When Mikel Arteta stepped up to take a penalty midway through the second half, Arsenal’s season was one slip away from disaster.
Blown away by Bayern Munich, out-fought at Stoke and having surrendered the initiative to Everton in this FA Cup quarter-final, the grim prospect of a ninth straight season without a trophy was looming large.
So,
, the release of pressure almost blew the roof of the Emirates.
And, naturally, this being Arsenal, referee Mark Clattenburg spotted that Olivier Giroud had trespassed into the penalty area and Arteta was ordered to retake it.
Against his former club.
His head surely scrambled by having out-foxed the keeper once. With Arsenal’s season on the line.
This time, Arteta went the other way – placing his spot-kick high to the keeper’s left.
Talk about “cojones”, as they call it in the Spaniard’s homeland.
Should Arsenal go on to win the FA Cup, which would be their first trophy since moving to the Emirates, Arteta’s likeness
Arsenal have yet to win a match at the new Wembley – played two, lost two against Birmingham in the League Cup and Chelsea in an FA Cup semi.
With the Premier League and Champions League surely gone, they need to do so twice if they are to end their long wait for silverware – and probably one of them will be against Manchester City.
But the Gunners will now make the short trip to Wembley with genuine hope.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain won the decisive penalty, inviting a trip from Gareth Barry, during a bravura performance.
Mesut Ozil was revitalised after two matches out of the starting line-up, scoring the opener and increasing his workrate significantly.
Giroud, forgiven for at least one trespass, made the scoreline very flattering with two late strikes.
But Arteta’s iron nerve was key because, whatever the final scoreline, Everton were right in this match until three-quarters of the way through.
But Roberto Martinez’s grip on the FA Cup is finally loosened after last season’s triumph with Wigan. His first season at Goodison Park has been hugely promising, but ultimately fruitless, with any real chance of a top-four place already gone.
He complained about the crucial penalty award, but he was clutching at straws.
Arsenal had begun with a pack-of-dogs attitude.
After just seven minutes, Santi Cazorla beat James McCarthy, advanced and slipped a pass to Ozil, who tucked it into the corner.
Ozil was seen winning a tackle back on his own goal-line soon after.
There was little doubt the club-record signing needed and benefited from his spell out of the firing line.
: “It was important for him and the way he took his chance. You want him sometimes to take more chances because he looks always for the good pass. So, I hope that will encourage him.
“What I like is that, physically he looked regenerated, having more power in his runs.
“And, as well, what I liked, he did a lot of dirty work for a player like him.”
But Everton were level on 33 minutes as Ross Barkley sprinted past Mathieu Flamini – unwilling to commit himself after an early booking – and centred.
Kevin Mirallas miscued, but Romelu Lukaku coolly tapped in from close range.
Oxlade-Chamberlain was instantly denied by Joel Robles, but Everton’s confidence was growing and Mirallas shot straight at Lucasz Fabianksi when he might have done better. Mirallas also squandered a good chance before the break and Barkley missed an even better one.
A miskick from Thomas Vermaelen let in Lukaku, who laid back for the England kid to blaze over.
Oxlade-Chamberlain had done Barry for pace before he was tripped – Clattenburg correctly pointing to the spot to set up Arteta’s crucial test of nerve.
Then Giroud applied salt to Evertonian wounds by tapping home from a Bacary Sagna cut-back and finishing off a sweeping move for his second.
So Arsenal are on their way to Wembley – yet they will all need plenty of Arteta ice in their veins.
“We needed to win today on the psychological front,” said Wenger.
“Let’s see who we have to play and do it again.”