Brendan Rodgers: "The best team lost"

Brendan Rodgers believes that his Liverpool side deserved at least a replay against Arsenal after watching them suffer a 2-1 defeat in the fifth round of the FA Cup at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.

The Gunners successfully banished the memories of last weekend's 5-1 loss at Anfield, with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain opening the scoring before Lukas Podolski added a second soon after the restart.

Rodgers's men pulled one back through a Steven Gerrard penalty, but the Londoners held on to move into the quarter-finals of the competition.

He told BT Sport: "I thought the best team lost. I thought the very least we deserved was a replay.

"We probably should have been 2-0 up inside those first six or seven minutes. Going forward we were outstanding.

"I'm disappointed with the goals, the first one in particular was just a long ball into the box."

Consequently, the Merseyside outfit missed the chance to face Everton in a local derby in the next round of the FA Cup.