Robert Exley
In my pre-Cup Final piece admittedly I seriously hedged my bets, stating that it would either be Arshavin in the Charlie Nicholas role or Squillaci as Ian Ure. Squillaci was not part of Sunday’s debacle, though it was a Swindon style defensive mix up like Ure’s that will forever be associated with the 2011 League Cup Final. The last ten days have pretty much proven that Arsenal can potentially win or lose to any side in the world on their day. In the Semi Final of the League Cup I was rooting for Birmingham to eliminate ‘Wess Tam’, not just because travelling through Essex on the C2C trains would have been a heck of a lot safer but because I believed Birmingham City’s famous Gypsy curse meant success was a mere shoo in.
When Birmingham moved into their St Andrews Stadium in 1906 they had evicted a group of Romany Gypsies from the previously derelict site and in the politically incorrect parlance of Guy Ritchie’s Film Snatch: ‘For every action there’s a reaction and a Pikey reaction is quite a f****** thing!’. Legend has it that this group of gypsies had placed a curse on the perennial sleeping giant which has led to their subsequent lack of success. For 105 years successive managers have tried their best to brake the curse – Ron Saunders had placed crucifixes to the floodlights and Barry Fry had urinated in all four corners of the St Andrews Pitch in the hope of braking the curse - however with Arsenal’s inability to communicate between themselves at the back and miraculous ability to hold an amount of possession far in excess of the opposition and still not score, even a gypsy’s curse is rendered meaningless!
Hopefully neither Koscielny nor ‘Chesney’ will be so effected in the Ian Ure or Gus Caesar manner that terminal decline is on the cards – both have shown great potential thus far in an Arsenal shirt. As pointed out however by my article back in August, Wenger has little ability to fashion a coherent defensive unit. I might be cherry picking my memories of the past, but I can’t imagine Seaman and Adams being caught out in the same manner as Kos and ‘Chesney’. TA probably would have taken no chances and smashed it away to the back of the stands. As for attack – well the ‘little Mozart’ may well have been one of our best performers over the last five years, but has failed to hit the high notes in recent appearances. At 30 years of age Wenger would be best to cash in on what little he can recoup for Rosicky in the transfer market. Also, Bendtner has few fans at Arsenal due to his talent being far more modest than his own estimation of his abilities; however I can’t be alone in being baffled when I see Wenger play him on the wing. Does anyone other than Wenger think Bendtner has any of the qualities of a winger?
Annoying as it is to see a trophyless spell extend it would be unsporting to begrudge Birmingham their moment of victory, after waiting 48 years for it. Also, despite the claims of the Carling Cup being a two bob cup, the League Cup they had won in 1963 was a far less reputable one than today’s competition. In 1963 Arsenal, Liverpool, eventual League Champions Everton, eventual FA Cup Winners Manchester United, reigning League Champions Ipswich and reigning FA Cup winners Tottenham all declined to enter that year. Of that season’s top four only Leicester bothered to enter the Football League Cup. Birmingham winning two Leyland DAF trophies in the 1990s probably had as much credibility as their previous League Cup win. In essence this is Birmingham’s first trophy win of any real merit, so well done to them.
However the unidentified Birmingham City player who felt the need to give Koscielny an uncalled for slap moments after their winner, certainly needs to learn how to win with grace. Surely his club deserve their first big victory since the gypsy’s curse of 105 years ago to be honoured with a bit more decorum than that which is akin to Channel 4’s current portrayal, deemed derogatory by Ofcom, of the very same community that made that curse in the first place.
