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Arsenal's cup nightmare continues with defeat to United

Wayne Rooney scored Manchester United's second goal to sink Arsenal © PA Photos

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Arsenal's hopes of silverware slipped further from their grasp as they lost their FA Cup quarter-final 2-0 at the hands of title rivals Manchester United.

The Gunners have now exited from all three cup competitions in the space of a fortnight, following their Carling Cup final defeat to Birmingham two weeks ago, and their embarrassing loss to Barcelona in the Champions League in midweek.

Sir Alex Ferguson named seven defenders in his starting XI, but United were far from content to sit back and defend and after an entertaining start, the home side took the lead through Fabio da Silva.

The Brazilian picked up the ball after he was released by twin brother Rafael, laid the ball off to Wayne Rooney. The striker's cross found Javier Hernandez, and Manuel Almunia did well to save the Mexican's header, but Fabio was on hand to tap home from close range.

Arsenal started the second half with intent, and a well worked move saw Laurent Koscielny force goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar into a save. But despite their bright start, the Gunners soon found themselves two goals down after Rooney nodded the ball in from an acute angle after Hernandez's initial shot was blocked.

Arsenal continued to search for a way back in, with midfielder Denilson making way for striker Marouane Chamakh, who saw a header creep over the bar.

Van Persie had Arsenal's best chance, with a supreme curled effort that had Van der Sar well beaten, but the Gunners could not break through as Samir Nasri's instinctive volley bounced dangerously up off the turf, but was easily held by the United keeper.

Wenger played all his cards, throwing on Aaron Ramsey and Tomas Rosicky for Abou Diaby and Andrei Arshavin, but they were unable to find a way back into the match. After failing to record a single shot on goal in their defeat to Barcelona at the Nou Camp, Arsenal had 18 attempts on goal, but they lacked the killer instinct.

Almunia kept the Gunners' hopes alive with ten minutes remaining, showing impressive athleticism to palm the ball away, but Johan Djourou was injured in the process and the Gunners were forced to play out the match with ten men after the Swiss defender was stretchered off with a dislocated shoulder.

Late on, Rosicky squandered a simple chance in front of goal as he swung wastefully at Bacary Sagna's ball across the six-yard box and missed the ball completely. And with seconds remaining, substitute Paul Scholes was lucky to avoid a red card after a lunge on Nasri, moments after being booked for a poor challenge on Chamakh.

Chung-Young Lee got on the end of Kevin Davies' knock-back to win the tie for Bolton © PA Photos

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A last-minute header from Chung-Yong Lee handed Bolton Wanderers a 3-2 win over Birmingham City at St Andrew's - and a place in the FA Cup semi-final.

Bolton had twice thrown leads away, with Cameron Jerome and Kevin Phillips cancelling out strikes from Johan Elmander and Kevin Davies, before Lee had his decisive say.

Although the first half was fiercely contested, the football wasn't particularly easy on the eye, with both sides favouring direct passing from the back. Elmander gave Bolton the lead on 22 minutes with a drive from 18 yards - his first goal in ten games - after Ivan Klasnic flicked a long ball into his path, before Jerome pounced on a David Wheater error to drill the ball past Jussi Jaaskelainen as half-time loomed. The equaliser arrived at the end of a difficult spell for Birmingham, with Martin Jiranek and Barry Ferguson forced to depart due to injury.

Buoyed by Jerome's strike, Birmingham began the second period in the ascendancy - and saw a decent penalty shout turned down when Jerome tumbled in the area under a challenge from Jaaskelainen. Phil Dowd did award a spot-kick on 65 minutes, however, when Curtis Davies was penalised for a clumsy challenge on Davies, who picked himself up to restore Wanderers' lead.

Elmander spurned a chance to make the game safe for Wanderers, firing straight at Ben Foster when clean through, and he was made to pay for his wastefulness when Phillips conjured an exquisite lob from 20 yards after pouncing on Nathan Redmond's flick on 80 minutes. But there was to be a sting in the tail for the home side, with Davies supplying Lee, who made no mistake from close range.

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