Coral relive three classic Arsenal v Reading clashes in 2012/13

Championship club Reading (12/1 to win in 90 minutes with Coral) face FA Cup holders Arsenal (2/9 odds-on favourites) in the semi-finals at Wembley on Saturday teatime, in an occasion that is expected to produce goals galore.

Ahead of the clash, Coral writers go back a few years to the 2012/13 season where these two teams met three times.

We relive the action, where those encounters produced an incredible 24 goals (average of eight per game). You can take terrific odds of 8/1 for the match total to be over 5.5.

Reading 5-7 Arsenal: Capital One Cup (October 30th 2012)
Perhaps one of the greatest game in League Cup, and even footballing, history. Less-fancied Reading shocked the Gunners in this last 16 clash, as they took a 4-0 lead after just 37 minutes.

However, Theo Walcott got a crucial goal just on the stoke of half time to give his side some hope. The Gunners brought it back to 4-2 thanks to Olivier Giroud’s effort (the Frenchman is odds-on at 8/11 to net anytime again), and their remarkable comeback was compete with two very late goals from Laurent Koscienly and Walcott again.

Reading’s confidence were clearly dented as they went into extra time, especially as Marouane Chamakh made it 5-4, but Pavel Pogrebnyak gave them a moment of hope it the 116th minute by heading home.

But Walcott (7/1 to score two or more) capped off a magical individual display by hitting his hat-trick and effectively winning the game after the 120 minutes were up. Chamakh soon after fired in to bag a brace to take the match goal total to 12.

Arsene Wenger’s men are fantastic 7/1 shouts to win in extra time again.

Reading 2-5 Arsenal: Premier League (December 17th 2012)
Less than two months later, Arsenal travelled to the Madejski Stadium again and this time were the team to lead 4-0, with Santi Cazorla (11/4 to net anytime) being the hat-trick hero on this occasion.

However, much like the Gunners in the League Cup, the Royals threatened to make a comeback of their own, as Adam Le Fondre and Jimmy Kebe scored five minutes apart. But Walcott again came to the rescue and ensured that the hosts’ scoring would stop there.

Arsenal 4-1 Reading: Premier League (March 30th 2013)
Surely not another high scoring game between these two teams? Yup, last and probably the least interesting of the three thrillers that season, this match produced a measly five goals.

Reading had seemingly given up on trying to compete with Arsenal at this stage late in March, and this loss sent them to the bottom of the Premier League. Cazorla and Giroud were amongst the goals again, although Hal Robson-Kanu produced a brief moment of discomfort for the hosts as his took to score to 3-1 at one point.

Welsh winger Robson-Kanu has netted three times this season in the FA Cup, and is 5/1 to grab another goal at Wembley.