By dixon9
March 2 2007

The Day The Football Died. The first League Cup Final between two London clubs and the last to be placed at the Millennium Stadium will, unfortunately for football, be remembered for a disgusting brawl near the end of the game.

I have never seen such a bad advert for football and I sincerely hope the FA thoroughly analyze the video evidence and take appropriate measures against the Arsenal players who set such a terrible example to millions of fans and youngsters who watched the match around the globe. 

 

It could and should have been remembered for some marvellous, sparkling football from some of Arsenal’s youngsters during the first half, the undaunting spirit of a Chelsea team, a superb Cech save, a 35 yard exorcet from Frank Lampard, an admirably crafted first half Walcott goal, an athletic headed goal from Drogba – in short, remembered for FOOTBALL and not some street like melee that involved players, managers, staff…..at one point, the brawl seemed to be going on for so long I wouldn’t have been surprised if Enid, the stadium tea lady, would have trundled onto the turf with her trolley and plates of digestives.

 

Some Arsenal fans, in typical fashion, will gloss over the incident which wasn’t in their pre-written script.  They must know, full well, if it had been Chelsea cowardly punching Arsenal players from behind (amongst other things) they would have been screaming for us (the big, bad, evil Chelsea that we are who’ve taken their toys away from them) to be deducted points, banned from the competition in the future or even placed in a public stockade.  They know, in their heads, that they ruined the final with their totally graceless behaviour where their promising youngsters (with the exception of Walcott who gave a wide berth to events) turned into spoilt brats who couldn’t accept losing.

 

The initial minutes of the match were reasonably chess-like until Baptista got through on 8 mins.  Baptista, indeed, looked like he had a point to prove to Wenger and more than tested Cech with a great shot that bizarrely travelled through the legs of Terry.  This is why many say Cech is the best in the world – it could have easily been 1-0.

 

Then Walcott’s dream came true when he curled the ball confidently past Cech after some inventive football from Arsenal to send the red and white sections of the stadium into ecstasy.  At this point, my worst nightmare was threatening to come true - Arsenal looked confident – Chelsea, slow and cumbersome.   The football reminded me of a big, slow giant, half asleep, whilst mischievous elves poked, pulled and played around him. 

  

The pitch almost certainly looked to be spoiling the football to some degree as both sets of players slipped and slided on the wet, lush turf.  Bambis on ice came to mind and I am not sure if this was due to bad stud selection or an overly enthusiastic groundsman who, whilst armed with his hose, imagined he was a fireman on the set of the Towering Inferno. 

 

During these initial stages, I was particularly impressed with young Diarra – he was handling his right flank superbly and looked to be our best player at the time.  We then managed a brief respite when good work from Drogba resulted in Shevchenko laying-off for Lampard to shoot.

 

Soon, Arsenal looked dangerous again when Baptista almost broke through but then Ballack had other ideas.  On 20 mins, the German played a sublime pass through to Drogba and caught the Arsenal defence flat footed. The promising but unfortunate Senderos´s trailing foot kept Drogba onside and let our black panther through on goal.  “The Drog” didn’t disappoint, and opting to ignore the perhaps better placed Shevchenko, fired almost disdainfully through Alumna’s legs into the net. 

 

We now seemed to have weathered the main part of the storm and good work from Drogba released Diarra on the right although his low, hard cross didn’t ask enough questions of Alumina.  Wenger meanwhile continued to complain the 4^th official about the linesman failing to flag for Drogba´s goal which many no doubt found surprising as he normally doesn’t see controversial incidents.

 

Denilson received a yellow for clipping Essien as he surged past but then more moments of tension arrived as Arsenal pushed forward again.  Young Diarra did well to cut out Traore and shortly after Essien also picked up a yellow for a foul on Baptista.  Fábregas played a deep, long ball (and no “hoof” from the Arsenal faithful) but Baptista was given offside.

 

The final stages of the first half was pretty end to end stuff; Lampard and Bridge worked a Shevchenko opportunity, Cech left Chelsea fans with their hearts in their mouths fumbling an innocuous low cross almost leaving Aliadière to poke home, and with 2 mins to go Denilson played a ball through to Aliadière leaving Terry visibly hobbling after him in vain. 

 

Terry was not fit and I just do not understand why our medical department passed him to play – the whole Terry injured/not injured fiasco during the week was a joke.  Why risk such an important player? – First against Porto and then Arsenal.  This apparent incompetence needs to be addressed as there is still a long way to go this season.

 

Just before the start of the 2^nd half there was a heartening sight for the Chelsea support; Arjen Robben was warming up, and his presence was to change the game.

 

Events resumed and immediately Shevchenko almost went through after weaving through various members of the Arsenal rear guard and Robben started to worry the Arsenal faithful with his raids down either flank.

 

Baptista fired his free-kick from a dangerous position into the Chelsea wall, Fábregas soon after shot wide and then Robben replied with a great run, cutting in but curling his shot wide and high.  Diarra saw yellow after cutting across the impressive Diaby and then, on 57 mins, the world stopped:  Chelsea pressured and there was a brief, goalmouth melee.  Terry flung himself forward where probably nobody else would have dared but was unfortunately caught by the boot of Diaby.  Terry lay unconscious; the immediate seconds after he fell I swear his body quivered in shock. 

 

It would not be fair to omit deserved praise for the Arsenal and England physio, Levin, who reacted immediately to treat our captain - why wasn´t our man first?  Mourinho looked ashen faced and somebody turned to stadium volume from 8 down to 2.  Terry was stretchered off and applauded by Chelsea and Arsenal alike.  I’m sure our captain must have an iron girder instead of a backbone – amazingly he returned from hospital in time to join his celebrating colleagues.  Diaby has a foot injury – don’t tell me it came from his accidental kick to Terry’s head!

 

Terry’s absence, instead of encouraging the Arsenal side, conversely galvanised the Chelsea team.  19 year old Mikel Obi was the substitute and the young Nigerian was soon to stamp some authority in midfield.  This boy’s going to be great – he possesses a deft touch and plays so confidently and is beginning to demonstrate to the Chelsea faithful just why the club battled so long with Manchester United for his signature.

 

Robben was terrorising the Arsenal defence yet again but his cross couldn’t be met sufficiently as Senderos was too tight on him and then Walcott soon turned Bridge inside out down the right in reply.  Chelsea increased their grip on the game and Hleb came on to try and adjust the balance.

 

Then came a sublime moment; Lampard was deep in midfield and ran forward.  From 35 yards he launched a thundering exorcet which crashed against Alumna’s cross bar.  This missile left the Arsenal crowd like guppies at feeding time and it was a great shame this much maligned competition hadn’t received what would have been a truly spectacular goal. 

 

Drogba produced some superb work on the edge of the Arsenal penalty area but Shevchenko´s cross was well intercepted as Lampard shaped to shoot.  Touré had managed a “shoulder” from a cross although his effort was high over the bar. 

 

Soon, Arsenal’s youngsters now began to see the game slipping away from them - we didn’t have to wait long for the confirmation;  a sloppy pass clearance uncharacteristic of Fábregas, was intercepted by Essien who drove forward to the left.  Robben picked up the batten and made an enticing cross.  Drogba, the nemesis of Senderos, stole in front of the Swiss defender and directed his powerful header magnificently into the lower right hand corner of Alumna’s goal.  A blue sea erupted and Drogba painted “26”, dedicating his goal to Terry.  Make no mistake, this was a truly majestic goal and was the Ivorian coast man’s 28^th goal of the season.

 

The match was now beyond the north Londoners and their extreme frustration then produced one of the sorriest incidents ever in football.  Mikel had tugged at the shirt of Touré and the referee surely would have produced a yellow for the offence, unfortunately, the Arsenal player’s reaction was of anger and soon there was a melee of rabbit punches and punches from the Arsenal youngsters.  I still do not see why Obi received a red and Arsenal had 2 and not 3 players sent off.  The fracas and Terry’s injury resulted in surely the longest injury time in Cup history but the day was Chelsea’s. 

 

Shevchenko then underlined the Chelsea domination when his drive rattled off the upright leaving Almunia stranded – it could have so easily been 4-1 when also taking into account Lampard´s long range effort.

 

The young Arsenal side actually had an average age of 22.6 compared to Chelsea’s 26.3 – a difference of 3.7 years although 22.6 seems generous to a side who behaved like spoilt 5 year olds at the end of the game throwing the toys out of the proverbial pram. 

 

A sad and sorry end to what could have been a final remembered for so many different things.

Arsenal 4-4-2  Almunia; Hoyte, Touré ·, Senderos, Traoré ( Eboué ·, 67); Walcott, Fábregas ·, Denilson ·, Diaby (Hleb, 69); Aliadière (Adebayor ·, 81).

Subs not used Djourou, Poom.

Chelsea 4-1-3-2 Cech; Diarra ·, Carvalho ·, Terry (Mikel ·, 63), Bridge; Makelele (Robben, h-t); Essien ·, Ballack, Lampard ·; Shevchenko (Kalou, 90), Drogba.

Subs not used Hilario, A Cole.

Referee H Webb.