, out of the Carling Cup, all-but out of the Champions League after a 4-0 first leg defeat at AC Milan in midweek, the FA Cup was Arsene Wenger’s last hope of ending seven trophyless years at the Emirates.

But a first-half strike from Kieran Richardson and an unfortunate second-half own-goal from the highly-rated Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain means it is Sunderland who are still in the hunt for silverware.

Martin O’Neill stuck to the gameplan that came so close to undoing the Gunners last week in the league, before fatigue got the better of them and Arsenal came from behind to snatch all three points in injury-time.

This time there had been no midweek extra-time cup replay to take its toll on Sunderland – it was Arsenal who were feeling the effects of their humiliation at the San Siro.

There was just one personnel change for the Black Cats, with skipper Lee Cattermole returning to the side after missing five games with a hamstring problem and taking the place of Fraizer Campbell.

Wenger’s response to the mauling in Milan was to make five changes.

Goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski, defenders Johan Djourou and Francis Coquelin and midfielders Gervinho and Oxlade-Chamberlain came into the side to replace Wojciech Szczesny, Kieran Gibbs, Tomas Rosicky, Theo Walcott and the injured Laurent Koscielny.

The early stages of the game were tight, with both sides feeling each other out.

Arsenal had the first chance when a foul by Craig Gardner gave Mikel Arteta a shooting chance from a free-kick in the sixth minute, but the Spaniard’s 25-yard effort went wide of the left-hand post and Simon Mignolet had it covered in any case.