Arsenal: Lehmann, Eboue (Hoyte), Senderos, Toure, Clichy, Pennant, Vieira, Fabregas, Pires, Reyes, Van Persie.
Subs(not used): Almunia (gk), Cygan, Larsson, Owusu-Abeyie
Stoke: Simonsen, Buxton, Thomas, Taggart, Hall, Halls (Henry), Russell, Jarrett, Clarke (Eustace), Greenacre (Asaba), Akinbiyi.. Subs (not used): De Goey, Noel-Williams
Who said the romance of the FA Cup was dead?
Just twenty-four hours after Exeter and Oldham reaffirmed the magic of the competition, City travelled to London hoping to give Arsenal a third round scare. They did, and for a large proportion of an epic battle at Highbury, mission impossible seemed a reality.
When Robin Van Persie's 70th minute strike finally spared the Gunners' blushes, you could sense the relief around the ground.
Over 5,000 travelling City supporters packed out the Clock End and made themselves heard at every opportunity as Tony Pulis' team stood firm to keep the Premiership Champions at bay - and take the lead in a frantic first-half.
Injury-hit City were forced into several changes to the team that lost to Burnley a week ago, with new signing Jason Jarrett starting in the middle of the park and Gerry Taggart returning to defence for his first competitive match in over two months. John Halls won his fitness battle to face his former club, coming in for Karl Henry on the right of midfield, whilst Chris Greenacre replaced Gifton Noel-Williams in attack.
Arsene Wenger chose to field a fairly strong side, with household names Vieira, Pires and Reyes on from the start.
As expected, Arsenal started the game the more dominant force and after Van Persie was unlucky not to capitalise on mistakes by Jarrett and Taggart, it appeared the Potters needed to build a brick wall in front of Steve Simonsen's goal to avoid conceding early on.
But after ten minutes of desperate resistance, City began to enjoy the occasion, catching Arsenal on the break with Ade Akinbiyi looking increasing menacing in tandem with the industrious Greenacre.
Akinbiyi had a first sight of goal when he cut inside Senderos and unleashed a powerful left-footed drive, which was turned behind for the first corner of the game by Jens Lehmann.
At the other end, Lewis Buxton was in the thick of things and made a timely intervention to prevent the advancing Reyes a chance to shoot, whilst Simonsen was tested for the first time minutes later, thwarting Van Persie and then Jermaine Pennant.
City's strike pairing almost combined to deadly effect eleven minutes before the break, as Akinbiyi shrugged off Kolo Toure before crossing within inches of his Greenacre's outstretched leg.
Akinbiyi's strength caused all kinds of problems and ten minutes before the break he had what seemed like a perfectly good goal chalked off for a foul on Senderos after a clever lob over Lehmann.
Arsenal needed to step up a gear and Van Persie looked the most likely outlet in attack. He fired a free-kick over, and then missed the target again with a low drive from 18-yards.
They were to be punished, and while a City goal on the stroke of half-time may have been unthinkable to any neutral observers at the start of the tie, when it came it was deserved.
Akinbiyi's header from a teasing Greenacre cross was superbly parried by Lehmann, but an unmarked Wayne Thomas was on hand to smash home from four yards.
The two teams emerged from the tunnel to start the second-half with City feeling they had a real chance of achieving the most unlikely of scalps.
Desperate for a swift reply, Arsenal surged out of the blocks in search of an equaliser, with Van Persie forcing the save of the match from the outstanding Simonsen.
Nevertheless, seconds later the Gunners' pressure prevailed as a Thomas clearance fell fortunately into the path of Reyes and the Spaniard drilled crisply home.
It was a sucker-punch for hardworking City, who had worked tirelessly throughout. It was important that they responded positively - and they did.
Greenacre was at the heart of the action, stinging the fingers of Lehmann with an angled drive before seeing a goal-bound flick cleared off the line by Gael Clichy. Akinbiyi was even closer to a goal minutes later when his 20-yard strike cannoned off the crossbar with the goalkeeper beaten.
It was just the kind of luck you come to expect as a City fan, and who knows what would have happened had Akinbiyi's shot crept under the bar? But from that moment on there was only ever going to be one winner, and that was confirmed just two minutes later when a moment of pure class from Van Persie's turned the game in its head, The Dutchman's audacious back-heel from another cross flung into the City penalty box flew past Simonsen and into the net.
John Eustace and Carl Asaba replaced Clarke and Greenacre as City battled to salvage what would have been a deserved replay. But their efforts were in vain as the Gunners sneaked through into the draw for Round Four.
And so, a gallant effort from the Potters, who could be proud of themselves after a combination of bad luck and Arsenal's undoubted quality, knocked them out of the FA Cup.
They did all that could have been asked of them, pushing Arsenal all the way to ensure a fantastic day out for a splendid travelling support and a much-needed confidence boost ahead of Friday's league trip to QPR.
;-) :mrgreen:
:roll:
