[size=6]Preview: Arsenal v Birmingham[/size]

By Richard Clarke

If Arsenal win the Carling Cup on Sunday, Arsène Wenger will leave Wembley with a satisfied smile on his face. But despite having ended that famous six-year spell without a trophy, developed a young vibrant side and silenced a few critics, the Frenchman’s demeanor may have changed by the time he gets home.

By then his thoughts will be on opening up the Leyton Orient defence rather than open-top buses and his winner’s medal may well have left his possession for good.

Make no mistake, the Birmingham game is massive for Wenger and his team. But the manager wants this to be the first of many prizes – hopefully this season – and the Carling Cup is only the springboard.

“To win this trophy would give us a lift,” said the Frenchman at his press conference on Friday.

“There is a weight on the team at the moment. We have to deliver trophies because we have not won any.

“I’m not the only one for whom that is important. There’s the players’ feelings too. They say: ‘Ok, we want to win a trophy to show you we can win one’. And I believe to win would give us a lift for the rest of the season.

“We have a good bond, a good confidence level and are highly determined to do well on all fronts. What will be vital for our success is that we focus well on the next game and give it the biggest importance. That’s the final game in the Carling Cup and will give everything to be successful.

“We are on a very strong run now. If you look at the start of the season, we are well above the predictions of the specialists.

“What is important is not what happened in the last six years but what we can do from now on.”

It is typical Wenger. The Frenchman has always shunned the sunshine of success. He’d prefer to watch a Belgian Second Division game on his giant TV than toast a triumph with backslappers. But his philosophy goes much deeper than mere modesty.

“I’m a futurist,” he said. “I’m not nostalgic. I don’t collect anything. I don’t know where my medals are. I’ve given some away, some must be in a cupboard somewhere. Frankly, I’m not a collector at all.

“This job turns you forward. When you go to bed at night, do you look back at the good moments you’ve had in your life, or do you look forward at what you want to do in the future? I’m more about what’s happening tomorrow.

“So on Monday morning we will come in and practice to win against Leyton Orient.”

On Thursday, Wenger had told TV Online that the hamstring injury picked up by Cesc Fabregas would cost him a place in the final. Media reports the following morning suggested the captain might make it so Wenger had to re-iterate the point at his pre-match press conference.

The Spaniard will be out for “one or two” games. Theo Walcott’s sprained ankle will sideline him for “two to three weeks”.

Robin van Persie, Laurent Koscielny and Abou Diaby are all available. The Dutchman will captain the side in the absence of Fabregas.

This is Arsenal’s seventh League Cup Final and they are going for their third victory. They reached Wembley the hard way by beating Tottenham, Newcastle and Wigan before coming from behind to see off Ipswich in the Semi-Final. For their part, Birmingham got past Rochdale, Brentford, MK Dons, Aston Villa and then West Ham.

Arsenal have beaten Alex McLeish’s side home and away this season but 6ft 7ins striker Nikola Zigic did put them ahead at Emirates Stadium back in October and in the January transfer window they brought in the powerful Obafemi Martins to partner him.

While Arsenal’s wait for silverware has been long, Birmingham have lifted just one trophy in their 136-year history – this one in 1963. However this season, you can argue that McLeish's men are a cup side. They have won eight out of nine knockout ties and, aside from Sunday, are in the FA Cup Quarter-Final. In the League they have won six out of 26 and are three points off the relegation places. However Wenger is fully expecting them to ease away from the dropzone before long.

“Birmingham are a team I respect a lot because they have always consistent behaviour in their motivational level,” said the Frenchman.

“They have stabilised the club in the Premier League and they are now in the Carling Cup Final. We will respect that.

“We know we will face a Birmingham team that is highly determined to do well. We expect them to be at their best and that means a big performance from our side will be requested.”

Wenger has always had an interesting relationship with the Carling Cup. His decision to play a very young side initially drew derision from the wider football world but it is now copied by many major sides. In turn, the Club supported that with cheaper seats that were not necessarily part of the season ticket package thus widening the fan base.

The youthful teams thrived and the home games sold out. So, in many ways, it will be highly fitting if this new generation team lift the Carling Cup as their first trophy. Most of the team will have made their debut in the competition while many fans watching at home and in the stadium will have been properly introduced to Arsenal via this event.

Yet, it remains a side-dish not a meaty main course for a greedy manager.

“The most important trophies are the Premier and the Champions League,” said Wenger. “After that you have the FA Cup and, after that, the Carling Cup.

“But for us it’s a trophy. How big the trophy is everyone will rate differently. We will just try to win it.

“I’m confident that we’ve been the most consistent team up to now,” he concluded, “because we’re still in everything.

“So it will convince the team they can deliver more.”

Sunday could close one six-year chapter in Arsenal’s history and open another much greater one.

Let the story unfold.
http://www.arsenal.com/match-menu/172077/first-team/birmingham-city-v-arsenal?tab=preview

[size=6]Report: Arsenal 1-2 Birmingham[/size]

By Chris Harris at Wembley

A last-gasp defensive mix-up put paid to Arsenal’s hopes of Carling Cup glory at Wembley on Sunday.

With one minute left on the clock, a long free-kick from Ben Foster was flicked on by Nikola Zigic and seemed destined for the arms of Wojciech Szczesny. But the keeper, distracted by Laurent Koscielny’s attempt to clear, fumbled the ball into Obafemi Martins’ path.

The Nigerian couldn't believe his luck and rolled it into an empty net.

It was heartbreaking for an Arsenal side that had looked the stronger as a gruelling Final headed towards extra time. Zigic had headed Birmingham in front in the first half but Robin van Persie equalised with a fine volley.

All that mattered for nothing in the end. Now Arsenal must pick themselves up and stay on track in three other competitions.

This hurts, but it could still be a season to remember.

When Arsène Wenger woke up on Cup Final morning he had two decisions to make. Who replaces Cesc Fabregas, who tweaked his hamstring against Stoke? And who steps in for Theo Walcott after he sprained an ankle in the same game?

Andrey Arshavin was a predictable deputy for the latter but Wenger sprang something of a surprise when he selected Tomas Rosicky instead of asking Samir Nasri to fill that Fabregas-shaped void.

The absence of their creative hub and speedster had certainly weakened Arsenal but they still emerged at a colourful yet rain-sodden Wembley as firm favourites to see off Birmingham, a club that had waited considerably longer for silverware - it’s 48 years since they won this very prize. But Arsenal have slipped up in similar circumstances before: remember Luton in 1988 and Swindon in 1969?

Wembley has changed rather a lot since then but the threat of an upset was the same. Within two minutes of the first whistle, this year’s underdogs reminded Arsenal why complacency was not an option. Lee Bowyer raced through on goal and was unceremoniously taken out by Szczesny. A cast-iron penalty was wiped out by the offside flag - and replays showed the linesman was wrong.

Shaken into life by that early scare, Arsenal advanced.

After seven minutes Van Persie fizzed an audacious effort past the angle after Wilshere had clipped an ambitious return ball into the box. A minute later Nasri cut inside from the right and found Arshavin with a clever angled pass. The Russian span his marker and shot low but Foster blocked with his legs. Then Nasri shanked high and wide after a slaloming run into the Birmingham box had taken him past three defenders.

The tone seemed to be set: Arsenal probing, Birmingham stifling. But the underdogs were rather more ambitious than that.

Keith Fahey tested Szczesny with a curler from 20 yards but their main threat came from Zigic. Birmingham looked to him for knockdowns into the path of their midfield runners and the six-foot-eight striker had already caused Johan Djourou and Koscielny plenty of problems before he opened the scoring in the 28th minute.

It was a simple enough goal: Sebastian Larsson picked out Roger Johnson with a right-wing corner, he nodded goalwards and Zigic rose high to flick a header past Szczesny despite the best attempts of Nasri on the line.

The ghosts of Swindon and Luton were back to haunt Arsenal and, although Van Persie headed just wide seconds after the goal, the Cup almost slipped away in the next ten minutes.

The red-and-white half of Wembley had Szczesny to thank after the goalkeeper rushed out to make a point-blank save from Zigic after he got clear inside the box. Then Djourou made two vital interventions in a matter of seconds to stop crosses reaching their intended target of Zigic.

Arsenal were struggling to contain the Serbian but their own centre forward would steal the spotlight from him six minutes before the break. Wilshere made it possible with a surging run and a thumping drive that crashed off the crossbar and Arshavin collected the rebound and wriggled past his marker to cross for Van Persie to volley into the corner. Arsenal were all-square.

Nasri stung the hands of Foster in first-half stoppage time and Rosicky flashed a first-time shot wide at the end of a quicksilver move three minutes into the second half. The tide seemed to be turning.

But just when you sensed Arsenal were taking a grip, Birmingham almost caught them with a sucker-punch. This time Jean Beasejour robbed Djourou and the ball rolled for Fahey, who saw one shot blocked and a second effort cannon off the post with Szczesny helpless.

Van Persie, injured while scoring his goal and only just back from a hamstring problem, made way for Nicklas Bendtner with a little over 20 minutes left. The Dane is remembered fondly among Birmingham fans for his successful loan spell at St. Andrew’s four years ago. This was his chance to tarnish that reputation.

He so nearly did within six minutes of coming on. Cutting in from the left, Bendtner unleashed a shot that took a deflection and tested Foster’s reflexes to the limit.

It was the second time in quick succession that the keeper had saved his team after keeping out Nasri’s venomous drive moments before. Moments later he hacked clear as Rosicky tried to dink the ball over him and Nasri was thwarted once more as Arsenal piled on the pressure.

If you had to pick a winner at that stage, it would have been the Gunners.

But there would be the nastiest of twists to this tale.
http://www.arsenal.com/match-menu/172077/first-team/birmingham-city-v-arsenal?tab=report

Even without Fabregas we have more than enough quality to see off Brum without any trouble.

Edited by sydneycroatia58: 26/2/2011 01:22:22 PM

;)

The main difference is a lot of the time Man Utd will play shit and get lucky and win. We play shit, and don't get that luck. Last night is the perfect example of that.

From the 1st of Dec.

I'm here all night :d

It does wind gunners up though lol