Good call !

ditto that

Pep won't be happy

Gabriel played like a young Bobby Moore

Welbeck gave City something to worry about in their defensive areas. Big difference made.

Not the most convincing and certainly not the most fluid, but we gutsed it out there. The back three were excellent, particularly from about 30 mins onwards, as was The Ox, and bar his mistake for the goal, so was Monreal. Still big issues in midfield. Özil a bit wasteful in ET but for 105 mins his work rate was fantastic.

Such a shame Welbeck can't finish! I want him locked in a 5-a-side pitch with Ian Wright for two days a week for the next year...

Happy for Gab. He tries very hard. Just that he is not in the same level as Kos.

By the way, what happened to Mustafi?

He gave a very assured performance today. This should grow his confidence.

I like the back three and have suggested it many times in the past. If we can work on shifting to cenral five quicker then we have a chance against Chelsea.

and for AG's benefit yes I still think AW should leave preferably after a succesfull final.

Palace 2-1

Great gutsy performance after a turgid first half.
Love Holding. So assured and composed for one so young. Looks a great signing.
The Ox was excellent. Wenger spoken very highly of him recently. Need to nail him with a new contract. Would hate to lose him now.
Assure him of regular football and I'm sure he will stay.
Chelsea favourites but considering I thought we would lose badly today I'll happily take a shot at them and try and salvage something from terrible season.
Wenger to leave on a high........?
Credit where it's due , he made a big call changing to back 3 for last two.
Two wins....

On bt commentary they said this would be wengers 9th final.
I'm sure that's wrong. Won't this be the 8th?
6 wins and 2001 defeat to Liverpool.
We have only lost fa cup final under him haven't we?
Pathetic from bt if they have got it wrong

Also they mentioned something about an extra sub?
Were 4 allowed today???

Extra sub allowed in extra time only.

Thanks bubbleChris for clarifying

Final v Chelsea will be our 8th fa cup final under wenger.
Bt and the mirror both reported it will be his 9th.
That is poor research from 2 media organisations.
Makes you wonder who checks these facts before they are reported as 'fact'
Shocking
98 , 02, 03 , 05 , 14 and 15 wins
2001 defeat

Made me chuckle. From blue moon forum.

Yaya went out on his shield, which I was happy to see.

Clichy at fault for both goals and I hate that useless b****** with a passion.

I thought that was our best defensive display for quite some while. We looked pretty solid. Chamberlain was the stand out player today, he was outstanding. Monreal was excellent as well. What a save that was from Čech when he pushed the shot with his fingertips onto the post. Özil started very quietly but grew into the game. It might not be a coincidence that when he improved, so did the team. Giroud was having one of his Lee Chapman days, and Welbeck was a major improvement when he replaced him. Sanchez did very well and if we are going to pay him £300k a week, I won't be moaning about it.

Good job lomekian isn't a City fan with that goal they had disallowed.

Holding should have row zed that one the gave toure the free kick near the end....

Apart from the goal that he scored what did he do more than Giroud?

Imo if he had not played or Walcott had played in his place we would have scored that and at least two other goals that Özil screwed up.

Why do you think he's worth £300k and so much more than either Welbeck, Giroud or Walcott?

He's a far better player than all of them.

Today wasn't his best day Bubble but he's a class above any other players we have.

I'd be happy to see Özil go if Alexis stays.

You have a major downer on Sanchez. If you seriously can't see why he's worth so much more than Giroud or Walcott, then sorry but I can't really see what else there is else to add.

On Özil, can see why you won't miss him if he goes. I think I will, mostly because his touch is just sublime. He goes through patches when he disappears and when he is the furthest player forward with he ball he mostly just *%^@* it up. But boy his touch and passing sometimes. When he's on it I watch him and he just never loses the ball. His decision making with the ball is superb, especially if you compare it to Ramsey or anyone else really. He lacks the will to really boss a game and you see that come out when he has a chance to drive forward and shoot. He mainly just doesn't. If he goes I'd want us to replace him or find a place in the team for someone with just great technique. Santi, or Hleb, or Bergkamp players. Those players with magic in their boots. For me Özil for all his flaws and lack of fire and drive is the closest we've got to that. I think it intimidates the opposition too. Having a player up against you that can make you look stupid if you don't concentrate. I think that might be why Wenger went for him - to just have a player like that. So if Özil goes (which by the way may be unlikely - who would want him who could pay his wages?) someone go find me a flawed genius with magic in his boots please. Thanks.

Back from the game..

Bizarreness we fought ....

Real pride...

Ox was fantastic

Özil should be offed 300 grand my arse

And as usual excellent support in the Arsenal end.

Nighty night

Simple, but effective response.

Only saw extra time but sounded very quiet. At both ends

Here we go, highlights for the numptys who power hosed their drive thinking Ko was 5:15

No doubt we got lucky on that one, but its hard to be too critical of the officials because it took the TV several goals of going almost frame by frame to be confident that not all the ball crossed all of the line, and that from an angle that an official can't stand at. Suprised at how good Pawson was today. Ignored City's regular diving and pressuring him, and was probably right to not give pens for the challenge on Sanchez and Özil (though I'd like to see the second one on Özil again, as I'm not sure Sane got too near the ball).

Finally a good performance from Xhaka. Everyone gets the thumbs up from me apart from Giroud and Özil. How many *%^@** times did he lose the ball in the last 5 minutes. Czech would be on the naughty step too as he bottled it on their goal but great save from Toure gives him a pass.
So the despicable Chelsea in the final. No Hull or Villa here but a win would be so sweet against those *%^@. Great to have a cup final to look forward to after a pretty rotten season.

Fabregas is a better leader, has more intangibles than Özil. Been saying that and no way Özil would have come back from the problems Fabregas had, had it been him. He'd have cowered.
Özil is simply not a leader RM and the German team are tailor made for him. Others do the defensive work and heavy lifting giving him his sole job to make those sublime passes.
For the type of team we have (and need) Özil isn't a necessity. He'd have done well in the old invincible side.

Özil should really be scoring more goals as he's the 2nd furthest player in our attack. His set-piece delivery is fantastic and our winner came as a result of one. But we need more from him than just assists. I wonder if Özil can play deeper like Cazorla.

I thought our support was pretty decent for a change decent amount of noise and I doth my cap to the guys doing that back turned thingy when we scored our equaliser

Would you have been so casual about it had it been an Arsenal goal that was disallowed? You didn't even mention their disallowed goal until I did, and now you're trying to make excuses for the wrong decision. The excuses have relevance, by the way. But so would excuses about many of the refereeing decisions you moan about.

Let me give you some advice. By going on and on so much about referees, your basic point loses credibility. Some of the moans you come out with, okay let me change 'Some' to 'Most', or even 'The huge majority' may have a bit of relevance. But it's lost by your silly - and it is silly -repetitive moans about referees. You look for any excuse to moan about them. I suspect the reason you didn't today was that that vital, probably game changing and incorrect decision, benefited Arsenal so much that had you been a City fan you'd have been moaning that he was corrupt or incompetent because he came from anywhere six inches south of somewhere. Make your posts during games more relevant by focusing on clear and important mistakes, not irrelevant, minor and debatable decisions for which there's no evidence they changed the course of the game. And just as importantly, rather than ignore them mention the wrong decisions that benefit Arsenal.

Your ultra or extreme bias costs your basic point some, or much of, its relevance. My opinion, obviously.

Özil has wonderful technical ability and vision, no doubt, but it's his body language that does my head in, the way he loses the ball and looks round in disbelief and then ambles back half-heartedly whilst the rest of the side are busting a gut to get back and defend.

People will say that if you look at the stats he does more running than anyone, and maybe that is so, but it's his whole demeanour that rankles with me.

A very good result yesterday for those Arsenal fans who want their team to win. Nice to see so many happy faces. The FA Cup is still a cracking competition and to get to the final yet again speaks well of our club.

I blame AW for Alexi's current form. Check the stats for his recent form and I bet I am right that he is not the same player as he was last year.

He should be our fox in the box and he should be leading our attack not stuck on the wing waiting for the ball to be passed to him.

On the wing he is not the same player.

Putting aside the nosetweak from Hoy - amusing given the way in which his own schnoz takes immediate evasive action on the far more frequent less happy occasions this season - yesterday was very interesting.

The seeds of hope were certainly there. Lovely to see Gabriel do well, ditto Holding and the Ox and there was a resilience hitherto absent from most of the season, even though some of the usual suspects were pretty ordinary again.

It is always churlish at this stage to start with the buts so here goes.

I was sure we were going to win pretty much as soon as the match started. We were playing like the inferior side, it was a cup tie and in such cup ties the inferior side will sometimes grab victory especially when the better side is not converting its chances. And we got lucky which is not of course unusual in football but neither can it be counted upon.

I will be very interested to see what happens next especially against Tottenham but I was pleased Arsenal won because I have realised that win or lose makes no difference to Wenger just as it doesn't to that other stubborn old *%^@ destroying the Labour Party (obligatory Corbyn reference you're welcome).

If you ask me, however, whether being in a cup final makes up for two more years of Wenger then my answer remains unequivocal. No. Equally, as I have mentioned I believe it actually makes no difference so I shall be looking forward to the final in which I hope - but don't fully expect - we will follow a similar pattern.

Yes, I expect Chelsea to prevail as they have the better players, and the way they overcame a very good Spurs side was impressive. That they could put on Hazard, Costa and Fabregas as substitutes tells you where the power lies in London football. Yesterday was a different match between two much flakier teams and it went our way. As for it not making much difference to Arsene, you could not have drawn that conclusion from his reaction at the final whistle. The win rightly meant a lot to him and his players, and the vast majority of Arsenal fans.