Swansea and Arsenal battle to 2-2 FA Cup draw

LONDON: Swansea City and Arsenal faced an FA Cup third round replay after a lightning strike from Michu and a dramatic three-goal flurry in the final 10 minutes ended with a 2-2 draw at the Liberty stadium on Sunday.

Swansea’s big Spaniard made an instant impact in the 58th minute when he netted 73 seconds after he came off the bench to chants of “he scores when he wants to” from a spirited Welsh crowd.

Arsenal, without any silverware since 2005 and determined not to let their best remaining chance of the season slip through their fingers, equalised through substitute Lukas Podolski in the 81st.

Kieran Gibbs then sent the visitors 2-1 up with a volley two minutes later.

The Arsenal fans’ relief was short-lived with Danny Graham grabbing an equaliser from close range in the 87th in a frenetic final few minutes during which either side could have produced a winner.

Arsenal’s Theo Walcott had the ball in the net, but was ruled offside, while team mate Laurent Koscielny fired over the bar on the rebound from a Michel Vorm save.

The winners of the replay at the Emirates will face Championship (second tier) giant killers Brighton and Hove Albion.

Earlier, on Saturday Chelsea striker Demba Ba struck twice on his debut as the FA Cup holders enjoyed a 5-1 drubbing of Southampton in the third round and Robin van Persie’s majestic last-gasp equaliser salvaged a 2-2 draw for Manchester United at West Ham.

Senegal international Ba, signed from Newcastle United on Friday, scored the London side’s equaliser and their fourth before Frank Lampard’s late penalty took the midfielder to joint second on Chelsea’s all-time scoring list with 193 goals.

United, 11-times FA Cup winners but not since 2004, were staring at a 2-1 defeat at Upton Park after Joe Cole marked his return to east London by setting up two carbon-copy headers for James Collins after Tom Cleverley put United ahead.

“You never rule out fighting back with our team but certainly at 2-1 down with a couple of minutes to go you hope you get a break,” United manager Alex Ferguson said.

“The manner of the goal, with Ryan Giggs’s ball and Robin van Persie’s finish, was world class.”

Cardiff City, runaway leaders atop the Championship, were the biggest victims, losing 2-1 at minor league Macclesfield Town, while former FA Cup runners-up Luton Town, now outside the Football League, beat visiting Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0.

Fulham were held 1-1 at home by second division Blackpool, Wigan Athletic needed a late equaliser in a 1-1 draw with third tier Bournemouth, and Sunderland recovered for a 2-2 score lineat Bolton Wanderers, who lost their top-flight status last season.

Premier League Reading had to come from a goal down after one minute to beat third tier Crawley Town 3-1 away.

South coast seventh-tier minnows Hastings United, the lowliest survivors of the 758 clubs who began the 132nd edition of the world’s oldest knockout cup competition in August, had their fairytale cut short in a 4-1 defeat at Middlesbrough.

Chelsea, bidding for a fifth FA Cup triumph in seven seasons, continued their unbeaten sequence in the FA Cup third round, which now stretches back to 1999, while their last defeat in the competition — other than in a penalty shootout against Everton in 2011 — was five years ago against Barnsley.

Tottenham Hotspur’s fine form continued with Clint Dempsey scoring twice in a comfortable 3-0 home win over third tier Coventry City, the side they lost to in the 1987 FA Cup final.

While hardly in the same league as some of the great FA Cup shocks, Macclesfield took the prize for the day’s biggest upset, bridging a gap of 82 rungs on the English football ladder to stun Cardiff with Matthew Barnes-Homer’s late double.

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