League Cup Final review: Chelsea 2 - 1 Arsenal
Match reports
The Times, Matt Dickinson: “John Terry was concussed, the rest of us were just stunned by a Carling Cup final yesterday that, if it is the last showpiece match at the Millennium Stadium, will not be quickly forgotten. While the Chelsea captain needed reviving, everyone else required calming down.”
The Independent, Glenn Moore: “The Carling Cup final … threatened to be overshadowed by something no one would desire, a serious injury. In the 57th minute John Terry swallowed his tongue and turned blue after being accidentally kicked in the throat by Abou Diaby attempting a header.”
Daily Telegraph, Henry Winter: “Arsenal, all feline grace and youthful ambition, were the better team, moving the ball around exquisitely at times, particularly when Theo Walcott swept them ahead. Chelsea, though, boasted the experience, the power and the expertise of three stalwart performers, Petr Cech, Ricardo Carvalho and Didier Drogba.”
The Guardian, Kevin McCarra: “Adversity … is stimulating for Chelsea. Ricardo Carvalho, at fault for the opener though he was, epitomised that trait in his positioning and immaculate tackling. Against the fluently rampant Arsenal of the first half, the centre-back was destined for acclaim or notoriety. By the close the Chelsea supporters cherished him more than ever.”
Official Chelsea FC Website, Neil Barnett: “The final whistle went after 12 minutes of stoppage time. Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea has now won five trophies in two-and-a-half years.”
The goals
11′ Walcott 0-1
20′ Drogba 1-1
84′ Drogba 2-1
The good
- Another trophy for Jose Mourinho. We didn’t play that well, Arsenal’s youngsters made us look ordinary at times, but Mourinho has instilled a winning mentality that, even after we went behind to a great Theo Walcott goal you felt we would still win. Or maybe that was just me? Mourinho has now won a trophy in all three of his seasons at Chelsea. But is it enough?
- Didier Drogba. Scored his 27th (definitely onside despite Sky and Arsene Wenger’s protestations to the contrary) and 28th goal of the season. What more do you need to know? Imperious in attack and defence and proved Philip Senderos’ nemesis once again.
- Ricardo Carvalho and Lassana Diarra. Carvalho was outstanding, particularly in the first half. An unsung hero. I continue to be impressed by Diarra - his composure and ball control belie his youth and relative inexperience. Chelsea need to tie him to a long-term deal as soon as possible.
- Petr Cech. Different class. We wouldn’t have won without him. Enough said.
- Arjen Robben. Replaced Claude Makelele at half time and made the difference. Supplied a perfect cross for Drogba to score the winner.
- The referee. Howard Webb had a pretty good game, even the decision to send off Emmanuel Adebayor was correct - the Togo international apparently hit Frank Lampard on the head twice. Emmanuel Eboue should also have been sent off for punching Wayne Bridge. Whether John Obi Mikel deserved to be sent off is a moot point; he committed a silly foul on Kolo Toure but was then attacked by the Ivorian.
- Arsenal and England physio Gary Lewin. He was the first to react to John Terry’s horrible head injury. Terry was seen hugging and thanking Lewin on his return from hospital.
The bad
- The sickening injury to John Terry. He was taken to hospital but quickly recovered and took part in the celebrations, which says it all really. Words fail me. Surely he will have to sit out a handful of games?
- Our first half performance. Arsenal played us off the park. All credit to Wenger and his so-called reserves, but you have to wonder why we were so poor. Michael Ballack started slowly (great pass for Drogba’s first) again and Terry didn’t look fully fit. We picked up in the second half and probably should have won it by a couple of goals - Lampard and Andriy Shevchenko were unfortunate to see their rasping shots hit the same part of Manuel Almunia’s crossbar.
- The melee in injury time. Nothing more than handbags really, although listening to that righteous buffoon Alan Green on Radio Five Live you would think that the players were committing grievous bodily harm on one another. Toure’s ridiculous reaction to Mikel’s foul sparked the incident.
- Cesc Fabregas. A very talented but wholly dislikeable player. Feigned an elbow in the face in an effort to get Robben sent off and played a key role in escalating the end of match fracas.
- Sky’s coverage. Never shy in hiding their dislike of Chelsea, yesterday’s coverage and commentary took that dislike to another level. Andy Gray excelled himself and you can only guess at the discomfort he suffers when having to express an “objective” view of yet another Drogba goal. The bloke is an arsehole.
Man of the Match
It has to go to Didier Drogba. But Petr Cech and Ricardo Carvalho deserve a swig or two from the Ivorian’s bottle of champagne.
Final thoughts
I thoroughly enjoyed the game, it had everything you could ask for: great football, great drama, and a mass brawl, spoilt only by Sky’s coverage. Much is sure to be made of the scuffle at the end (as it will of the ultimately harmless act of lobbing celery at a deserving Fabregas), but that shouldn’t be allowed to detract from Mourinho’s achievement of winning his fourth major trophy with Chelsea on a day when he had everything to lose. Despite his record many still believe he’s now in the same unenviable position as Claudio Ranieri, in that he’s a “dead man walking” because Roman Abramovich wants him out. Only time will tell.
Related links
- Reaction: Silverware again - JT OK
- Didier: I wasn’t playing my best
- Train problems hold up 2,000 fans
- Relief rivals Chelsea’s joy
- How Jose the serial winner finally showed he is full of heart
- Mikel makes apology
- No excuse for losing the game and the plot
- FA charges teams over cup brawl
- Posted at 01:37 AM · Permalink · Print · 3928 views · Last indexed by Google on the 16th May 2008
- Tags: Andriy Shevchenko, Arjen Robben, Arsenal, Arsene Wenger, Cesc Fabregas, Chelsea, Claude Makelele, Claudio Ranieri, Didier Drogba, Emmanuel Adebayor, Emmanuel Eboue, Frank Lampard, Gary Lewin, John Terry, Jon Obi Mikel, Jose Mourinho, Kolo Toure, Lassana Diarra, League Cup, Michael Ballack, Michael Essien, Petr Cech, Ricardo Carvalho, Roman Abramovich, Wayne Bridge
you can’t be blind to chelsea’s rampant fouls and still blame the opponents. the fight was sparked by mikel’s foul, you should know that, instead of blaming kolo. and of course, you’re blind to the offside for drog first goal. hypocrite chelsea.
I’m still not buying that ‘dead man walking’ crap. The club has reiterated many times that they want Mourinho to stay and fully support him. I’m sure Roman had to give his permission and backing for those statements to come out. Then in the case of Roman I feel is his actions speak better than his words, as he doesn’t really talk that much, so as you say only time will tell. But in my opinion this is all about the press trying to disestablish our club, as simple as that.
Also I trully agree with your comments on Fabregas, he has turn himself into a petulant t*at. He really is thinking too much of himself right now.
Vico, no matter who fouled who, the amount of shirt tugging or tom foolery that Mikel got up to, watching Kolo’s reaction was way over the top and uncalled for. You could of sworn he wanted to kill Mikel for causing a foul?
Him and Adebayor = no class. They both should get off and stay off the park.
Great win and great day - aside from the $%^&$ train. Only a mild panic when I thought I might miss lunch turned into a major sweat when it looked like I wouldn’t even make kick-off. Fortunately I made it.
Forget all this moral victory rubbish - I’d rather win matches and trophies.
Great 2nd goal by Drogba - right in front of us in the lower tier - fantastic header.
Vico……2 Arsenal sent off and 1 Chelsea. 3 Arsenal booked and 4 Chelsea. By ay statistical means it shows an equality in fouls etc. Now go away and pick on Spurs.
Nick, well written and seriously if you get the chance to watch again on Sky listen to the anti-Chelsea bias from beginning to end. Even the build up and afters were pro Arsenal. I might have been tempted to complain but Sky are so arrogant I’d probably be in The Sun under the headline of “Chelsea Fan in Sky Soccer Supremo Snub” . I really detest them these days, possibly even more so than Liverpool.
Spot on with your assessment of the fracas near the end Nick.
Arsenal have not only lerarned to play football the same way as the their senior counterparts, they’ve also picked up the habit of being petulant bad losers.
And Vico so what you’re saying is that everytime a player is fouled everyone should react like Toure? you really are a fool!
Hilarious toys-pram stuff from the young Goons, clearly schooled as much in the ways of Graham as they are Wenger. Generally agree with all the comments - Mikel didn’t deserve a red, he just got attacked (no idea what got into Toure, expect better of him). Then Fabregas made it worse, Adeyboyer had a pop at Lamps (who was no angel) and Eboue off-the-balled Bridge. Disgraceful! Hilarious!
The ITV highlights were great. Masturbatory screams after Walcott scores; complete silence after Drog equalised (and then a comment along the lines of ‘the linesman might have given offside’. Yes, he might of, but he’d of been wrong.)
And then the pomposity at the celery-throwing… ‘Disgraceful scenes, nobody wants to see that’. Have these people ever been to a Chelsea match before?
Frankly, after the final minute ruck, I think we take the moral cup along with the proper one… Sorry kids, fairy tale over. See you in next years CC.
Well written Nick…
Only complaint is your failure to mention Didi’s match winning goal…
That goal lifted me off my chair…well the first was okay but the second had class written all over it… The way he moved infront of his favourite defender “send errors” beautiful…
You also failed to mention Wenger…Well he has sobered up a bit…Handshake and walking on the pitch to quell the trouble he and TSO had brewed up…
I loved the match…Beautiful one there…Will be watching out for the replay…
Hey and Vico we know Arse Nals have a problem taking a loss…but honestly though your boys have the future to look to ours is here to live ight now.
The fisticuffs were a tad pathetic, and an unnecessary end to a suprisingly action packed final (although Eboue was very lucky to escape punsihment for lamping Bridge on the head).
Sky’s anti-Chelsea bias is starting to wear thin, they may as well have all sat there in Arsenal shirts. What a joke.
I was surprised to see JT play. I dont accept for one minute he was fit. He was clearly topped up on painkillers. Not sure why he was risked with an important run-in on the cards but thats in the past. Just hope he doesn’t face too long out now - either with his head injury or his ankles.
After watching the game again I can only agree with the comment made re the sky bias.Unbelievable!! As far as the fracas is concerned I think Toure overreacted and Fabrigas just made the whole thing a lot worse. Watch Adebayor come in from the left and give Lampard a couple of slaps (He said this morning he was only involved to stop things!!) Arsenal are a disgrace and should be dealt with strongly. I expect them to get off scot free!! As an aside not one Chelsea player threw a punch !!
Lets come to think of it. I felt so much ashamed of the incident that happened in the match. A foul is commited by Mikel and that shouldnt have caused a brawl among the players. Toure , Adebayo ,Fabregas and Eboue are a disgrace . And they shoould be ashamed of themselves while watching the incident alone. For the fact that they were emotional and frustrated at the same time. They shouldnt have lost the their brains. It occurs in every football game played that a foul is caused and the Referee had blown his whistle against Chelsea owing to the foul commited by Mikel. So whats on earth must have caused such row among the Players. Mikel dont deserve to be sent off. And I hope FA should put more ban on Toure and Adebayo.
We should be thnking God for Terry’s life. He is a SuperHuman to have made it back to the stadium to celebrate with the rest of the players. Thats miraculous. yea really amazed because i was crying when the incident happened. The most emotional part of it was when the medical staff of both clubs came in to the pitch to rescue his life and the reaction of the players around him at the moment and most especially the of Diaby. he was crying and couldnt control himself anymore. This is a cup league final to remember always.
Above all credit to arsenal young players. they played so much well and deserved to lose because they lack exprienced.
lets start painting everywhere blue colour. Blue till i die . I need more trophy .
I was watching the match with a neutral on my sofa (bitter experience of traveling to Cardiff has left me reluctant to visit this stadium again) He happens to be a villa fan. He volanteered that Andy Gray appeared to be in love with Arsenal. It was appauling commentary capped by the beauty and the beast reference. I felt that Andy Gray and (Martin Tyler?) at that point realised their bias had got out of hand and desisted a bit. Andy Gray is basically a populist commentator who panders to whatever the majority view of the tabloids happens to be that month. I remember Utd supporters moaning about him during the 90’s
Throwing things at players on the pitch is not cool, “harmless” or not - if it had been the other way round Chelsea fans would’ve been highly narked.
Yeah boys, great result for us yesterday, even if we did play quite poor.
JT injury really did shit me up, there is a picture in the sun which really does make you almost feel like he was very seriously injured, i honestly thought he had died for a moment or two! The picture on the suns website is sickening.
Good Result, Great Heart. Need more from the team. Bit worried about the whole ‘dead man walking thing’ though
We have to feel a little bit sorry for the media this morning. Unable to pin yesterday’s kerfuffle entirely on Chelsea players, they have had to face the fact that it was the bad-loser attitude of this bunch of preening Arsenal kids, bred to believe in the superiority of their skills and unable to accept that football is about so much more than frill and frippery. So similar to the Barcelona reaction to Drog’s late equaliser not too many months ago. What is it about these teams? So reliant on media created myths of beauty and greatness to fuel their self-image that they cannot behave like adults when facing the reality - that football is a sport requiring the manly virtues of discipline, graft and guile as well as flair. It is the hard lesson history has taught and we are better for understanding it under our current managerial regime. True beauty encompasses the whole, not just surface prettiness. In that context, it was Robben who provided two of the most breathakingly beautiful moments yesterday: beating two players as he dipped inside off the right wing and sent a ball through the defence, almost finding the feet of an off-the-pace Sheva as he made his run across the last man, and the perfect cross for Drogba’s winner. Drogs himself of course provided two breathtakingly beautiful goals combining power and sublime skill. Czech and Carvallho also showed beauty in their dedication and courage in demonstrating a defensive masterclass to their young opponents. Heroic and unspoilt, these are true warriors who should receive footballs accolades. They may not get too many of those in the current climate of anger and spite at our stealing the crown jewells from the old elites and their affiliated press and officials. But the trophies and the steely, elegance of our play in winning them should make up for it.
dannybrod,
You’re spot on about the media. What is pathetic is whichever paper / website you read today, they all try to gloss over the Arsenal petulance and ungraciousness with the ‘kids of the future’ dross we’re all growing sick of.
They lost it big time, why cant they accept it.
In essence, we were never coming out of it being celebrated. If we’d lost the game, we be a bunch of over-paid has beens defeated by a bunch of kids. Win the game, and we still ‘only beat a bunch of kids’.
Jose made a good point in one of the interviews I saw yesterday. He mentioned the difference between being brought in to win the league straight away like he has done, and being given time to construct a team for the future with no pressure on winning things now. Does make me wonder how much of a future he has…….
Jose was great afterwards - ‘I’d love to be given three years to build a team and to lose Premiership after Premiership after Premiership…’ He’s right though. Wenger is in a completely different situation to Jose, so to compare their methodology is kind of silly.
Re: the brawl. I’ve always wondered what part Marvellous Martin Keown plays in the developing their youth academy, but now I think we all know the answer…
WHEN LAMPS, WHEN UP TO LIFT THE CARLING CUP, WE WERE THERE, WE WERE THERE! I have to appologise lads. When Fabregas was getting pelted with celery, i might have thrown one or two celery sticks at him. Was right 5 rows up and dead in line with him. So appologies for my clearly childish yet hillariously funny behaviour!
Well done Chels, more importantly excellent news on the JT front. Loved giving coming back on the motorway sticking the old two fingers up at Arsenal as a gesture of two meanings! Very nice.
What’s all this rubbish about Arsenal getting a morale victory, B*LLOCKS! What does that mean? Nice trophy they get for that do they?
Just a quick one lads if you were at the game you would have obviously participated in the onslaught the Mr. Wenger received. Now how comes nobody has picked up on the fact that he really does have a bit too much faith in his ‘little boys’. ..
Up the blues, god forbid Liverpool do us a favour though when they play United. That would be like asking Adebayor to please leave the pitch in an orderly manor!
By the way..
From BBC coverage after the game: “Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho both ran on to the pitch to try to calm the players.”
Well to be honest, TSO was actually running and Arse(ne) hmm he was more like walking for a cup of tea right there in my opinion ;) :)
I agree though with you about low class of behaviour especially from Adebayor.. look what he’s doing with Lamps.. Damn, it should’ve been straight red in that moment, not waiting to calm down our boys and those bastards..
Moorish… Shut it, you don’t know buggerall about Chelsea’s tradition of throwing celery, it’s not like throwing coins or water bottles.
Actually Wenger should get stuffed with celery for treating the League Cup like a bloody Youth Cup. Chelsea deserved to win it simply because we respected the Cup. JM’s truthful attitude on all competitions is very much admirable!
Guide - I did the same to Henry at the 2002 final. I couldn’t help myself; his ego-swollen melon made such an easy target. I’m not proud of it. Well, actually I am.
Celery, celery!
Simon T, you’re right. It was point I made in the JT thread yesterday. If we had fielded reserves we would have been accused of dishonoring the competition. The fact we played our strongest team shows how we respect and value the tradition of this cup and the watching audience. Pity Wenger thought otherwise. But I can’t help feeling that he wanted the get-out clause. He knows he can’t beat Jose and was looking or the supposed moral victory even before the game by playing such partially developed and undisciplined kids. But don’t expect Chelsea getting any credit for a superior attitude to the occasion overall.
It makes it all the sweeter to fight back from a goal down, and boy am I over this whole wenger’s kids as paragons of footballing virtue hype, all that petulant arrogance is part of a culture, not just age, wenger postures as this urbane intellectual patriarch of all that’s good in football but he is responsible for ‘educating’ the ‘kids’ and they behaved poorly when they were losing, if football is not just about winning, then having class is not just about being talented, talent somehow seems diminished when it lacks dignity and humility.
I had the last say at work when all my Arsenal mates began talking nonsense about the match…decided to buy each a pamper and arse wipes…
I am still having a laugh….
“I thought Mikel was very unlucky to be sent off. He did tug Toure’s shirt and he could have expected a booking for that but he didn’t seem to do much wrong apart from that.Alan Hansen’s column At least somebody honest in all this media Sodom and Homora. We just started th count this season and there will be more silverware and more cry of the press. Come on Chels!!!!!
Boys got that link to the picture that will def make u feel sick…
http://www.thesun.co.uk/articl.....76,00.html
i saw that this monring and honestly fely ill! but knowing hes alright makes it all better, but cud have been life threatening!~
Keep the blue flag flying high!