On cup final day, the result is more important than the performance. Tottenham Hotspur provided both as they deservedly won their first trophy this century after outplaying CSKA Fulham at Wembley today. While the game wasn’t the most exciting as a spectacle (when are cup finals ever?), a heroic Spurs fightback saw them peg back the holders after going 1-0 down to a Didier Drogba free-kick in the first half. CSKA have not had their full compliment of players for some time. Today saw the return of ‘Fwank’ Lampard (Lumpo’lard?) and John Terry. Add that to the fact the club’s African contingent were all back gave Avram Grant with one of those selection headaches that managers up and down the country would love. The CSKA bench consisted of Joe Cole, Michael Ballack and Alex. The term
On Sunday, the Carling cup final was played at Cardiff’s Millenium stadium. Contested between Arsenal and Chelsea, to say it was a hard forught and exciting match is somewhat of an understatement.
The game started genially enough with both sides playing their normal attractive foortball. In the 16th minute, 17 year old Theo Walcott gave Arsenal the lead by ghosting around Ricardo Carvalho and deftly slotting the ball home. Arsenal’s advantage only lasted 6 minutes though before Chelsea’s on form Didier Drogba snatched a goal after being given the benefit of the doubt and judged onside. To me it did look like offside, with only a defender Manuel Almunia’s leg possibly saving the goal from being disallowed. Until half time, Arsenal looked the better side, with their inexperienced young team asking questions of Chelsea’s expensive all star cast.
In the second half, the game levelled out into a midfield tussle, with few chances at either end. Then the scary
On Sunday, the Carling cup final was played at Cardiff’s Millenium stadium. Contested between Arsenal and Chelsea, to say it was a hard forught and exciting match is somewhat of an understatement.
The game started genially enough with both sides playing their normal attractive foortball. In the 16th minute, 17 year old Theo Walcott gave Arsenal the lead by ghosting around Ricardo Carvalho and deftly slotting the ball home. Arsenal’s advantage only lasted 6 minutes though before Chelsea’s on form Didier Drogba snatched a goal after being given the benefit of the doubt and judged onside. To me it did look like offside, with only a defender Manuel Almunia’s leg possibly saving the goal from being disallowed. Until half time, Arsenal looked the better side, with their inexperienced young team asking questions of Chelsea’s expensive all star cast.
In the second half, the game levelled out into a midfield tussle, with few chances at either end. Then the scary
Chelsea snatches the Cup from Arsenal! Didier Drogba grabbed both goals as Chelsea came from behind to win a Carling Cup final that ended in ugly scenes at the Millennium Stadium.
Theo Walcott was...
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Final result: Arsenal 1-2 Chelsea
56th minute: John Terry unconscious!
96th minute: Red cards for:
Obi
Toure, Adebayor
97th minute: Yellow cards for:
Fabregas
Lampard
Goals:
Arsenal: Theo Walcott,...
This is the summary only, please visit my website to check all my videos.
A very disappointing result on Tuesday night. Many neutrals (and Arsenal fans) saw this as a straight-forward route for Arsenal to place themselves into the Quarter Finals of the Champions League and I was one of them. Unfortunately Mr. Koeman had other ideas and, like the Ajax performances under himself, PSV put in a resolute, defensive display and hit us with a sucker punch with a very good goal. Some of the critics on the many Arsenal blogs that are now present on the web have gone a bit over the top slating the team, however – lets get some perspective here, although our second half performance was very sloppy indeed, all is not lost.
Yes, many passes in the second half went astray, yes, we looked a bit toothless up front in the second half and yes it wasn’t a vintage Arsenal performance. But can we truly play that badly again in the second leg? I doubt it. In fact, what this result does do is turn the tie on its head. Arsenal will now have to come racing out of the b
