League Cup Miracle

Reading 5-7 Arsenal

 

 

On 26^th 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 12^th 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 89^th 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 95^th 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.