MISSION: POSSIBLE?

After the success of Richard’s 1st article about attendances at St Andrews, here is his difficult 2nd article. I think you’ll enjoy it!

With the Carling Cup final only days away now and most people set for the big day, does anyone think we can actually beat Arsenal? Certainly not the bookies, who have us as long as 7/2 and Arsenal as short as 1/5. But have we got what it takes to cause an upset on the day?

Big cup finals and Blues don’t usually mix, so when one comes around its seen more as a day out then a genuine chance to win a trophy and an opportunity to put an end to a certain song about us not having won anything! But this Blues team is made of stern stuff. Alex McLeish has built a side with a never say die spirit who don’t know when they’re beaten. People like Ferguson, Bowyer and Carr, players who’ve been round the block yet still give it everything every week because their professional pride wouldn’t allow for anything less. Witness Roger Johnson’s reaction to being subbed against Sheffield Wednesday. Some may see it as petulant, and it was obviously a correct decision, but does anyone fancy telling him that we’re going to Wembley just to make up the numbers?

Our squad may not have the same quality as Arsenal’s, but there’s a lot of competition for places now and we’ll have a pretty strong bench on the day with a few game changers on it. The run out against Sheff Wed was just what Obafemi Martins needed, as well as being a goal threat, his touch and link up play has been something that we’ve been lacking. If he starts, then one or both of Jerome and Zigic will be on the bench. If we can keep it tight, then I’m sure Arsenal’s defence won’t want to see either of those two coming on after 70 minutes.

Arsenal have struggled in a few cup games this season. Held to draws against Leeds and Leyton Orient, fairly lucky to beat Huddersfield at home and losing the first leg away at Ipswich in the Carling Cup semi. The Ipswich game was interesting; Ipswich found a weakness – the long ball over the top – and exploited it. If that’s a tactic we have to exploit, then so be it. It ruffled a few Arsenal feathers, with Fabregas calling it rugby; an example of the recent juvenile behaviour from their imaginary card waving captain.

I’ve always admired the way Arsene Wenger’s side play, we always seemed to have a good relationship with Arsenal and have benefited with receiving many players on loan throughout the years. Karren Brady being close friends with David Dein helped our cause, I’m sure. But things changed the day of the Taylor/Eduardo incident, inflamed no doubt by the comments of Wenger after the game.

For all the good he’s done for the game in general, his lack of class is staggering at times and I think it emanates through to his players. Anyone follow any Arsenal players on twitter? They’re forever moaning about referees decisions after a game. Again, if we can keep it tight, I’m sure a few Arsenal players will start to lose it a little. Remember, the pressure will be all on them, this is the day a 5 year wait for a trophy will end and every media outlet would have been telling them that all week. Getting them rattled and have 31,000 Bluenoses doing a ‘Wenger’ will almost be as good as winning the trophy!

We go into the game in some decent form; we’ve won five out of the last seven in all competitions, scoring 13 goals in the process. The goals have been coming from all over the pitch and, Newcastle aside, we’ve regained some of our meanness in defence. Most of our players will be fresh, not having played for 12 days, whereas Arsenal have a fixture backlog, a trip to Barcelona in the back of their minds and a tough game against Stoke four days before the final and as we saw recently, Stoke know how to put themselves about. Incidentally, so do Arsenal. The latest Fair Play table (starting with the greatest offenders) has Arsenal in 7th place and ourselves languishing in 19th. Maybe we’ll qualify for Europe that way!

Arsenal are overwhelming favourites for a reason, but we we’re longer odds and a championship side against Liverpool in Cardiff in 2001 and we came within a whisker of upsetting those odds. I can’t see us getting turned over, I think we’ll be right up for it and not let them have any time on the ball. I know it’s probably blind optimism, but I’m convinced we’re gonna do it and I’ll be betting on 1-0 to Blues.

Richard Mullen