Sunday, February 27, 2011

The Big One: Carling Cup Final



We are going to look at the carling cup final now. Arsenal's quest to win a trophy for the first time in 6 years continues as they succumbed to a 2 - 1 defeat to Birmingham City in the final. Arsenal Bacary Sagna wrote on twitter that "just feel ashamed....sorry." Arsenal's Jack Wilshere also stated on twitter that "All I can say is sorry to the fans. It hurts a lot but we must all stick together in the other 3 competitions where there is still hope." Now we ask the question that how will it affect Arsenal mentally in their quest for other trophies. Arsenal are a team that always recover quickly from their mental problem. They will be saying to themselves that "we played without our best defender. midfielder as well as winger. Also adding that they lost in the last minute due to a mix-up between their defender and goalkeeper. Both of them are still young and they are in their growing phase as well.

Arsenal are learning but is their learning rate quick enough to see them end their trophy drought this year. I think they are learning, they have improved significantly to see off challenges such as Chelsea and Manchester City to be right on the tail of champions Manchester United in the premier league. They were in terrific form coming into this game but  I believe that Arsenal thought they had this game won, they were complacent and lost their cool in the final few minutes to hand the carling cup trophy to Birmingham City.

Finally, the overall issue that have played Arsenal and in particular today due to the defensive mix-up. I think that defensive mistakes happen although we rarely see them so we cannot blame Arsenal for the loss. In the past, many criticized Arsenal for their complacency at the back but the present is different as they have been solid at the back and lethal going forward. This is basically one of those days where the better team on the day won.

Man of the match: Ben Foster
Foster put in man of the match performance against Arsenal in the final as he made several crucial saves to deny Arsenal plenty of goals. He can be highly pleased with himself with the quality of his goalkeeping.

This is all for now. Later, we will focus on the big premier league clash between the two giants Manchester United versus Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

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