Elliot Segal
Rather than anger or resentment on Sunday night, the overwhelming feeling was one of bewilderment, numbness and sheer disbelief. It was as if I’d hit been hit by a double decker bus. I felt absolutely flattened as well as despondent and wondering whether I’d ever see an Arsenal captain lifting a trophy again under Arsene Wenger - and I just cannot see it happening at the moment. What makes it more astonishing is that this is the first final I’ve been to where we’ve been the overwhelming favourites (please forgive me Luton 1988 but I didn’t turn 3 until July of that year). For that reason alone, it makes it the worst of any cup final defeat under Wenger, and there have been many. I, like many others, have seen the unique feat of Arsenal losing the Champions League final, UEFA Cup final, FA Cup final and Carling Cup final. Each defeat has been difficult to take, but for many different reasons. The heroic 72 minute battle with 10 men in Paris, the freeze in Copenhagen, the inability to take chances in Cardiff (twice) and now Wembley.
For all of Wenger’s nonsense about mental strength, belief in his team and the spirit, the Arsenal side that took to the Wembley pitch on Sunday froze and delivered a performance so useless, I wondered whether they’d even played together before. I remarked to the person I sat with after 10 minutes that we’d frozen. Where were the leaders? Where was the fight? Where was the inspiration? It was nowhere to be seen. This game needed a Tony Adams, a Martin Keown, a Patrick Vieira or a Ray Parlour to say, “this isn’t good enough, you have to do better”. Those four would be ashamed of the performance we put in on Sunday; they were part of the best squad ever, not this overpaid, over-pampered bunch of bottlers. I don’t want to write about individual performances suffice it to say that when looking for inspiration from the bench, Bendtner and Chamakh were worse than useless when they came on, but it would be unfair to single them out. The winning goal doesn’t need any further description or analysis from me, the incident speaks for itself.
I am treated Wednesday night’s game against Leyton Orient with apathy because I knew that if we did go through I had no confidence in our ability to get any result at Old Truffle other than defeat. I have no confidence in our ability to win the league and I have the firm belief that by this time next week, we will be out of the Champions League.
This season will go one of two ways now:
1. It will fall apart completely
or
2. The players show the “mental strength” and “fighting spirit” that Mr. Wenger bangs on about in every single post match press conference and they can right the wrongs of Sunday and go on to success this season.
Which way do you want it to be, “the best squad I have ever worked with”?
