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Arsenal kept us waiting, but in the end they delivered when they had to, and the team overcame one of their biggest challenges of the season with a 3-0 win over Ipswich Town sending us to our first cup final since 2007.
The next big challenge will be winning the thing, and hopefully Championship relegation fighters Ipswich have taught us not to take ANYONE lightly. We’re fortunate that the likes of United, Chelsea and City were knocked out in earlier rounds and a final against West Ham or Birmingham City should give us confidence, but hopefully we will not see anything like a repeat of the performance at Portman Road.
We certainly didn’t take them lightly again tonight, but we were victims of the situation we’d got ourselves into – some of our play was rushed and despite creating some good chances, it looked like Ipswich were dealing with us, and growing with confidence as time went on.
I questioned Wenger’s lineup before the game, having hoped very much to see the likes of Song, Walcott and Nasri starting; I could not see the benefit of rotating for a big game like this when our next fixture is Huddersfield Town (not that I’m now guilty of taking teams lightly, I just mean since we’re only in the 4th round of the FA Cup it does not currently represent an instant chance of success). It looked like I was right, with Bendtner and Arshavin looking poor as they have done in recent times. Obviously Wenger felt that against a team like Ipswich, we might just steamroller them and give Nic and Andrey a chance to get their confidence up. It wasn’t really working out.
In the end though, Bendtner came to life and scored a superb opener; taking down a long ball by Jack Wilshere with one delightful touch, before cutting inside and curling a low shot past Fulop in the visitors’ goal.
And then of course came Arshavin to prove me wrong, providing the assists for the next two goals; firstly a well-taken corner onto the head of Laurent Koscielny to score our second, and then a well-timed through-ball to Fabregas to slide in the third.
The pair on the wings didn’t play well, but they delivered the goods, and Arshavin in particular added to his impressive tally of assists for the season. Unlike his performances, his statistics are very good. What takes priority? Are we harsh to criticise him if he can still provide the odd moment of quality that wins games? Normally, you’d settle for that, but at the moment there is thankfully no need, as Walcott and Nasri are both playing a lot better, and matching the Russian for end product.
We’ll presumably see these two again against Huddersfield at the weekend. Hopefully they can put on a display that justifies their impressive numbers.
Elsewhere tonight, Blackpool looked like ending Man United’s unbeaten run, until at 2-0 they were denied a clear penalty. I think every gooner knew at that moment that United would find a way back, and they did. I really hope they don’t do the season unbeaten, but I can’t see us catching them in the league either way. I hope I’m wrong, and I’m sure we’ll push them all the way, but to be honest, second place and the Carling Cup would be a major step in the right direction for next season.
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