Arsenal Reach The Carling Cup Final

Arsenal booked their place in the 2011 Carling Cup Final last night with a 3-0 (3-1 on aggregate) win over Championship side Ipswich Town.

Trailing 1-0 from the first leg, Arsene Wenger fileded a strong Arsenal side at the Emirates knowing we needed a win to book our place in our first cup final since beating Manchester United on penalties in the FA Cup Final five years ago.

With a packed stadium of which 9,000 of the 60,000 supporters were Ipswich Town fans, Arsenal set out to nick an early goal, but were frustrated after wave upon wave of attacks were defended by the away team + losing Bacary Sagna to injury early doors. Going in 0-0 at half-time was a bit worrying with only Robin Van Persie hitting the cross bar and Cesc firing across goal, but I think all TRUE Gooners knew the goals were coming, and on 60 minutes Jack Wilshere crossed a beautiful diag' ball in to the waiting Nicklas Bendtner who cut in on Carlos Edwards to cooly curl one in from just inside the box. That goal was rapidly followed by a second headed in by Laurent Koscielny from an Arshavin corner.

As the Arsenal faithful began to make plans for a day out at Wembley, the game was finally put to bed by the Captain, Cesc Fabregas who played a little one-two with Arshavin to nutmeg the Ipswich Town 'keeper.


Speaking via his website after the match Andrei arshavin said-

 "We took a very seriously approach to this game, tried to "crush" our opponents from the very first minute of the match. We expected to score a quick first goal. But after the first 45 minutes, the score was still 0-0.

"During the break Arsene told us to play in the same high-tempo and try to speed up. He said that there would come a moment when the Ipswich players would get tired and then it would get more and more difficult for them to hold back our attacks. The coach asked us to keep our cool, not to make hasty, ill-considered passes, take care of the ball. He was sure that there would come a moment when we’d press them out.

"Actually, we played that way and that led to the Nicklas's goal. I would say that the goal came at the right time. Here it’s worth pointing out not only his skills in finishing this chance off, but also a Wilshere’s great cross to Bendtner.

"This goal allowed us to lift some kind of inner tension from the team and our fans. Once we started to lead the score, the game became easier. Soon we scored a good goal from a set piece."


Although some people see the Carling Cup as less important than say the FA Cup and Champions League, I think this will be a great springboard for us which will hopefully lead to more glory and achievements in the latter stages of the season!

West Ham travel to Birmingham tonight with a slim 2-1 lead from their first leg. We don't really care who we get to be honest, they will be dealt with NOICELY!!!

WE'RE ON OUR WAY TO WEMBLEY!!!

#AFC4LIFE

Image via Telegraph.co.uk