Sunday 27 February 2011

Cup final suicide

I will try to write an objective report having seen us hand Birmingham the game in the final few minutes of normal time, but it's going to be hard given the circumstances. Arsene got it badly wrong today, Rosicky's inclusion in the midfield left us looking lightweight in that region, this resulted in Birmingham have a long period of pressure in the first half where they could well have got a second goal. Theo's absence was massive, whenever he is absent we badly miss the right sided width he provides and this again showed today.

The first half was poor. When Bowyer was incorrectly flagged offside we got lucky, the reason Birmingham came into the game was the fact that were outnumbered in the midfield battle on two many occasions, the Birmingham corner that led to their first goal came when Sagna gave the ball away casually in a dangerous area. Having said that Zigic was given too much space for his header and our defenders did not attack the second ball well enough. Szczesny was then forced into a great block from Zigic when clean through. We did then have a good spell before half time, RVP's fantastic volley was special, we didn't really want half time to come.

Other than a slightly fortunate chance when the ball broke kindly for Birmingham and they hit the post, the second half was one way traffic, we pounded them as the half wore on. Really we should have taken one of the chances that came our way, Nasri blasted a couple at Foster from good positions, Foster made some decent blocks, but we didn't really force the Birmingham keeper into any top notch saves, most of our shots were straight at him.

Birmingham were distinctly second best in the second half but they got the goal and that is what counts. Koscielny must take the blame, his delay in clearing and his mishit clearance left Martins with a tap in, it was truly agonising stuff, it came at a time in the game when we were creating chance after chance, Birmingham looked dead, yet this suicidal piece of defending gifted them a win that they so scarcely deserved.

Birmingham did well given their limited resources and lack of talent, but I feel Arsene played into their hands with his team selection, part of the problem is our lack of some decent all round midfielders in the squad, a fully fit Ramsey would have been perfect alongside Song and Wilshere, also our lack of absolute pace in the squad is obvious without Theo fit. The way Birmingham play is not attractive and it crosses lines at times, but they were always going to turn the game into a scrap and we should have been more ready for this than we were. Well done Birmingham, we may have shot ourselves in the head, but you took advantage and made us pay for our lack of tactical awareness and sloppy defending.

25 comments:

Rhinogooner said...

Too sour to make any remarks right now. But I have several thoughts I'll sit on for now.

Just gutted and want to crawl in a dark hole and sleep off this disappointment.

I hope the team can pick themselves up and not let this affect them. I fear this could be a catalyst to a huge slide that sees us drop out of the remaining challenges.

Well done to the Brum. I don't really care for them, but you cannot begrudge the way the played today. They deserved it in my opinion. We just didn't take the occasion seriously enough.

Anonymous said...

Specially sweet that a side who play rugby out-played you in the first half and fully deserved their win.

An how desperate were you to win the mickey mouse competition and still couldn't manage it.

Born losers.

ausernal said...

I really like Rosicky as a player but I just dont think he adds that much to the setup of Song/JW. Nasri with Bend out wide would have worked a lot better IMO. Shit loss, kind of illustrates how much cesc makes us tick.

Anonymous said...

I think Arsene didn't have much choice in terms of selecting rosicky. Also Rosicky played very well the second half and I couldn't fault him. I agree we're lacking pace in the team without Theo. But, congratulaitons to Birmingham they played really well.

ausernal said...

Anon at 18:26...
Well our team went the season unbeaten which would actually indicate they were born winners.

Every team loses mate, we're still fighting on 3 other fronts. Notice how you got to post as an anon because your team (probably the spuds) can't win anything

gunner cian said...

world class forwards,and midfield,,,,,championship defence..i ask u mr wenger why can u not see what everyone else can see,were shite at the back..dont want to hear im proud of all my players SHITE PURE SHITE...

Anonymous said...

I won't go as far as "Wenger out", i'm sure there will be plenty of them anyway BUT he needs to change the way he manages the club, specifically his transfer policy. If he refuses to change then I'm sorry but he must go.

Anonymous said...

Don't feed the trolls.

Anyway, I felt Birmingham fully deserved the win today. They should have been 2-0 up within 10 minutes.

I don't really care though because the Carling Cup is the welfare cup, pointless other than for smaller teams. We're too good for it.

Anonymous said...

"Well our team went the season unbeaten which would actually indicate they were born winners."

Err the team must be pretty old if you are referring to that side?

I think losing in a mickey mouse final against a mickey mouse team is indication that you're lot are mugs.

I am a UTD fan BTW. Can't wait for your reply. MUG.

Anonymous said...

"We're too good for it"

Funny, you weren't saying that all season. Deluded wank stain.

Anonymous said...

in Arsene we Rust

Anonymous said...

"I don't really care though because the Carling Cup is the welfare cup, pointless other than for smaller teams. We're too good for it. "


no your not , your just piss poor losers

1979gooner said...

Indeed, ignore the trolls, retarded cretins they are.

He should have played nasri in midfield and bendtner up top.

Don't think a side with nasri/arsh/rosicky can have right balance.

gazzaman said...

It could be another 5/6 years without a trophy unless the CB position is not addressed. CB's responsible for both goals today. I cannot recall any team winning anything in top competition with CB players so frequently error prone. Djorou and Kosc are good squad players not first 11. Wenger is a top manager but he needs to begin to splash the cash on proven players now as he has the nucleus of a great team. The top players he has, will otherwise desert to "winning" teams and who could blame them for that on a personal level.

Anonymous said...

At the end of the day, the boss takes the blame. Had good chances to bring top players, especially in defence. You get what you pay for - inexperienced kocielny and old squilaci are wenger's transfer market cheap-sale pride. Found wanting again. For goodness saek, you are dealing with physical teams in epl, not spanish teams.

Anonymous said...

Is wenger seriously interested in winning anything at all?

chiri. said...

after having this game .......i will fast and pray every day till 2wks elapses.i hv nothn 2say

Unknown said...

This loss is on Wenger, period, for not going with the formula that beat BHAM twice already. Rosicky in Cesc's position was sheer madness, Wenger trying to prove that even using a totally new formation he could beat BHAM. It's on him, period. Nasri should have been at attacking CM

Uncle Mike said...

The Dirty Brummies did NOT deserve the win, but neither did we. Without Cesc, we have no killer instinct. In a game like this, you have to score like they vote in Chicago: Early and often.

Credit to ONE Brummie, Ben Foster, who had the game of many men's lives in goal. If he hadn't singlehandedly (literally in some cases) kept them in the game, this could have been 5-1 Arsenal.

But it seemed like every time he made a save, Arsenal were like, "Oh well, no use trying again." Come on! YOU TRY AGAIN! And you keep slamming the ball at the bastards until the damn thing goes in! We didn't. We stunk today, and as a result one of the crummiest teams in England got a trophy.

Anonymous said...

As soon as I saw the team sheet I knew Arsenal would lose. Massive mistake playing Roshitty - he is a light weight that hasn't scored in the league for over a year. No longer up to it - Wenger has to move him on. Nasri should have played through the middle with our Danish Donkey on the right side of midfield.

Schoolboy error for the goal.....again. When is Wenger going to sign a leader that the team is screaming out for.

Ted said...

Anon 00.52 - unless you must clean out the bookies every week with that sort of foresight. Or you talk balls.

Its been a while since my last comment but I have been reading almost everyday, so hello to all.

With the benefit of hindsight, its pretty clear that AW that some better aeriel power would have helped, so maybe we would have won if Nikki B and/or Chamakh started.

Or maybe it would have made no difference whatsoever. Just ask Leyton Orient....

However, what worries me is that on my count, Arsenal have now made it to 9 major cup finals under Wenger (5 FA Cup, 1 Champs, 1 UEFA, 2 Carling) but have only won lifted four trophies.

Whatever the reason, we clearly have a good team (9 cup finals) but it seems that with a hit-rate of less than 50% in finals, we just seem to bottle the really big occassions. Or we are just not lucky enough.....

ben said...

Ted,

about 50% ain't that bad is it?

to be fair to myself! - i had said before the game that i would have slotted nasri in the midfield

strange as it is to say, even diaby would have been useful in the midfield, a bit of tackling, some aerial power

Anonymous said...

Ted,

about 50% ain't that bad is it?

to be fair to myself! - i had said before the game that i would have slotted nasri in the midfield

strange as it is to say, even diaby would have been useful in the midfield, a bit of tackling, some aerial power

Ted said...

I stand to be corrected but I think 44% is not a good record in cup finals. I have a feeling that Fergie has only lost two finals - an FA cup to chelsea and the champs league to Barca. His record must be more like 80%.

I agree its not woeful, but its not like we are nails hard in cup finals. In fact, we have had some shockers under AW - Copenhagen in 99, Scousers in 01, Birmingham in 11. Manure in 05 is probably our only lucky result!

TheArsenalCannon said...

Hmm, I find it quite funny actually how a Manchester United fan can start gloating that we lost the cup final, yet doesn't mention the fact that they lost 4-0to West Ham in the same competition? Hmm funny.