Annoying Yes, Important? No…

Tottenham Hotspur (5) – (1) Arsenal
(Tottenham win 6-2 on aggregate)
Adebayor (70′)
White Hart Lane, London

Well what can you say about that game?

Spurs were always going to be up for this, especially when you consider they haven’t defeated us in 23,421 games*

They fielded their stongest side, and it was going to be an even bigger ask for the kids with captain Ledley King back as well.

It’s a strange feeling getting battered and conceding five, even more so when it’s usually us handing out the drubbings – but if you look at the goals then you would have to say Arsenal shot themselves in the foot.

The first goal after only 3 minutes was disappointing because Jenas was under no pressure while he ran towards goal and took his shot. Justin Hoyte was a bit slow to react to the situation and let the Tottenham midfielder have a free pop at goal.

Then the second was an own goal by Nicklas Bendtner.

Credit to Jenas it was a decent delivery, but Nic was caught cold and his header could have gone anywhere. Then the third goal we conceded was straight after half time, this time scored by Robbie Keane. Fabianski really should have done better with the shot, which was pretty much straight at him and wasn’t travelling with much pace.

While Arsene said after the match that the third goal pretty much signalled the end of the game as a contest, I personally thought Arsenal could still get back into this with an instant reply.

And only minutes later Walcott crossed for Bendtner whose effort hit the underside of the bar.

This was not Arsenal’s day!

With the 50th minute approaching, I thought to myself Arsenal could still get 3 goals here if they quickly brought on Eduardo and Adebayor for Diaby and Walcott. But unfortunately that change didn’t happen until 15 minutes later.

You might say this is the competition for the kids, but with Gallas, Sagna, Hleb and Fabregas already on the pitch, it might have been worth going for it anyway. And with 40 minutes Eduardo and Adebayor could make a big difference.

Of course, if any of them got injured during that time then I suppose the gamble wouldn’t have been worth it.

But the thing was Hleb was getting the ball in excellent positions and moving the ball around well in the middle with Fabregas, but they had no attacking outlet for their possession. Bringing on Eduardo and Adebayor earlier could have changed the outcome of the game.

And Diaby and Walcott weren’t performing anyway, and always on the periphery of the match. Theo just couldn’t control the ball and wasn’t given much space, and Diaby was losing the ball and often going for the difficult dribble instead of the simple pass. I can’t remember the number of times I saw him take 4 or 5 touches when 2 would have done!

When Adebayor did come on, Arsenal had a bit more cutting edge and it only took him 5 minutes to score. Unfortunately we were 4-0 down at the time, but if he was on 15 minutes earlier could it have been a different story?

C’est la vie…

Arsene said after the game that the Carling Cup wasn’t a priority at all and Arsenal were in the fight for much bigger things. We’ve known that all along and looking at the bigger picture we didn’t lose in a cup which really mattered. Of course, that sounds bitter coming after a 5-1 defeat but it doesn’t make it any less true. Would it have been nice to be in the final? Yes, but it’s hardly vital to the outcome of our season is it?

You would have to say though that winning the Carling Cup would have been a huge ask if we made it to the final anyway. Chelsea will play their strongest team in this competition and our kids would have found it extremely tough to get passed them. So it’s comforting to know that Spurs have no chance of winning the competition anyway.

I would and will be putting a lot of money on that.

* Estimated number only.

 

18 thoughts on “Annoying Yes, Important? No…

  1. This is what you get when you play boys against men. Truth be told, I’d like to call them something much stronger than boys, but I will resist the temptation.

    Arsene did say that the next match for the club was the most important, so saying how umimportant this competiton is doesn’t sit well with me.

    We were comprehensively belted today. Honestly, I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner.

    I’ve been saying for a long time how thin this squad is. Does anyone agree with me now?

    We lack genuine quality when we rest players or have injuries to players. We cannot get by with the likes of Gilberto, Diaby, Denilson, Walcott, Traore, Eboue, Senderos and Djourou. It is too much of a burden to carry.

    We let one of our better players go in Diarra; yet we keep players who make less than satisfactory efforts on a consistent basis.

    When we won trophies in the past we had outstandingly superior players: Henry, Vieria and Bergkamp were probably the three best players in England. We won doubles and went 49 games unbeaten. We also had a majestic player in Pires.

    Now it’s all about not spending a dime. So what was the new stadium for? To compete with the top clubs on an equal footing. To buy the players that would bring us trophies.

    None of that is happening. We buy cheap and it shows.

    How long before Wenger desists in using Arsenal as his own personal experimental toy?

     
  2. It still hurts a lot to lose 5-1, esp to Spurs. If we have got to the Final, who is to say we can’t win it? Anyway, it is also shocking that Ade and Bendtner had a go at each other. Wonder what really happened…Diaby was woeful, so was Traore and Gilberto.

    So now we know boys will not win anything. So can we now not bother with this giving youth a chance for the rest of this season’s competitions? We cannot afford to play like we did and hope to get away with it. The margin between success and failure is very slim for the run til May, so let us field our best lineup every match. Remember 2004 FA Cup semi against MU? It was just 4 days before our Champions League QFinal match with Chelsea. AW fielded a weak team against MU and we lost. Had we played with a stronger team, we could have beaten MU and won the Double, as the FA Cup Final was betw MU and Milwall. Also we would have beaten Chelsea too, and who knows what it might be after that. So one thing leads to another, but it remains we must win our NEXT match, regardless of what or who we are playing for in the match after NEXT match!

     
  3. How long before Wenger desists in using Arsenal as his own personal experimental toy? >>>

    Some toy. 2 Doubles, 3 championships, 5 FA Cups.

    I think I will trust AW’s judgement. Dont overreact to one bad night. We lost 6-1 at MU in 2001 and a year later won the double. If AW feels he needs to buy, he will.

     
  4. KLVon
    We have to keep faith with the kids. How else did Cesc, Clichy, Toure all develpoe without AW giving them games when they first started. Some of the team wont make it but some will. Bendtner, Senderos, Djourou, Hoyte can all play now. Denilson, Traore, Walcott have great potential.
    Trust Wenger.

     
  5. Maximus…. get a grip. What a pessimistic view on a result that shouldn’t make much difference to our season. Had this been the Champs League or something, then you would have had a better point.

    Fact is – we had 75% of our first team missing. This is mainly due to Wenger choosing to use the competition as ground for experience for the younger players to develop their potential.

    Fact is – we’re still in 3 competitions. Have Man U had bad games this season, have Chelsea? YES! They’ve had as many bad games as us and yet their squads are stronger… We’re still very much in the title race, & 2 other cups…. is it that bad?

    You seem to forget that Wenger bought Henry, Pires & Vieira for cheaper money and they were by no means stars of the game. But he turned them into those great players you refer to. Who’s to say that the young players we have now, won’t turn into world class players also?!

    I suppose you’re the same doom mongerer that whinged and whined when we lost to Boro, our ONLY league defeat so far…

    What more do you want? Did you want the league wrapped up by christmas?? Wenger has used this comp for the kids for years, get over us getting knocked out…. !!!

     
  6. Maximus get a life. You are typical of the new fan slagging off the team after one defeat. Yes it was heavy and yes it was against Sp#rs, but if was in the mickey mouse cup for christ sake. We are going through a period where we have a number of injuries and three players away at the ACoN. The team is still going for the three important trophies and need our support not slagging off. So lets all treat this as a rare defeat and get behind the team.

    UTA

     
  7. The fact is we lost,and lost badly,last season we got blast by
    liverpool 4-1,see where liverpool are now and where are we now?this season lets says we conceded 5 goals against spurs in one game who i think were lucky to score against a makeshift back four.Hoyte is a natural rightback who slotted into a position where he had to face the likes of Berba n Keane,and i felt that he really stood up for his mistakes and was brave enough to prove his worth.But what about Gallas?He didnt make much difference too.

    If we blame Walcott,Diaby,Bendtner,Traore and Hoyte for not performing it wont be fair for them.But honestly i was very dissapointed at Gilberto’s performance.Everybody has to be blame for this lost including the fans who left the stadium before the game finish,damn those fans!!!

    AW has every right to field young guns for the CCup,if not we will not be having the likes of Cesc,Clichy,Denilson etc!We have quality youngsters, these young guns will be the envy of other big clubs in few years to come!I can bet you my life with that..!!!

    On AW not buying a centreback to replace Toure,i believe it was a very logical decision,that player wont want to be left out after Toure returns?Of course not!

    So,lets not be so desimated towards the result,3 lost in like 30 games sumthin..?Chin up Gooners!Were top of the league,in the CL,FaCup,Spurs has only one cup to compensate for their inconsistent and lacklusture season or should i say seasons!!and i dont see them winning it anyway…haha!

    AW coud say that this was not an important cup,but i know inside he felt that he could’ve done better.If he trusts his players , why can we do the same?we may do the treble this seasons or we may not.Of course we will be dissapointed but this will only make our young guns,hotshots!!and

    Please lets not call them KIDS anymore!!!

    As Exiled Gooner said “lets put this rare defeat behind us”

    In Arsene We Trusts

    The Revival Of Our Young Guns Begins

     
  8. we could of lost by a lot more tonight why does wenger say the result didnt reflect the game ha sad headbutt i cant believe that happened spurs did deserve it thou it hurts to say it

     
  9. The spurs attack were too fast for the gunners defence and it seems spurs saw that weakness right from the 3rd min. Fast running lennon, jenas and keane went directly at them knowing very well that the defenders would be dumbfounded and got their goals with every such attack. Though the paper-like defence were a sore to watch, i couldn’t help but point out the worst performer of the night – Hleb. His persistence in taking on players and holding possession was a complete nuisance. What;s worse? Almost all of his passes went to a spurs player and that granted them the chance to counter attack! Walcott and Diaby were a waste of space on the pitch too. Though the carling cup is said to be a competition for the youngsters, we cannot deny the fact that we had lots of big names in the team last night and that makes it all the more shameful to lose.

    Stop hiding behind excuses…

     
  10. Felt sick watching that last night. Fucking horrible to lose against that shower of cunts. However, it’s done now, Spuds will get turned over in the final by Everton (hopefully) or the Chavs (more likely) either way I doubt I’ll be watching. It was a bad night at the office but I for one am going to draw a line under it now and move on to Newcastle. I feel we as fans have a big responsability in the next two games against the Magpies. Can’t wait for Saturday. Top of the league, AC Milan and FA cup, not a shabby season so far I’d say.

     
  11. AW should pls. sell/loan Diaby out as i can’t understand what Diaby is doing in Arsenal team, for Walcott he should also be Loan!!! Let AW buy players let him stop managing as this is not helping the team, when one player is out it effect the hold team, now who will he use in defends (5) our next FA Cup match??? let him buy players before the window close.

     

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