Arsenal, Man City ease to wins in FA Cup 5th round
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Nicklas Bendtner's hat trick helped Arsenal rout Leyton Orient 5-0 in a fifth-round FA Cup replay and Manchester City eased past Aston Villa 3-0 to also make the quarterfinals yesterday.
Marouane Chamakh and Gael Clichy were the other scorers at Emirates Stadium for Arsenal, which bounced back from its surprise 2-1 defeat to Birmingham in Sunday's League Cup final to set up a last-eight match against Manchester United on March 12.
City will host second-tier side Reading a day later after the Premier League big spenders brushed past a weakened Villa side thanks to goals by Yaya Toure, Mario Balotelli and David Silva.
Stoke-West Ham and Birmingham-Bolton are the other fixtures in the quarterfinals of the famous knockout competition.
Orient, which plays in England's third tier and was the lowest-ranked club left in the FA Cup, earned a deserved 1-1 draw in the first game between the teams on February 20, but the replay couldn't have been more one-sided.
"It was important that we had a response tonight after what happened at the weekend (against Birmingham) and we did it in a professional way," Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said.
Chamakh netted his 12th goal of the season - and first since the end of November - when he slipped home a neat finish in the seventh minute following a surging run from Tomas Rosicky, who went off with a concussion in the second half after catching an elbow to the head.
Wenger said the veteran Czech midfielder was not seriously hurt, meaning he shouldn't join a lengthy Arsenal injury list that already includes Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie, Theo Walcott, Thomas Vermaelen and Lukasz Fabianski.
Bendtner opened his account for the night by looping a header into the corner from left back Kieran Gibbs' cross in the 30th and made it 3-0 by curling in a low finish from 20 yards in the 43rd.
The Denmark striker, playing out on the right wing, completed the second hat trick of his Gunners career from the penalty spot, converting low to his left after Gibbs was fouled by Alex Revell.
Clichy, on as a substitute for Gibbs, drilled in the fifth goal to wrap up victory in the 75th.
The quarterfinal against United at Old Trafford will pit the top two teams in the Premier League together and will come at a crunch time in the season, with both sides involved in Europe and with designs on three trophies.
"It's difficult to say how we will approach the game," Wenger said. "For us it will come after the game against Barcelona (in the second leg of the last 16), for them it's before their Champions League match (against Marseille)."
With City facing lower-league opposition in the last eight, the FA Cup may be the team's best opportunity to win a first piece of major silverware since a League Cup success in 1976.
"We knew before the game we have a great chance in the FA Cup to go back to Wembley after a long time," City defender Pablo Zabaleta said. "We have great quality in the team. We have players that can score at any time and that is very important in a long season."
The northwest team was helped by Villa making eight changes to the side that was in starting action in the Premier League at the weekend.
Toure pounced quickest when Patrick Vieira's header hit the shoulder of Ciaran Clark and popped up invitingly for the Ivory Coast midfielder to ram home from six yards in the fifth.
Toure turned provider in the 25th, passing to Balotelli who produced a superb finish with the inside of his right foot from 15 yards for his 10th goal in 18 games since his summer move from Inter Milan.
Silva, back in City's side after missing the league draw at home to Fulham because of injury, completed the win by shooting a low, left-footed drive past Villa goalkeeper Brad Friedel.
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