Our young guns do us proud although Chelsea come from behind to win the Carling Cup.
Well, it was always a win-win situation for every arsenal supporter as far as I am concerned. The Carling Cup has always used to groom our young players, but this year, reaching the final, taking out several first team premiership clubs along the way is a clear signal of success.
The match got of to an absolutely brilliant start and Chelsea looked surprised at just how fast we got out of the traps. Then after 12 minutes we all got to see what we had been waiting for - Theo Walcott gave us the lead after slipping past Ricardo Carvalho and netting his first goal. What a time to step up to the plate. Now he has that off of his chest (and with his celebrations – it clearly was a moment he will always rejoice) we should see a much more confident player. Let’s remember all the pressure that was piled onto him – signing for Arsenal, being an England youth team player and even being taken to the World Cup for the first team – all at the age of 17, its no wonder pressure was stumping his performances – but now having scored against Chelsea in a Cup final… we wait with baited breath. I get the feeling he is on the verge of making a mammoth impact – soon.
Our midfield shone as bright as ever with Fabregas and Denilson dominating the play against all of Chelsea's expensive line-up and we continued to control the play. However, after 20 minutes our back line pushed up to make Drogba’s run offside from the overhead pass, but the linesman failed to flag and he ran on to slip the ball under Almunia (who really should have done better). This was the first signal that the Ref was going to play a major part in the outcome, but he really did turn out to be a complete idiot.
After we lost our lead unjustly, the brilliant young guns still went on to finish the half without any loss of nerve and no change in attitude, continuing to produce some wonderful football and some good chances to regain the lead with Baptista, Diaby, Fabregas and Aliadiere all coming close, but not finishing.
Midway through the second-half John Terry took a full on boot in the face from Diaby as he went in for a header and was knocked completely spark out. Obviously all the Chelsea and Arsenal players united to call on for help and the Arsenal and Chelsea medical teams rushed on to help - together.
In the 84th minute Drogba headed past Almunia and gave them the lead, and four minutes later the brewing frustrations boiled over and Mikel clashed with Toure and several players all had a little tussle, so where was the ref while this was happening… standing back watching, looking stupid.
Even Arsene and Jose came on to try and defuse the situation, but somehow the press claim both should be disciplined… eh, did I miss something? After it was all over Howard Webb pulls out red cards for both Mikel and Toure, when a yellow would have been sufficient. Really if he wanted the red cards to have an effect – why on earth didn’t he pull them out right away? Next he gave yellows to Fabregas and Lampard, and for some unknown reason a red to Adebayor. All the way through the match he was stupidly giving Chelsea players one more chance rather than making bookings and all of a sudden 3 reds come out?
Everyone is always so quick to point out that there is no passion involved in the Carling Cup, but when there is the players, the managers and pretty much everyone besides the ref should be punished – ridiculous. The whole match was played (to be fair by both us and Chelsea) with the perfect attitude of wanting to win and maintaining a respect for the opponent. This was even reflected by both Arsene and Jose.
So, where does this leave us? Of course we would have wanted to guarantee a piece of silverware by lifting the carling cup, but we are still very much in the FA cup and the Champions League and the experience gained from all our young guns – may well prove to further strengthen our set of foundations for the future. For a team whose average age was 21 taking on an all out Chelsea and really outplaying them for much of the match – lets be proud, if disappointed in defeat.
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