Reading 5-7 Arsenal
On 26th May 1999,
having just seen his side win the Champions League final with two late goals,
Alex Ferguson uttered the now famous line: “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe
it. Football. Bloody hell.” There is no better turn of phrase to describe
Arsenal’s 7-5 victory against Reading in the Capital One Cup. While the score
line alone is astonishing, it doesn’t even scratch the surface in describing a
game which simply had everything. Four goals down after only 37 minutes, with Arsenal’s
performance absolutely abysmal, who would have thought the Gunners would manage
to fight back and eventually win the game?
During last week’s Annual General
Meeting, Arsene Wenger proclaimed that the League Cup was the least of his
priorities and in the first half his side seemed to be doing everything
possible to ensure they would get knocked out of this season’s competition.
Francis Coquelin and Andrei Arshavin appeared incapable of retaining possession
as time and time again their loose passes would fall straight to a Reading
player, while Emmanuel Frimpong struggled greatly to impose himself on the
game. As a result, the Gunners couldn’t string more than two passes together
and were effectively holed in, in their own half. Considering the back four
were all enduring nightmarish performances, this was not an enviable position
to be in. Djourou and Koscielny were continuously found wanting as they
struggled desperately to overcome the Reading front line, with Jason Roberts
causing mayhem, while young goalkeeper, Damien Martinez also appeared extremely
shaky when coming out for crosses.
As a result of all these
deficiencies, every single time Reading attacked, they looked as though they
were going to score. In only the third minute of the game, Sean Morrison saw
his powerful header hit the crossbar, in a sign of things to come. In the 12th
minute, Arsenal were made to pay for their lethargy as the horror show began
with Jason Roberts (having easily evaded Koscielny) sliding in from Noel Hunt’s
low cross. Six minutes later and Reading had doubled their lead as Koscielny
got his angles all wrong and as a result could only turn Chris Gunter’s low
cross into his own net. Only two minutes later and Reading had raced into a 3-0
lead as Martinez’s poor attempt to parry Leigertwood ‘s long range shot, saw
the ball loop past the Arsenal goalkeeper and into the back of the net. The
Gunners were stunned, but they had only themselves to blame and with eight minutes
of the first half remaining, the home side piled more misery on Wenger’s team
as another cross resulted in yet another goal. Carl Jenkinson allowed Noel Hunt
to get in front of him and the Reading man was able to direct Gunter’s cross
past Martinez to make it a ridiculous 4-0.
Arsenal were completely shell
shocked and there appeared to be no way back for them, but just before
halftime, Arshavin’s through ball allowed Walcott to race clear of the Reading
defence, before calmly chipping Federici to reduce the arrears. Suddenly the
Arsenal faithful had a semblance of hope to hang on to, could the Gunners
launch an astonishing comeback and get back into this game?
At the start of the
second half, with Reading once again on top, the miracle seemed a distant
dream. In fact Reading should have had a penalty, which would have ended the
contest, as Chamakh clumsily bundled into Hunt.
Yet as the second half wore on
Arsenal began to gain a foothold in the game and soon were completely dominant.
Wenger’s decision to introduce Thomas Eisfeld and Olivier Giroud from the
bench, enabled the Gunners to turn the screw. Both players had a significant
impact on the game. Giroud’s first touch was to meet Walcott’s corner and
direct a wonderful header past Federici to make the score 4-2. The Frenchman
really came of age in this game, his movement and power reinvigorating the
Arsenal attack and enabling the Gunners to appear far more dangerous. Eisfeld
meanwhile was outstanding, as he continually managed to find space in the
middle of the park, surging forward time and time again, creating panic in the
Reading defence.
However, for all their renewed
endeavour, with only two minutes left and still needing to score two goals to
restore parity, it appeared as though Arsenal would fall short in their quest
to secure a miraculous comeback. Even when Koscielny headed home Arshavin’s
corner in the 89th minute, it appeared that it would be a case of
too little too late.
With the four minutes of injury time having already been played
and the ball at the feet of Martinez, there surely wasn’t enough time left for
a dramatic equaliser? But as the clock ticked on, past the 95th
minute, the ball fell to Theo Walcott, whose shot was cleared from behind the
goal line, but Jenkinson followed up to make sure the game would go into extra
time.
No one it seemed, had informed
Giroud or Coquelin that extra time would now follow as both threw their shirts
to the Arsenal crowd and then had to ask for them back in order to complete the
additional 30 minutes play. Extra time mirrored the drama of normal time. In
the 113rd minute, Arshavin laid the ball square to Chamakh, for the Moroccan to
confidently drill the ball home, giving Arsenal the lead for the very first
time.
However the Gunners could not hold on, their shaky defence proving to be
their Achilles heel once more as another cross into the Arsenal box caused
havoc, Pavel Pogrebnyak was allowed a free header to make the score 5-5, and
only five minutes left. With the game heading towards a penalty shootout,
Arshavin raced forward, on the left wing. As the Russian approached the touch
line, he could have cut the ball back towards the edge of the box, but decided
instead to shoot on goal. Although Arshavin’s shot was blocked on the line, the
rebound fell straight to Walcott, for the Englishman to smash the ball home and
cue scenes of pandemonium.
Yet there was still more to come. With Reading
pouring forward in search of another equaliser, a long ball forward found
Chamakh, who calmly clipped the ball over the advanced Federici to seal an
astonishing victory.
Although Arsenal can take great
heart and pride from the spirit and depth of character shown to come back from
4-0 down to eventually win the game, Wenger surely must ask serious questions
of his squad players. This was not a young inexperienced side, it was a team
containing several international players and yet their first half performance
was absolutely disgraceful. The defence in particular endured a horrid game and
simply could not deal with any crosses into their box. The fact Wenger
continually describes the League Cup as being at the bottom of his priorities
clearly does not help matters, but these players should be using such matches
to prove to the manager that they deserve a run in the first team and therefore
performances such as that in the first half are unacceptable and inexcusable.
This is Arsenal Football Club and we should be better than that. Nevertheless
having completed their amazing comeback, the mood around the club will be magnificent;
hopefully, they can carry this positive feeling into their next game against
Manchester United.
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