Arsenal 1 - 1 Sheffield United

10 man Arsenal forced into replay by last second penalty

With one eye turned towards Munich, Arsene Wenger fielded a relatively weakened side for today’s fifth round FA Cup clash with Sheffield United.

In an effort to put the best foot forward in the Champions League against Bayern Munich on Tuesday night, Wenger opted to rest Thierry Henry, and Patrick Vieira, while Robert Pires started on the bench. Sol Campbell is still out through injury, and Ashley Cole has the flu.

So, Dennis Bergkamp and Freddie Ljungberg led the Arsenal charge, but the plan seemed to backfire when the Dutch Master was controversially sent off after getting into a heated arguement with a United player for a late tackle on Cesc Fabregas.

Despite the man advantage, the Blades didn’t really threaten in the second half, and in the 70th minute, substitute Robert Pires seemed to have booked the Gunners’ place in the quarter-finals when he bundled in a rebound of Mathieu Flamini’s shot.

The football gods must really want a replay, as with only 20 seconds left to play, Phillipe Senderos was called for a handball in the box after a shot deflected off of his arm. Sheffield United were awarded the penalty, and the ticket machines started printing out the billets for next Tuesday’s replay.