I really enjoyed Tuesday's trip to
London &
Arsenal's win over
Wigan in the
Carling Cup.
I drove from
Liverpool to
St Helens, to my friends house, then in his car, we headed South at about 11am. Reports of heavy snow added a bit of interest to the weather outside, but we didn't see much until we passed through the
Midlands, where the snow was fairly thick. The roads were surprisingly open, and we continued South without delay or incident, and as we approached the M25, the skies turned deep grey and the snow fell creating a picturesque & indeed slightly dangerous approach to our stopping town of
Esher.
A train into
Waterloo station followed by some welcomed hot food at McDonald's, preceeded our discovery of the student protests at
Trafalger Square. What looked like over 100 riot Police blocked off every entrance & tried to contain the students. Windows were smashed, and police charged, but in truth, the action was a bit of a let down.
So on to the
Emirates, and by now after a few visits, using the tube was a lot easier,we arrived at the
Arsenal
at about 6.30pm. Another hot cup of tea, a mooch around the packed Club shop then into the stadium and up to our seats in the upper tier. I was expecting us to play a strong team, with some kids, like
JET and
Eastmond, but they both started on the bench, and it was an experienced starting XI, of
Schezeny,
Koscielny,
Djourou,
Gibbs,
Walcott,
Denilson,
Wilshere,
Van Persie,
Vela and
Bendtner. The Wigan team was much as expected, only dangerman N'
zogbia was on the bench with the pacy
Victor Moses up front.
In the first half I thought the posession was fairly mixed,
Arsenal were guilty of some sloppy passing including a lazy back pass from
Eboue that almost got us into trouble.
Bendtner should have scored from a
RvP free kick - heading wide, and
Vela missed a great chance after being put clean through 1 on 1 with the keeper, he chipped it off target. We took the lead from a corner that Wigan captain Alcaraz turned the ball into his own net and there was a relief amongst the supporters in the stands.
Moses was a danger for
Wigan, and he turned
Eboue inside out before shooting wide in one of
Wigan's few chances in the game. They knowcked the ball about well enough, and looked like they could create opportunities, but often the killer pass or cross was missing from
Wigan's approach play. Chances came & went for
Arsenal as
Vela &
Walcott could have added more goals, and finally it was
Niklas Bendtner who tapped in the 2nd after typically good approach play.
Eastmond,
Nasri and
JET came on for
Wilshere,
RvP and
Bendtner towards the end of the game. In the end it was a fairly easy win for the Gunners, and i was glad to see a few goals.
Gibbs impressed me at the back, and it was great to watch
Jack Wilshere command the midfield as he did. However, i was disappointed with the overall perfeomance of
NB52, he was not holding the ball up, sloppy in posession, and generally poor. i wouldn't be sad if we sold
Bendtner in January. A couple of fans ran onto the pitch before the end, which was entertaining,
Eboue finally catching one fan, who our stewards, who look so unfit, couldnt handle.
So a 2-0 win and a satisfying win. More goals should have been scored, but we are a step closer to our first trophy in 5 years :)
A semi final draw Vs
Ipswich has been kind to us, and over 2 legs, you have to feel the
Arsenal will be heading to Wembley soon.
So we happily headed back to the tube, singing songs like,
Harry Redknapp is a wanker, is a wanker & Gareth
Bale, is a monkey, is a monkey! We hate Man U we hate Man U - simple but funny. Got back to
Liverpool at 4.30am, then was in work for 9am on Wednesday morning! Thats dedication. It's good to be a
Gooner!
