John Evans
No trophy on Sunday then. It was a painful experience to take and one that leaves us close to being six years without having a trophy to clean.
I have got to say I thought on the contrary to what the media and the pundits have had to say about the game yesterday we were more than a little on the unlucky side. The Birmingham second goal was a one in a million event, I for one can not remember a clanger being dropped quite on that level in a cup final before. For me the Seaman howler against Nayim in Paris in 1995 does not compare in the slightest. Overall though if you look at the game in hindsight we certainly didn’t play at our best but we were still the better side and should have won the game. I can’t remember more than one save in the 90 minutes from our man between the sticks whereas Foster in goal for the Blues must have made a minimum of six decent quality saves to keep the score level going into the 90th minute.
The pundits/media were all so anti-Arsenal that it was embarrassing. They were wetting themselves with praise for the Blues pretty much claiming it to be the performance of a lifetime. Fair play to them they did play well but come on they didn’t exactly play us off the park did they? They stuck to the cause 100% and got lucky when they were gifted the winning goal in the last minute. If that makes them the pride of Britain for conquering us then Britain can go f*** itself as far as I am concerned.
People will say the game summed up our lack of a winning mentality but for me that is a little unfair and it is a far too early a call in the season to make. We are still very much in the hunt for three trophies, all of which are more important that the one we have just lost out on. At the beginning of the season if we had gone out of the League Cup no-one really would have battered an eyelid yet now because we made it to the final, one defeat and the world is coming to an end. What we have to realise and accept is the simple fact that in football anything can happen on any one given day and so it was that yesterday happened to be our one in ten chance that we would go on to lose against inferior opposition.
We are all disappointed at not lifting a trophy as it does hurt but if we hadn’t gone six years without one would we be so gutted by yesterday’s result? Certain players for me didn’t perform on the day and when that happens you stand a greater chance of losing the game. Birmingham are not quite as bad as their current league position would imply and I for one would be very surprised if they were relegated this season as other teams seem to be a whole lot worse to me.
The one thing that did stand out though was their overall commitment to the cause. I heard an interview with their centre back Johnson after the game where he mentioned he got a calf strain in the second half but there was simply no way he was ever going to come off, he kept going and seemed to run the injury off and at no point was substituted. Could we really expect to see the same levels of spirit and commitment from an Arsenal player? For me the answer would have to be no - which I guess is a sad state of affairs on some level But overall I would rather have the quality over the grit every time, we just need to mix it up slightly more than we have done in recent times and then the trophies will come.
We are on the right path, of that there is no doubt as we do have more steel about us now than two or three years ago. Jack was the man of the match again from an Arsenal point of view and with Cesc to return by the weekend we will be more creative than we were yesterday in the coming matches.
The negatives for me yesterday were the performances of Song, Nasri, Arshavin and Rosicky (why he was in the team I do not know, when was the last time we won a game with him in the starting XI?) Obviously the fingers will be pointed firmly at our goalkeeper but for me it is a little unfair, he is young and learning his trade, he will make mistakes. Every keeper makes mistakes, look at Seaman against Nayim in Paris 1995 for proof of that. But even with these below par performances for me we were still the better side over the ninety minutes and deserved to win the game.
We still have the FA Cup which come Thursday morning we will be in the quarter finals of. We still have the Champions League to look forward to, where we have a decent chance of progression. I feel if we played the second leg 10 times from the position we are in after the first game we could expect to progress from it four times out of ten - which against a Barcelona side that is reputed to be the best on the planet doesn’t seem too bad a position to be in. More importantly we have a great chance of success in the Premier League which has to be our number one aim every season.
Quite simply we are one of two teams that can win the title this season. Forget City, Chelsea and Spurs as they will not be champions come May. It will be us or United lifting the coveted trophy and they have a harder run-in than us with a four point cushion to try and protect so it is very much game on. I can see us being three points behind with a game in hand once this week’s matches are out the way so anyone not thinking we are in with a big shout should think again right now.
Personally if someone gave me the position we are in now at the start of the season I would have taken it. One trophy lost in the final minute of the final and three still to play for and we are at the end of February. Let us get over this loss, get Orient dealt with and then look ahead to the remaining games of the season with optimism and expectation as there really is no reason to start feeling sorry for ourselves.
