JOIN USArsenal sent Liverpool crashing out of the FA Cup, avenging last weekend's rout at Anfield, when they beat Brendan Rodgers's high-flyers 2-1 in a full-bloodied fifth round tie at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
The Londoners, who lost 5-1 to Liverpool in the Premier League on Feb 8, won with a 16th-minute goal from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and a 47th-minute strike from Lukas Podolski before Steven Gerrard halved the arrears with a penalty on the hour.
Arsenal meet Everton in next month's quarterfinals after they beat Swansea City 3-1 at Goodison Park where Roberto Martinez stayed on course to become the first manager to win the FA Cup in successive seasons with different teams.
He led Wigan Athletic to victory over Manchester City in last season's final and those two sides will face each other again in the last eight after the draw was made on Sunday.
On Saturday, Manchester City beat league leaders Chelsea 2-0 while Wigan won 2-1 at Cardiff City.
Although Arsenal's victory meant there would be no all-Merseyside clash in the quarterfinals, there could be another derby after League One Sheffield United ended the 16-match unbeaten run of Championship side Nottingham Forest with a 3-1 win at Bramall Lane.
United will face Sheffield Wednesday in the competition for the first time since they met in the 1993 semifinals if the latter eventually beat Charlton Athletic in a tie that was postponed on Saturday because of bad weather.
The other last-eight clash is between Sunderland, who ousted Southampton 1-0 on Saturday, and Brighton and Hove Albion or Hull City who meet on Monday.
The quarterfinals will be played on the weekend of March 8/9.
City triumphs
In the blockbuster late game on Saturday, Manuel Pellegrini’s Manchester City managed to exact revenge against Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea.
Stevan Jovetic and Samir Nasri scored either side of halftime for City as Pellegrini finally fell upon a winning formula to get one over his managerial rival having lost both Premier League fixtures this season.
“We wanted revenge today,” City captain Vincent Kompany told ITV sport.
“From the word go we were hard in the challenges and we did not give them anything. It is a good victory from us.”
The result completed a difficult week for Mourinho, whose side drew with West Bromwich Albion in the league on Tuesday, and returned City to winning ways after their defeat by Chelsea 12 days ago was followed by a draw with Norwich City.
The Cup was an opportunity for City and Chelsea to enjoy a break from what is becoming an increasingly fraught title race. Yet the encounter had a pinch of added spice after Mourinho had spent the buildup throwing verbal hand-grenades at all his managerial rivals.
Chelsea’s success at the Etihad Stadium 12 days previously was hailed as a piece of inspired tactical manoeuvring from their Portuguese coach and laid down the gauntlet to Pellegrini to come up with a response.
And they did.