What a fantastic cup tie that was. Arsenal went to Blackburn with a squad with an average age under 20 and played pretty much a full strength Blackburn side.
And in the first half we played them off the park. All the talk pre-game was about how physical Blackburn would be but they forgot to mention you have to be able to get near your opponent to kick him. The only time it happened David Dunn ran his studs down the back of Traore’s heel, the giant-headed cunt. We opened the scoring on 6 minutes when nice play from full debutant Mark Randall down the right gave the ball to Bendtner and he crossed for Abou Diaby to score a rather loopy goal at the far post.
Eduardo, who appears to be this season’s Baptista due to his Carling Cup goals and not his fatness and slowness, put us 2-0 up when Denilson’s ball evaded Samba, the Blackburn defender who I think was playing his first game of professional football. Well, that’s what it looked like. The finish was absolutely clinical.
And we should have gone in two goals up at half-time and would have done but for the linesman. Derbyshire was clearly offside when he played the ball across goal for Santa Cruz to make it 2-1. There was the fear that the goal would bolster Blackburn and so it proved. They started the second half much more positively, even big man Robbie Savage decided he could put it about a bit against a bunch of kids and when Santa Cruz headed in his second on the hour it could have gone either way.
Fabianski made some saves, we defended well enough and the game was headed for extra time when Mike Riley sent off Denilson for a rather crude lunge on David Dunn (can’t really blame him for that – I’d love to jump in on that giant-headed cunt). Even Arsene admitted it was a red card after the game. Again big man Robbie Savage had to come over and push around some lads half his age and he got a yellow for his trouble when an axe to the throat would have been far more the order of the day. The bottom line is that in 120 minutes playing against kids and 10 men Savage hardly got a kick. Fuck off, you poxbottle.
That meant we had to play extra-time with a man less and Blackburn did their best to take advantage of the fact but at times it didn’t look like they had an extra man. We lost young Nacer Barazite with what was reported to be a dislocated shoulder. It looked like a bad injury and I hope the young man is ok. Fran Merida came on in his place as we battled the Northern hordes. Just before the end of the first half of extra time Alex Song, who had a fine game overall, came forward and played a fantastic ball through to Eduardo. In front of goal the Crozilian doesn’t need to be asked twice and again his finish was top quality and he made it 3-2.
With players cramping up in the last part of extra-time it was all hands on deck and we defended gallantly. They threw up the giant Samba and launched high balls into our box, some of which we dealt with, some we didn’t at first but did after. Song made some tackles, Senderos made some clearances, Justin Hoyte pulled off a quite fantastic tackle then got up and blocked Pedersen’s shot over the bar, Fabianski handled well and we coped with Friedel coming up for corners. Samba even hit the post in the dying seconds with a back post header which probably would have gone in had it been on target but you can’t say we didn’t deserve the win.
The lads, and let’s make the point of how young and how raw the majority of them are, showed the most incredible character and desire not just to not lose the game, but to win it. Alex Song had by far and away his best game for the club and big kudos to him for it. He was really good. Lassana Diarra was superb in midfield, his energy, ball retention and passing were first class. Eduardo took his goals brilliantly and beyond that I think every single player out there deserves a huge amount of credit for achieving a great result under very difficult circumstances.
Shirts were thrown into the crowd, who really played their part in the win. Well done all you travelling Gooners, you were ace too. You could see how much it meant to the players and they should all be rightly proud of their performances and the result. I know I said before the game it was one of those that if we hadn’t won it wouldn’t have been the end of the world but the way things panned out I would have been gutted for them if they hadn’t gotten the win. All in all it was just outstandingly enjoyable football.
It was made only slightly less enjoyable by the constant negativity heaped on us by former Arsenal player Brian Marwood, co-commentating for Sky. Why do so many of our former players take such pleasure in slagging us off on TV. Shut your hole, Marwood, you cunt.
Afterwards Arsene Wenger was full of praise for his young side, saying:
It was a big test. They (Blackburn) made it very passionate and very committed. We had to use our character. When it was 10 against 11 we found the resources to score, and that is really promising for such young players. We have shown quality, we dug deep when it was difficult. We did not give in and we kept battling.
And that really is the thing. A lot of decent Premier League sides would have let their heads drop when Blackburn got back on level terms and certainly when they went down to 10 men. Not Arsenal though. These boys showed so much spirit and desire to get a result it’s just fantastic. And what makes it even better is beating that twat Mark Hughes and those execrable supporters up in that half threequarters-empty shithole. Stick your ‘dark arts’ up your hole, chum.
And there you go. We know that Sp*rs are through to the semi-finals, Liverpool play Chelsea tonight and I think Everton are the other team in the draw. I believe the draw takes place tonight after the Liverpool v Chelsea game. Sp*rs again? I bet it is.
Finally for today the Random Number Generator has done it’s thing and it’s time to announce the winners of the prize packs featuring 4 great Arsenal books from Octopus Publishing. The answer to the question was, of course, Tony Adams and the two winners are Anthony Simeon and Clive Bealing. I’ll be in touch with you guys to get address details etc.
Thanks to everyone who entered and for your nice messages, sorry there aren’t more prizes to go around. Keep an eye out for more competitions soon. Last thing, if you’re still looking for a Christmas present Savile Rogue can get you a scarf and have it delivered pre-Christmas if you order this week (UK only, overseas it’s too late).
Till tomorrow, Arsechums.
