New Wembley Fuels Old Bitter Taste
Apr 19th, 2009 by 'holic
As days go I have had worse. I’ve had better, of course, but losing a semi-final to strong opposition with a weakened team is not one of them. Those who seek a conventional match report are in the wrong place.
The day itself was a mixed bag. A trouble-free trip meant I was in the Torch about an hour earlier than I had intended. I was not alone, and before long a genial and thoroughly enjoyable gathering was in full swing.
My planning is not great, so thanks to you-know-who for the yellow ribbon I had been unable to source beforehand. One of a handful of superstitions that didn’t work later on.
It was my first time at the new Wembley, and the first glimpse of the structure through the pub car park is impressive. I soon discovered it is a trifle misleading. Once inside I was transported, mainly by escalators, thank goodness, to an altitude that man has hitherto only reached in something with wings and an engine.
The pricing structure was adjusted to suit. A bottle of lukewarm lager and a pepperoni pizza slice, with one pepperoni (!) relieved my wallet of the best part of eight quid. Another fiver secured the programme. The final ascent to almost the back row at the summit was made by foot, and without oxygen.
The teams came out and my heart sank. I had predicted beforehand that Arsene would rotate. Last season had taught us that the FA Cup is the lowest of the three main competitions in his view. Song and Arshavin were held back for Liverpool on Tuesday, although it was good to see that young Gibbs had recovered sufficiently to take his place.
The need to fill blogs and comments means those decisions are already being slated. I have sympathy with some who question the reasoning behind it, but the unconsidered tone of much of the bile is unnecessary. The time to judge those decisions will be when, and if, the Champions League is surrendered, or a top four place is not secured.
Two goalkeeping errors cost us our chance, but the young Fabianski should learn from them. Unfortunately that is how young goalkeepers develop. It is not that long ago that Almunia too had a weakness at his near post. In his defence it should be pointed out that those ahead of him had not shown sufficient fight and guile to build on the lead given to us by the resurgent Walcott following a bright start by the men in red.
The mournful march at the final whistle was delayed by massive queues for the toilet facility. Astonishingly the ‘gents’ in my section was an all cubicle affair, which did not help matters. I joined the throng heading back down Wembley Way. That was a mistake. I should have headed for car park level. Cattle are treated better.
Eventually we were back in the pub. Most subdued by the experience. We’ve seen them lose before, and we will see them lose again. I just hope if we are in this position again that the strongest available side is fielded in a semi-final. We were too close to just surrender the opportunity.
38 Responses to “New Wembley Fuels Old Bitter Taste”
Gone are the days of mature old heads taking a result on the chin. Too many young fans are demanding too much, I feel. I really miss the fact that we cannot just support a team and admire what the manager we have has done for us, as fans.
Mistakes were made yesterday. Injuries have been cruel. Fabianski will learn, one hopes. And, barring some apocolyptic nuclear attack, Arsenal FC will continue.
Jammathon couldnt agree with you more – far too many young fickle fans that really dont know anything other than winning!!
Greetings ‘holic…….
Ignoring the off-the-field decision making process/es, a few points I must make.
Fabianski concerns me. I mentioned this a few weeks back and after his showing yesterday, I feel just as strong and wonder if he will learn as has been suggested. The near post blunder that led to Mallouda’s goal I can accept – it happens to all top goalkeepers. Although his habitual tendencey to go wondering a yonder around the 18 yard box is something that troubles me immensely, not least because in so doing he seems to display nothing short of comic timing.
I’d like to also devote a few words for Eboue who, I felt, apart from the Mallouda goal, played quite well. If only he made the challenged on the offending player, rather than standing off him and thereby giving him the space. Walcott was great….as was Ade’!
Cesc was unfortunately marked out the game. Chelsea were particularly strong in midfield, in the tackle etc.
But we’ll dust ourselves off and hopefully some of the poorer players will look at their performances and rectify those weak areas and learn from this.
Onwards and upwards….up the Arsenal!!!!!!!
gutted man, fabianski needs to learn when to come out and when to just stay
Yeah we all wish as much as we lose once in a while we win a trophy once in a while as well, our best players dont/threaten to leave just because we havent won a trophy for 5 years and stick to the club no matter etc etc
But it doesnt just happen
Just sad this morning. It hurts like hell to lose to THAT LOT, especially when THAT BLOKE scored.
I was puzzled about the team selection, too. Even more surprised when the substitutions came so late. If it is the case that players were held back for Anfield, I hope it doesn’t come back to bite us.
I watched it on a live stream which wasn’t the best quality, and as usual I didn’t get to see all of it. I didn’t fancy watching the highlights, so you all might have seen more of it than I have.
I’m not sure why Fabianski’s getting so much stick. Yeah, being beaten at the near post isn’t great, but the defending (and lino?) let him down there. Once Dogbreath was clean through, he didn’t have too many options, did he? If he’d stayed on his line, he’d have had no chance.
I’m afraid MU will play like last season when a tsunami swept Arsena 4-0 and Nani made a duffer out of Justin.
AW better prepare for such an onslaught and cut out the pretty stuff and trying to weave a way thru the packed defence. It may work against Villareal but not against Chelsea.
So why shd it work against MU injuries not withstanding to key defenders. This is food for thought.
This is the second time in two seasons where Arsenal have been sent packing and it wouldn’t surprise me if itshd happen again. If it does,touch wood,then AW better sweep all out the deadwood and then gunner fans will in for another cycle of transition. When will it ever end?
dont blame the defence, dont blame the keeper etc
it was all expected…i mean you cant suddenly lose your 1st choice and expect the standby to perform flawlessly
HOWEVER thats where the manager comes in….knowing all that…knowing we will concede some “cheap goals” is where you compensate (if you can)at the other areas of the pitch…and we were able to yesterday instead we gave them most of their day off on the bench….
Can we do anything about conceding goals…NO…so what do we do…make arrangements to SCORE MORE
END OF……..
At last, a point of sanity. Yes it wasn’t fun to pay good money to watch a re-run of the Cardiff Carling Cup final, but we had some vital players missing. Please can the moaning minority shut the feck up! We would all love to play the game again with different players and a different formation, but try to understand that Arsen Wenger is in a better position to choose which players take the field and how they play, not you.
Sure Chelsea fans can crow about us not winning a trophy for 4 years, but this is from a group of fans who have seen second division football and didn’t win the league for 50 years until their team was bought as a rich man’s toy. Have some respect for the team you have chosen to support, the operative word being support. By the way hindsight is a wonderful thing and most of the supporters claiming that Song should have played from the start would have sold him 2 seasons ago because you thought he was shit.
Ooh…one further comment about Diaby. This fella has the makings of being a grea player. Strong, lithe-bodied, technically gifted, pace, powerful……..if only Wenger could get him treated for his frequent bouts of on-field narcolepsy!!!!
was at the game yesterday and saw some of these young fickle fans in action. they acted like prize chumps, constantly standing up, turning to the chelsea fans flicking V’s and wanker signs they don’t even know the meaning of while fans who actually came to watch the football match were obstructed by them.
these fans are nothing short of idiotic, kicking the plastic chairs as we headed for defeat. prats.
the bottom line is we did not play very well. the chance was there, but unfortunately our big players did not produce.
sure wenger is culpible. arshavin should have started, but when he didn’t, he should have at least seen half an hour of the match.
now is the time for this teams much vaunted spirit to show it’s head, because the season could just slip away, which would be a shame after the recent promise.
the one positive aspect from yesterday was our two english players, especially gibbs, who considering his injury doubt, did excellently on such a big stage.
Wouldn’t Fabianski have been playing regardless of Almunia’s injury as this competition was long ago declared as his?
Good post holic!! All the same tho, I am extremely gutted… How we allowed this result to play itself out for a third time in a hand full of years is just sad… I understand the team selection, even tho i do not agree. I thort Song should have played.
As you said, I too do not mind losing a semi final to good strong opposition, but yesterday we did not lose, we gave it away. Fabianski will learn, and as a goalkeeper myself, i can understand what happened yesterday… His defenders really didnt help him out. I am not one of those fans that complain when we lose, but I just have to point out how bad sylvestre was on the second goal!!!!
How could he give up the race for the ball???? it doesnt matter if the keeper is runnning out!!! You should never give up the race!!! drogba was not even close to the ball when sylvestre just stopped?!?!?!?!? he just stopped chasing?!?!?!?!?!?! WHY did he do that??? he did not need talent or ability to make that challenge! all he needed was commitment, and he proved that he is not committed to The Arsenal!!!
Who would have thought four months ago that Arsene would be crucified for leaving song out?
All pretty reasonable comments except … in what way was Ade great yesterday ? I thought he was his usual awful self. He seldom won a ball, he seldom held on to it, he didn’t beat anyone and he didn’t have a shot on target. How on earth is that great for your main striker ?
Yeah, lets look at positives, Walcott did well, that backheel flick to get rid of Cole and almost setting up V.Persie was great.
Gibbs got an assist and was great the whole game and I am sure I heard somewhere he’s got a great left foot on him and can shoot from distance… cant wait till hes confident enough to try those.
Has anyone noticed this weird thing Van Persie is doing to tackle? he seems happy to kick the ball towards the player going through the player afterwards…. seems effective but I honestly think he is going to break someone’s leg sooner or later.
I think the team would have played better if the pitch was decent, a lot of the passes that didnt come off was because they had to be precise and ball was slowing down too much.
If Wembley dont fix that pitch I think Wengerball at Wembley is never going to be a good tactic, we’ll have to go A-La-Allierdace.
Fabianski is young and should not take all of the blame. Some senior players need to take a good look at themselves-Diaby was woeful and should have been off at half time, I think only his height kept him on the pitch. Ade played like a plank and did not fancy competing with Terry or Alex so jumped late, in the wrong place and barely won a header, you can tell when he is not up for a game. Then there was Sylvestre where to start and where to finish? However the goals were due to bad marking by Eboue for the first and Toure leaving Drogba- he had been his shadow earlier in the game.
Don’t like the new Wembley cheap seats, my daughter has a broken arm and leg, has arm in a sling and and uses a crutch with the other hand and she was not allowed to have her water in a bottle so that I could carry it- more than their jobs worth!
Also coming out walking to Wembley Central as we left the stadium there were no Police or Stewards in sight as the crowd walked through the walkway to the main road. If trouble had started all hell could have broken loose. They were all busy monitoring the queue for the tube, which seemed to be sorting itself, useless!
JAMMATHON AND SUE,YOU ARE THE IDIOTS.iF YOU WANT TO LOSE GO SUPPORT SPURS THEY HAVNT BEEN TO A CUP FINAL SINCE 1991 SO THEY ARE USED TO IT.THIS IS ARSENAL AND IT IS ALL ABOUT WINNING AND NOT ACCEPTING THAT YOUR DONCE OFF A MANAGER THROWS THE GAME WITH PATHETIC LEADERSHIP.
Stop shouting and stop abusing people Danish. In fact, one more instance of that and you will become a rarity. The second person to be banned from here.
Great post. Good to see a well balanced article for once.
Danish? what on earth are you talking about?
dfb15 – ok hear ya. Ade’ thrives on distribution, Thierry Henry he clearly ain’t. But he has proved he can and will score goals. Cesc was marked out the game. RVP had little to offer. So what else could he do other than to press and harrass the opposition defenders to hopefully mop up any lose balls? Also, I don’t think he was guilty of his usual trick of getting caught offside every few minutes. I thought he worked hard is my point.
All about opinions I guess but I don’t think he played like a plank as another contributor put it. He had little to give, probably because he received very little.
Danish Gooner:
Your are exactly one of the plastic fans that jammathon and Sue were talking about. Think about it.
And for once, I actually find support from the blogosphere.
Danish – I’m neither blind nor deaf. I don’t need your capslock button.
My whole week builds up to the next Arsenal fixture. I cannot, cannot, cannot, get enough of this club. That includes all the players involved, regardless of how they are performing. They are Arsenal players, and Arsenal is my side.
The trophies will come. And thankfully, fans like you will mope off to support the Mancs to leave us in peace.
It amazes me how anytime a fan criticizes d manager or d team he becomes a plastic fan……FFS whats wrong with demanding ur team win trophies?Yday wenger made a mistake its as simple as that and d earlier wenger starts priortising the FA cup d better.And diaby is just a prat and would never be good.
Jammathon leave danish alone he like other fans like me wants us to win and when u’r close to winning,u hav to try ur possible best to do it which is exactly what we did not do yday cos of wenger.We’r a big club and we deserve atleast one trophy every season so when my team performs like dey did yday i can react however i want thats what makes me a gunner i would support my team through thick and thin so just spare us d plastic fan stuff its just pathetic .
Good post as always ‘holic. I think yesterday was a disappointing blip and we just need to put it behind us. One positive is that we will not have to play on such a surface again this season. it was truly awful and did not allow any silky football. Same for both sides but probably affected our game more. Strange selection from Arsene too but he knows his players better than all of us. We still have a helluva lot to play for and need to keep focus.
Actually its amazing that the moment someone criticizes the manager he becomes plastic. Blogs rush to pour praises of Arsene when he wins matches with the youth, but the moment he screws up and that is pointed out – fans become plastic.
I’m not going to jump ship if Arsenal don’t win anything this year but I doubt some of the players will be as patient as us.
I cannot believe that after last year’s fall out , Arsene actually again sacrificed the FA cup for the league.
*should have demanded cash up front*
Good and sober post, ‘holic.
Cash will be forthcoming MoD. ‘Twas still an experience to be in there, and I should have known what to expect from the extremely good price!
Aaah, you made it home then ‘holic!
Spot on with the write up, and massive heh at how high the seats were. Still feeling gutted, especially with the toffees beating the mancs today, but it is what it is. We just have to react from this quickly, as we have some huge games coming up.
Cheers!
PS – Cheers Jackster!
We didn`t play at all badly in what was, frankly, an uninspiring match. I felt it was a mistake not to start with Arshavin, but nevertheless we might well have won had Almunia been in goal. Fabianski was definately at fault for Malouda`s goal and should have done better when beaten by Drogba. AW had Tuesday in mind of course, but I thought even he had realised the importance of winning something this season. Still I wasn`t too disappointed until Everton turned over the mancs. Great to see Fergie incandescent about the non awarding of the penalty, and to listen to their fans on the radio afterwards. Quite a few people in,
recent weeks, have commented on Fergie being interviewed while still chewing furiously. One woman wrote that it was `the height of rudeness`. Well, we all know what that bullying tosser is all about.
‘Holic, as always, you managed to sum up a day of tension and disappointment wonderfully well. Maybe Wembley should have hired Le Grove construction and management team for an “enhanced customer experience” (or at least two pepperoni’s on the pizza)? I mean, come on!
On the beach. Purchased a wonderful device called slingbox. You lie on the beach, fire up the Apple and the Gunners are right there with you. Magic. Worth every cent of $200. Gunners for life, everywhere.
To the game. Up until Chelsea scored the second. I was very confident. It wouldn’t have been my starting eleven, but that’s why AW, not me, calls the shots. I thought “OK” when i saw the line up. First thirty minutes. Great. Well deserved lead and firing on most cylinders. Disappointing goal. We’ve let in worse this season, but that one hurt.
84 minutes in and I’m thinking, “This is close. Could go either way”. That nitwit Burley’s kilt is full of gas and verbal diahorrea. I turn of the sound on slingbox. Better! They score. It’s over for this year. A disappointing goal to lose. I think Willie G would have done much better than Silvestre. But then, he wasn’t there was he? Too much being made of Fabianski’s role in the game. He’ll be a stalwart in the years to come.
Also a delight to see A. Hole given the run around down their left side.
So, It’s on to third place in the league (we’ll thump Chelsea when they come to Le Grove) and a Champions League win. Now, where was I? Oh yes, time to catch a wave and a Pina Collada for me please barman. Keep your cn up. “Holic,. We need “Holic the positive.
Danish, lighten up mate.
And spare a thought for Chelski, lads. $500M in debt. Making an operating loss year in year out (because they didn’t have the foresight to build Le Grove equivalent, where you get one whole pizza on your pile of pepperoni’s!), no new training ground and no manager at the end of the season, no Cesc Fabregas AND…..they’re going to get their arses kicked three times in 1) EPL v Arsenal 2) FA Cup Final and 3) Creamed in CL, it’ll be VERY Messi.
Now, where’s that wave.
Heh,
On form as ever BtM. Those Slingbox things sound great. I have looked at them before but I don’t really spend enough time away from here to justify it.
Silva,
Thanks for the company yesterday. I needed a sherpa to guide me up that level five ascent. Shame we didn’t get a reward for shouting ourselves hoarse.
Jesus BtM, never mind half empty; yours is always full to overflowing. Good on yer for your optimism though.
BUT: “It wouldn’t have been my starting eleven, but that’s why AW, not me, calls the shots.” !!!???
Surely that is the problem. He put the team out and it lost – does that make him right?
Ok, it’s quite possible that had Arshavin, Song and/or Nasri played the result might have been the same but at least we could have said we gave it our best shot.
As it is I don’t think we (i.e. AW) took the game seriously enough and paid the price.
‘Holic, along with many others, have suggested Arsene was resting players for Anfield but that makes little sense unless, unbeknownst to me, that match has now been declared this year’s FA Cup Final.
Leaving aside villa’s continuing poor form, we already knew that was a match we could afford to lose/draw; and usually do.
What this team needs is a trophy and the reason Saturday was so annoying is that we pissed away what was probably our most realistic chance of one (especially in view of today’s events).
I desperately hope to be proved wrong but I think this was yet another example of Arsene’s increasing perversity. I’m not saying he should go but I do think that he needs someone alongside him (other than Pat Rice – much as I love him for all he’s done for the club) who will give him the occasional reality check.
What worries me is the parallel with 2004. Invincible in the league but not in the cups. Arsene pissed around with the team for the FA semi against the mancs and lost and we all know what happened against the chavs in the CL.
Now we have the same teams but reverse the competitions and, oh . . . . . we’re no longer invincible.