Drogba Haunts The Carling Cup Kids
Add comment April 19th, 2009
Chelsea 2 – 1 Arsenal (Walcott 18, Malouda 34, Drogba 84)
Highlights here; Arsene’s reaction here
I attended yesterday’s game with lasagnechef from The Cannon. As we left a raucous Arsenal pub and strolled down Wembley Way, he remarked to me upon how much the setting made it feel like a final. I agreed. Little did I know how much the game itself would resemble a final – and one specific final in particular: that of the Carling Cup, in 2007. For just as on that day, Arsenal took an early lead through Theo Walcott, and just as on that day, they were thwarted by a late goal from Didier Drogba.
Intriguingly, the Arsenal line-up bore remarkable similarity to that day too. As on that day, we had our second choice goalkeeper playing. As on that day, Kolo Toure provided the experience in defence, with an English teenager playing in one of the full-back roles. And, as on that day, in the most controversial aspect of yesterday’s selection, Walcott, Fabregas, Denilson and Diaby all started in midfield.
I may aswell begin by talking about the starting line-up, as I know many fans will arrive at this report feeling that is where the game was lost. Kieran Gibbs was passed fit, so the back four picked itself, with Eboue and Silvestre joining Gibbs and Toure ahead of Fabianski. In midfield, Alex Song was seemingly rested, with Denilson and Diaby joining Cesc Fabregas in a central three. The real surprise came with the decision not to include not only Samir Nasri but also Andrey Arshavin, with Robin van Persie and Theo Walcott flanking Emmanuel Adebayor.
If I was picking my Arsenal team, Andrey Arshavin would be the second only to the captain on my list. He has been nothing short of a revelation since joining in January, and yesterday seemed made for him: a big stage against one of our major rivals, coached by his national manager. What more incentive could he have to impress? And yet Arsene left him on the bench. My Chelsea-supporting brother awoke yesterday gripped with fear that this would be “The Arshavin semi-final”, and confessed his relief to me at what he saw as a remarkably strange decision by our manager.
There are, as I see it, only two possible explanations for Arsene’s decision. The first is that he wished to hold Arshavin back for the league game at Anfield, which seems peverse: another Aston Villa draw yesterday brought qualification for the Champions League ever closer, whilst our chance of domestic silverware is now gone. When you crave a trophy as badly as we as a club do, you have to put all your available resources into that pursuit. And anyway, the argument for this reasoning falls down when you consider that the Russian has had a week off – he could have played today and at Anfield with no problems whatsoever.
The true reason Arsene left Arshavin out, as far as I can tell, is that he was worried about conceding a height advantage to Chelsea. Having made a decision to rest Song, he felt he had to start with some taller players to combat Chelsea’s threat from set pieces, so in came Abou Diaby. Even so, I still don’t understand it. Arsene talked in the week of the advantage of Arshavin’s European cup-tie being that he would be fresh for the weekend. To then not play him seems entirely nonsensical.
I would always pick at least one of Arshavin or Nasri in my side. They are, as Arsene once called to Robert Pires, the oil in our engine. Without them we were desperately lacking in creativity.
It wasn’t only the personnel that gave us problems, but the way they were deployed. We played five across the middle, with the far from nippy Van Persie doing a manful but ultimately flawed impression of a winger. None of Fabregas, Diaby and Denilson seemed to have much interest in getting forward to support Adebayor, which left him isolated and ineffective. He actually won a fair amount of ball against Alex and Terry, but his flick-ons drifted through to… well, no-one.
Our lack of attacking impetus probably wasn’t helped by the fact we took an early lead. The goal itself was well-worked, with Adebayor slipping in Gibbs to cross to the far post, where Theo Walcott arrived and volleyed home his third goal in three games, his shot clipping the hand of Ashley Cole and so deceiving Petr Cech.
From that point on, we seemed to sit back, didn’t create a chance in the first half. In fact, we started to look very vulnerable defensively. The warning signs had been there when Lukasz Fabianski charged out of his goal and was beaten to the ball by Drogba, with Kieran Gibbs forced to clear off the line, just as against Wigan a week ago.
When the equaliser came, it was from Florent Malouda, which given his form since signing for Chelsea was somewhat humiliating. Frank Lampard launched a long cross-field pass, and Emmanuel Eboue granted Malouda time to bring it down, come inside, and fire a shot inside Fabianski’s near-post. I am convinced that goal would never have been scored with Bacary Sagna in the side, who probably would have cut the pass out with a towering header.
It almost got worse very quickly: Diaby dithered on the edge of his own box (something we were unsurprisingly guilty of all day), and Anelka stole the ball and fired against the post.
In the second half, we seemed to have recovered from the mental blow of losing our lead, and Theo Walcott set about terrorising Ashley Cole again. If we were ever going to score it was going to be due to the young winger’s dribbling and delivery, but all too often no-one apart from Adebayor was even in the box.
Arshavin was eventually introduced with about fifteen minutes to play, seemingly only because Robin van Persie had picked up an injury. Soon after, Arsene made the decision to withdraw Adebayor, with Bendtner replacing him. This sub said to me, and more importantly Chelsea: we can’t win it in the ninety. It was a change that pre-empted extra-time, and it handed Hiddink the initiative. Almost immediately, Chelsea scored: another lofted Lampard pass saw Drogba tearing on to the ball from deep. Mikael Silvestre tried yet failed to stay with him. Against Villarreal a ball over the top of Silvestre had twice given us problems, but on that day Lukasz Fabianski’s timing of his interceptions was perfect. Today, however, he got it all wrong, charging out into no-man’s-land to allow Drogba to expertly round him and finish with his left-foot. It was a terrible goal to concede, and blame is equal between the centre-back and the ‘keeper. Unfortunately, we won’t be able to replace either for a couple of weeks yet.
With both our top two strikers off the field, we were always going to struggle to equalise. An Arshavin volley went close, and a couple of his set-pieces caused them problems, but the game and time were soon both up.
So, out of the FA Cup and our most realistic chance of silverware gone. No complaints from me: principally because I feel it’s worth remembering that winning anything at all this season would be somewhat hilarious considering how disastrous much of it has been. We didn’t play well, we defend poorly, and we were punished. It happens. A fit Gallas and Sagna would have made a difference, but that’s football.
I’m more upset about the selection. I mentioned the Carling Cup Final earlier, and part of me can’t help but feel that in selecting the same midfield as played that day, featuring the trio he seems to hold most pride in (Diaby, Denilson, and Fabregas), Arsene was hoping to make a point: to beat Chelsea with his young discoveries rather than his £15m superstar signing.
It didn’t work. Lesson learned.
