The worst moment ever

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Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
18 Apr	5:15 PM	FA	Chelsea (N)	1	2	Lost

At around 5.40 PM yesterday, this blog was tentatively titled "The Hand of Ashley Cole". Unfortunately, my suspicion that we had scored too early proved to be correct and I don't think we were quite at it yesterday evening.

There is a chapter, or a section, in Fever Pitch called "The Greatest Moment Ever". It relates, of course, to the 26th May 1989 and Michael Thomas. With 5 minutes left of the FA Cup semi final yesterday, Lukasz Fabianski, who I still believe has a big future at the club, provided us with, possibly, "The Worst Moment Ever" and so we have been knocked out of the FA Cup by a team that hadn't beaten us in the competition in something like 60 years .

Was it really the worst moment ever though? Worse than Gazza's genius free kick that I watched, as a 13-year-old at a Tottenham fan's house, bullet past David Seaman? Worse than Nayim's outrageous lob in 95 that so shocked my grandad, uncle and I that my auntie Susan, after 5 minutes of stunned silence from ourselves, resorted to the "Never mind boys, it's only a game!" Was it worse than Michael Owen's act of thievery in Cardiff, 2001 that saw me crying on my then girlfriend's shoulder and nearly getting into a fight with one of my best friends. A Liverpool fan, if you hadn't guessed.

No, I don't think it was really. But "The Third Worst Moment Ever" is not the snappiest title. For one thing, it meant that extra time didn't happen and so Joanna and I could leave the house and get to a birthday meal with her friends on time - did I really just say that? Yes, I did.

Second, we didn't do anywhere near enough to win the game yesterday and whilst I don't think Chelsea were that much better, it would be churlish to say, as we could have argued in the Carling Cup Final of 2007, that the better team lost. The truly frustrating thing, though, is that Chelsea didn't have to work very hard for their goals.

Emmanuel Eboue, for the first, showing why Wenger once said of him, "He can't defend!" before Lukasz got beaten on his near post. The second, around 80 minutes of match time after a similar incident, saw Drogba (he must love us and the presents we keep giving him) burning Silvestre and leaving Fabianski in no man's land. This time there was no Keiran Gibbs (who I thought one of our better players) to the rescue. On the back of a similar occurence at Wigan last week, it's clear that Fabianski's judgement is a little suspect at this stage of his career.

Speaking of suspect judgements, what of a man who decides to leave his best player, or at least the man who revived Arsenal in late winter, on the bench because he wants to play with "wingers"? Who then sits and watch cross after cross attempted but, as usual, nobody on the end of them.

Ironically, it was the man charged with getting crosses in who got on the end of one from Gibbs to tuck away a smart left foot volley. Some people think Theo doesn't influence games enough. I don't know what more he could be doing that he isn't at the moment. Especially if you look around the rest of the team and he must be sick of scoring big goals that the team can't hang onto.

Going back to the original starting point of this paragraph, Arshavin. Rested. Ready to go. On the bench. An even worse decision than putting Jeremie Aliádíère in for his first first team start in 3 months against Manchester United in 2004 and resting Reyes and Henry. We are now out of the one competition he could have won for us and he no chance to do anything about it. Maybe he was rested for Liverpool in midweek. Why? I have no idea.

Perhaps the result in midweek convinced Arsène we could live without him but for most of the match we played as if missing a cog. And maybe it would have been that way with him on the pitch, but we'll never know now. When he did arrive, that it wasn't Denilson who was replaced was quite surprising, I like Denilson. But he was less than impressive yesterday, dwelling on the ball, stupid passes and very lucky not to get sent off.

I mentioned an article by Amy Lawrence yesterday, in it she gently pointed out that it was a little early for "told you sos" from the manager. She was spot on.

User Comments

zem

Posted on 21 Apr, 2009 at 10:35 AM - Reply

time and time again the two ivorian defenders they are very shy or give to much respect to drogba and he is taking advantage.I do not remember talented as they are they gave a quite day or night any season.I do not believe for one minute that this guys both eboue and toure they are less phisicall than drogba.
Simply they do not commit 100% against theyr countryman.

Poor Fabiansky to be blamed .Yes Ebowe he do not close maulada closely and fabiansky judgment is 100% correct to stay a little further on the center .He did his best But Ebowe is the culprit for not closing enough maluda.

People say he came to early for the second goal .THE man he cab see as everybody else that Sivestre was struggling to contain drogba .One man is missed out of the picture and that is Ebowe were was he ?

It all comes in my opinion that the two ivorian they never commit 100% against drogba.

Rags

Posted on 21 Apr, 2009 at 03:37 AM - Reply

I don't why there is so much talk about Fabianski. he misjudged a situation and that's that. Even if he had stayed in Drogba was going to score. I don't understand how many more goals like this do we need to concede before our team learns. Keane scored a similar for Liverpool. This is easy for the opposition. and as someone said playing for free kicks and putting us under pressure is fair if that wins them the match. Sorry to say there was no passion in the players,it looked as if they had been forced to play. I enjoyed watching Jay Simpson play for West Brom. He is a hard worker and good passer. I have nothing against the foreign players but i think they are not passionate enough when it comes to the FA cup. Theo was perhaps the best for us on the pitch and i loved watching him trouble cole.

krush

Posted on 20 Apr, 2009 at 08:30 PM - Reply

i think arsene wenger has come of age and no longer has the thinking power like before
he has no idea which game is going to be more important-chelsea or liverpool
chelsea of courese-no need to rest arshavin here but wenger has lost it!

shane

Posted on 20 Apr, 2009 at 07:53 PM - Reply

obviously confused with nas and arsh not playing but of all physical teams to be playing and no song, why was he injured??. that line up made no sense to me at all compared to the balance witnessed aginst villereal.

Drunk in Canada

Posted on 20 Apr, 2009 at 06:04 PM - Reply

Worst moment? I doubt it. Losing a big match is always painful.

MJ

Posted on 20 Apr, 2009 at 03:50 PM - Reply

I have thought about it and it does make sense resting players for this liverpool game, very long way round it if we beat liverpool, then we can afford to rest players against Middlesborough and against Portsmouth giving us the best possible chance of having a fit squad against man u in champions league...if we play our best players against chelsea and lose to liverpool then the games against middlesborough and portsmouth become important meaning we are putting champions league in danger...he has just prioritised champions league over the fa cup.

dan

Posted on 20 Apr, 2009 at 03:44 PM - Reply

arguably the best player this season in nasri and our most exciting player of recent arshavin were left out for some stupid reason. That and defensive problems were why we lost, asides that we played alright, drogba was inevitably going to score anyway so we should accept it and focus on the champions league now. Out of position or not RVP should be disgusted with himself, as arsenal fans we know what he is capable of, but besided wonder goals against liverpool and everton, the guy has played one good game against chelsea at stamford bridge. I dont think much of denilson but atleast he is trying, you all love to blame eboue for our bad performances but he has had a great season, he gets forward, passes and plays well generally. RVP has been super crap by his standards and ability, but this season we have risen out of hell and have been playing good football as of late and players such as diaby, song, eboue, nasri, gibbs and cesc have had a huge hand in this and deserve mention. I look forward to a champions league final against barcelona this year whom we should beat, as never mind how good they look on pro evo and in highlights, they concede loads of goals and are a whale in a teardrop in their uncompetative and slow spanish league.

Kaymax

Posted on 20 Apr, 2009 at 02:33 PM - Reply

It was a disappointing game.I hope this won't be the first domino.AW lost the game.he should have brought in song and nasri for diaby and adebayor respectively and arshavin for van Persie later on.By the way,can't AW convert theo Walcott into the main striker?AW is so predictable.

bjf

Posted on 20 Apr, 2009 at 01:25 PM - Reply

To those asking why Arsene left Arshavin on the bench I would like to point out that we did not lose the Game because of our attacking players. Our defense was more of an emergency one. We had like five defensive players out yet we nearly made it. Imagine what would have been of Chelsea without Cech, Terry, Cole,Carvalho and Bosingwa? The pitch too didn't help our course. Congratulation to the team and better luck next time.

Joe

Posted on 20 Apr, 2009 at 01:25 PM - Reply

Gazza's free kick was deflected.

The Pups Plums

Posted on 20 Apr, 2009 at 12:56 PM - Reply

ahhh! Diddums!

The best team (by a long way) won!

Ballack won every tackle he was involved in, and Essien made Fab look average at best.

Good luck in CL though, as your fans were gracious yesterday and joined us for many a beer post match.

Would be good to do the same in Rome!!!

sulazu

Posted on 20 Apr, 2009 at 12:47 PM - Reply

We lost the game right from Wenger's selection. Only God & probably Wenger knows why Arshavin, Nasri & Song were dropped from the starting line up. Knowing how depleted we are defensively, Alex Song would have provided a very strong cover for the back 4 and Arshavin together with Nasri enforcing the attack. Again, Wenger blew our chance of a silver ware this season just when we all thought this could be it.

mcdonald

Posted on 20 Apr, 2009 at 11:08 AM - Reply

i wonder what diaby and eboue are still doin in an arsenal jersey. Was wenger too blind to see that they both were too wasteful, diaby most especially. They should just be offloaded ironically the boo boys seems not to have noticed diaby

shooy

Posted on 20 Apr, 2009 at 09:34 AM - Reply

Most worrying was that Chelsea were just phyically stronger than us and looked like they were more determined. Also a weird selection to leave out Arshavin, who can only play in domestic games, and not play Song, who has shown recenttly that he can help shore up a seriously weakened defence. Fabianski was poor but it would he unfair to lay the blame on a young inexperienced keeper. We should still have had enough balls to make a better fight of it. Van Persie, as good as he is, needs to talk less about strong finishes and do more to achieve one on the pitch.

kakatk

Posted on 20 Apr, 2009 at 09:10 AM - Reply

Chelsea won a game played by two underperforming sides. But that aside when will Arsenal supporters wake up and smell the coffee AW/arsenals boards policy of bringing through youth players, although admirable is not a winning formula. The young players all flatter to decive with there flair and pace and nice passing but lacks any cutting edge or grittyness that truly good players have (Fab aside).
Wengers youth policy has been running for years now but what has happened to all the youth products brought through only to dissappear

Rob

Posted on 20 Apr, 2009 at 09:00 AM - Reply

To be fair, I don't think you boys gift these goals to Drogba. You just don't have anyone with the physical presence to stop him.

Patrick

Posted on 20 Apr, 2009 at 07:28 AM - Reply

I think Diaby was the worst player on the pitch. Not only did he lose balls under any challenge, he constantly gifted Chelsea players with passes, one might have thought he was their 12th player. Didn't tackle, didn't link up well in attack, didn't read Chelsea runs. AW got it all wrong, he should have dropped Diaby and brought on Song

Framk Lampard

Posted on 20 Apr, 2009 at 06:20 AM - Reply

The only thing that matters is the result and guess what? Super, super, super CHELSEA................ Stop your bitterness, you should be used to winning nothing by now. And by the way, we had to play on the same pitch so please make up a better reson why you lost. I think the main reson you lost is that Chelsea is just simply a better football team hence why we are once again higher in the league than you GONNERS.

GunnerSG

Posted on 20 Apr, 2009 at 06:15 AM - Reply

If Wenger had started Arshavin and Nasri, our midfield would have been too lightweight. We have to note that Nasri and Arshavin are still getting in grips with the physical game in the league. The Chelsea midfield is mainly composed of physically imposing players, he started Diaby to counter that. In my opinion Song should have started instead of Diaby. We have to concede that we lost because of dodgy defending. I can't see anything else having gone wrong.

GoonerKnack

Posted on 20 Apr, 2009 at 03:29 AM - Reply

Fabianski aside - I really think AW go this tactics wrong ! Should have started with Arshavin & Nasri. Diaby was a very weak link in the middle. Very high rate of possession losses, can't tackle, and slow to engage. Poor support for Fab, Denilson as well. And it's been like this pretty much all season ! He needs to go ! And AW didn't even see it. Can't imagine another season with him in the team. And why was Ade allowed to play so far back + wide ? Shouldn't he have been providing more support in the centre like last season ? Our wingers worked hard but often, if you watched replays, there was no one in the middle.

Neil

Posted on 20 Apr, 2009 at 03:09 AM - Reply

Fabianksi's antics remind me of the monk's goalkeeping from 'Mean Machine' at times...

godsgift_2005

Posted on 20 Apr, 2009 at 01:34 AM - Reply

If there is one thing I agree with and that is regardless of fabianksi gifting the game to chelsea we were never good enuff to win, and a Chelsea winner was likely sooner rather than later however.

Although Wenger has done wonders to revive our season there is no logic in playing Van Persie out of position in such a big game, Arshavin was fresh and ready to go and the Adebayor sub at the end was just as mud boggling as the Henry sub against Chelsea in the Champions League at Highbury.

I have read a few of your articles and Fabianski for me will always be a goalkeeper that will make such errors as he just cant seem to stay on his line and sooner or later you will get caught especially against teams who have physical presence in the box. Denilson once again was useless and I do no beleive he has the type of future that will make Arsenal fans satisfied with all the ineffective displays.

As a team we can pass our way around anyone on a given day but our inability to repel teams is our major achilles heel. This is one of a number of big games where we have scored first and lacked the mental desire to get the job done. Bendtner, Denilson, Song and Diaby may turn out to be decent players in the future but its plain to see none of them are good enough for a 50+ game season. Hopefully him spending money on arshavin who has proven what the extra money can get you will hopefully release the shackles in the transfer market and we get an experienced defender and holding midfielder.

onayak 14

Posted on 19 Apr, 2009 at 10:37 PM - Reply

i noe we didnt play our best yesterday.... but we should really be proud of the team, we made it to the semis of the FA cup after such a crappy start to the season.

Eddie

Posted on 19 Apr, 2009 at 10:00 PM - Reply

When the team lined up yesterday I was disgusted that Arshaven had been left out ,why I have no idea ,What is it with AW and his 5 year plan .Does he not get it yet , some of these players are not good enough and never will be. Against Chelsea who are leaking goals for fun he lines up a team to Defend ,Nasari and Arshaven scared the life out of them when they came on . For the first time I question AW and his plans

Peter Le Beau

Posted on 19 Apr, 2009 at 09:51 PM - Reply

You youngsters really have no perspective on worst moments ever.Try just over 4,000 people turning up for a home game you lost to leeds 3-0 in 1966.Or having to scrap against relegation in the 70s.
But this is a good description of yesterday's fiasco.Wenger really is in no position to say I told you so.I suspect it may be some time (if ever) before he can!

randy

Posted on 19 Apr, 2009 at 08:09 PM - Reply

excellent post, someone not totally lost in the present, well done, lets keep going for the rest of the season

Damilola

Posted on 19 Apr, 2009 at 08:03 PM - Reply

Sorry arsenal fans,it is chelsea time.we are carrying mosqito coil along and on the way we have killed juventus,leverpool,arsenal and next is barca

Van Perry

Posted on 19 Apr, 2009 at 07:42 PM - Reply

Worst moment ever for me was Old Trafford, 24th October 2004 when the Invincibles stopped at 49. I rate it just ahead of 17th May 2006 as Barca beat us in Paris because United's victory was crude and they bullied and fouled us out of invinciblity. The biggest loser was Reyes, I will always believe that day cost him his career, secondly it ended an era and we all knew it may never be quite as sublime again, I actually cried, smashed crockery and ran away from home for all of an hour when i decided i had to turn back as it was raining, i was 17 i think.

Yesterday hurts a lot of course, but we are just at the start of a new era that is slowly gaining momentum and there still could be glory in this season, i hope.

Matt

Posted on 19 Apr, 2009 at 07:42 PM - Reply

Worst moment ever? Grow up. Do you even support Arsenal?

eddie

Posted on 19 Apr, 2009 at 07:35 PM - Reply

the team selection showed where our priorities lie: 3rd/4th spot and the champions league. Winning the FA Cup, nice as it is, won't win you big sponsorship deals, help attract players or swell the coffers too much, which is why i think wenger picked his team with an eye on Tuesday's game at Anfield. Look at Man Utd today, they played half their reserve team because they want to keep their powder dry for Wednesday.

Another point - the FA Cup final is 3 days after the Champions League final so if you really want to win the Champions League, why bust a gut to reach an FA Cup final that your players might not care about.

Also, look at the pitch y'day - bloody awful, cutting up, bobbly, very dangerous for a player. You could see the players weren't going in 100% committed because they didn't want to risk injury.

eddie

Posted on 19 Apr, 2009 at 07:35 PM - Reply

the team selection showed where our priorities lie: 3rd/4th spot and the champions league. Winning the FA Cup, nice as it is, won't win you big sponsorship deals, help attract players or swell the coffers too much, which is why i think wenger picked his team with an eye on Tuesday's game at Anfield. Look at Man Utd today, they played half their reserve team because they want to keep their powder dry for Wednesday.

Another point - the FA Cup final is 3 days after the Champions League final so if you really want to win the Champions League, why bust a gut to reach an FA Cup final that your players might not care about.

Also, look at the pitch y'day - bloody awful, cutting up, bobbly, very dangerous for a player. You could see the players weren't going in 100% committed because they didn't want to risk injury.

Sir Cecil

Posted on 19 Apr, 2009 at 07:17 PM - Reply

A very long-winded way of saying the better team won and the losers deserved to lose.

cookie

Posted on 19 Apr, 2009 at 07:16 PM - Reply

dissapointed with the game but im glad arsenal didnt play well and get beat by chelsea,we played verybad and chelsea were very lucky ,and as for ballack his let the germans down they normally very competetive and strong but when someone burped of broke wind in the crowd he fell over and the sad ref give them the free kicks ,but i think chelsea played for that all game ,lets get free kicks and pressure arsenals backline ,thats fair enough but to keep falling over and the erf falling for it everytime its a joke

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