Arsenal dumped out of FA Cup LONDON — Arsenal's miserable week got worse Saturday when it was knocked out of the FA Cup in a 2-0 fifth round defeat at Sunderland while beleaguered Chelsea fared only slightly better by scraping a 1-1 draw against second tier Birmingham City. Three days after a 4-0 Champions League defeat at AC Milan that manager Arsene Wenger branded its “worst performance in Europe”, Arsenal's sloppiness was back as Kieran Richardson's strike and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain's own goal sealed their fate. Sunderland was joined in the quarterfinals by Everton and Bolton Wanderers who recorded 2-0 wins over Championship (second division) Blackpool and Millwall respectively, while Norwich City was upset 2-1 at home by second tier Leicester City. Chelsea needed Daniel Sturridge's equalizer to force a replay with Birmingham after a draw at Stamford Bridge that did nothing to alleviate the pressure on manager Andre Villas-Boas. While Chelsea at least stayed in the competition, London rivals Arsenal seem certain to finish without a trophy for the seventh year in a row as its last realistic chance of silverware this season turned to dust against hard-working Sunderland. Dortmund prevails Borussia Dortmund earned a 1-0 win at struggling Hertha Berlin Saturday to open a three-point lead at the top of the German league as Bayern Munich was held to a goalless draw at bottom-side Freiburg. Bayern, which slipped to third in the table, was out-played by Freiburg in the first 45 minutes and although it improved when Dutch winger Arjen Robben came on after the break, the Bavarian giants could not break down the home defense. The draw leaves the bottom three teams – Kaiserslautern, Augsburg and Freibury – all on 18 points while Bayern lag four points behind Dortmund. Borussia Moenchengladbach took its chance to take second place from Bayern after a 2-1 win at Kaiserslautern. Werder Bremen won 3-1 at Hamburg. Bayer Leverkusen bounced back to stay sixth with a 4-1 win over Augsburg. Nuremberg pulled itself up to 12th and out of the relegation mire with a 2-1 win at home to Cologne. Ibrahimovic urges Van Persie to quit Arsenal AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic Saturday urged Arsenal captain Robin van Persie to jump ship if he wants to win anything. Van Persie's side was thrashed 4-0 by Ibrahimovic's Milan in the San Siro Wednesday, to effectively end the London club's Champions League hopes. The Dutch international has almost single-handedly kept Arsenal afloat this season and Ibrahimovic warned that if he wants to win anything, he needs to leave London, just as Barcelona's Cesc Fabregas did last summer. “When you don't win anything for years, people understand why you leave like Cesc Fabregas,” the Swede told The Sun. “Football is all about winning. If you don't win you want to go. I don't know Robin personally but I remember him from Holland and what a talent he was - now he is complete. “I don't know what he is thinking.”
