By Boris Mellor
January 23 2008
Nearly 10 years ago, the 11 th November 1998 to be precise Chelsea beat Arsenal 5-0 at Highbury. Wenger had put out a mixture of youngsters, fringe players, and even Freddy and Dennis. Nothing went right that night, but what a laugh. I do not remember any one leaving early, I know I didn't. We did not even have a sumptuous Adebayor goal to admire.
We sang, “we don’t give a fuck” to knees up mother brown”, and “shit cups you only win shit cups”, to the celebrating blues at the other end. Of course, the next day the press pretended that Chelsea had beaten an all star eleven, and that the balance of power had now shifted to west London.
In fact, I do not remember Chelsea beating us in the league until Mourinho arrived many years later. We went on to win the league two more times, an invincible season, and several cups plus two European finals. Wenger was as phlegmatic as ever. No doubt, some deadly serious Gooners somewhere wanted him sacked, and replaced by a man prepared to burn money (I knew one personally).
Now I know it is nauseating to watch fans celebrate their team doing a lap of honour on getting to the final of a shit cup, but hey, now you know how they feel all the time, for us it is just a bad day at the office. Wish them luck at the big final, and that they can erase the memory that the last time they won it, in fact won anything, George Graham was their manager.
In addition, don’t forget the last time they beat us we went on to nine years of glory and they went on to errr..... win nothing.
Wenger played a stronger eleven against Fulham on Saturday, would you rather he had risked losing points there? I just hope that none of our first team regulars have suffered further injuries with one more match than necessary.
Finally, it would be tempting to start analysing too deeply what went wrong - looking for scapegoats, for example was Fabianski pantski? Hard to tell, he was not to blame for the first two goals, but where was defence for the other three? However, let us not go there, Wenger will learn some things about some players, but as he says, the match is not a conclusion in itself.
Players will learn and benefit from it. Meanwhile fans should relax, Arsenal are still joint top. Played 22 and lost only one against your one time biggest rival is not a bad record, and if you are going to lose one, it was not the worst one to lose. It was only a shit cup.
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Quote:Simon68
It would only require Sarsons if we had suddenly decided it was a sh*t cup after being knocked out.
However, as you well know dixon, we have said that all along and as you well know also, Arsene Wenger has always used it as a way to blood youngsters which shows where he puts it in the general scheme of things.
I know what position I would rather my team is in.
Quote:dixon9Quote:Simon68
It would only require Sarsons if we had suddenly decided it was a sh*t cup after being knocked out.
However, as you well know dixon, we have said that all along and as you well know also, Arsene Wenger has always used it as a way to blood youngsters which shows where he puts it in the general scheme of things.
I know what position I would rather my team is in.
Oh I´d agree with you Simon - Wenger has been consistant in putting out the younger and/or fringe first team players in this competition.
However, I can´t help wondering if there´s a part of it which is a ready made excuse in case of loss (if you win - your "kids" are wonderful - if you lose it was because you played your kids!) nor do I believe that he or the players feel the competition is not so important as they make out.
While the youngsters are winning, everything is rosy in the garden and the media are only too happy to lap you up. Howver, once the wheels start to come off the posture changes.
You only have to look at last season´s final to see how the Arsenal players reacted as the match neared its end and they realised they were probably going to lose.
Then in midweek Wenger began to panic and gradually throw on more big guns as the score worsened - it was almost a first team Arsenal at the end at White Hart Lane. Then look at the intensity of frustration between Adebayor and Bendtner.
I´m sorry but all this hardly constitutes a total attitude of disregard for the competition - you wanted to win, to get to the final and you were prepared, in the end to do whatever necessary to achieve it.
The other point is that many of your kids are among the most expensive around - they are no ordinary youngsters that Wenger has had to take under his wing and develop. Many are bought in from foriegn clubs where they are not that far from being the full article anyway.
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