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| Capital One Cup: Reading 5 - 7 Arsenal |
20 minutes gone and 3-0 down! And 2 of those goals were own goals really. First Koscielny put one past Martinez, then Martinez himself chucked one into the net in spectacularly fashion. I was bemused. Seriously, I was having a laugh. When it went to 4-0, I was looking forward to hear what Arsene Wenger would say at the end of the match after such a hammering. You see, I need new material; this "lacking a little bit the sharpness" thing is getting long in the tooth...
I was not even sure that this game would be televised. Around 8:45pm local time, I decided to flick through the channels. Lo and behold, Supersport 7 claimed they would televise the game. I didn't believe them but I waited around an hour to be sure.
When the game started, I thought the wait was worth it. I sat at the foot of my bed, close to the TV so as not to disturb Mrs. Afrogunner who was by now quietly snoring and snorting.
We started the game with the same usual Arsenal style of passing but the ball yet going nowhere. After about 5 minutes, Reading penned us into our half for the next 20 minutes or so. In the 12th minute, Jenkinson went AWOL on our right and Djourou did not close down the cross early. Roberts found space to smash into our net. 1-0. I thought that would wake us up. I was wrong.
In the 18th minute, Reading found space, this time on our left flank. A cross was fired into our box and Koscielny turned it into his own net at the near post. 2-0. I thought, this is getting bad.
In the 20th minute, A reading player was allowed enough time and space to run and shoot from the edge of our box. The shot itself was nothing to write home about but what Martinez did was spectacular. He launced himself in the air like a shark attacking a walrus and did a one-handed thing like they do in volleyball. He tossed the ball into his own net. 3-0. By this time, I was laughing and finding the whole thing utterly ridiculous. Suddenly the decision to stay up so late to watch the game did not seem so good.
Reading started to sit back and we started finding room to passing the ball around, yet still going nowhere. The Arsenal midfield was nowhere to by found. The only player who was trying to make things happen was Arshavin but he too was being his usual lazy self. Chamakh was Chamakh. Theo looked a player who doesn't care cause he's leaving the club anyway.
37 minutes gone and reading scored from another cross down our left flank. 4-0. Reading fans were singing "Robin Van Persie is laughing at you" and "You are being thumped on the telly". By now, my Mancies United friends crawled out of every crevice and started making fun of me on Facebook. The Arsenal fans were singing "We want our money back" and "Bring back our Arsenal". Even some Chelsea cunt (Frank Lampard) twitted that Arsene Wenger would not be throwing any cups at the Arsenal players as Arsenal do not have any.
Just before half time, Theo finally found space and he ran like a fart, did a Carlos Vela to make it 4-1. When half time came, many Arsenal fans were leaving the stadium. The real fans remained, singing, chanting sarcastically. That was good to see, the Arsenal fans did not care that they were being humiliated on the telly. Some were even dancing and smiling as the television camera panned on them.
The second half began much like the first half. Arsenal continued to be shit and Reading wasted chances to add further humiliation and insult upon Arsenal. Cometh the hour and cue time for Arsene Wenger to make his chances. Frimpong and Gnabry were withdrawn for Giroud and Eisfeld.
I wonder why Thomas Eisfeld did not start the game because as soon as he came on, there was a marked improvement in our midfield. Olivier Giroud too showed the difference between him and Chamakh.
In the 64 minute, Arsenal had a corner which Theo delivered and Giroud headed into the Reading net. 4-2. By now, I was quietly confident we would equalise. Arshavin was now playing on the left wing, Eisfeld in the Centre with Giroud, Chamakh and Walcott jostling for centre forward position. We were looking stronger and crucially fitter than the Reading players. We started to ask questions of their goal but were lacking quality when it mattered.
In the 89th Koscielny made ammends for his own goal by scoring in the right goal. 4-3. only 4 minutes of stoppage time left. Reading tried to wind down the clock by keeping the ball near the corner flags, making substitutions and taking long to restart play when the ball went out. Arsenal had other ideas.
In the 5th minute of stoppage time and with the last kick of the game, Arsenal kicked the ball into the Reading box, Giroud controlled on his chest, it fell to Theo who scored but it was not seen by the line's man. Jenkinson was on hand to make sure it was trully in the net. And into extra time we went.
Jason Roberts was fuming on the touchline that the ref had increased to the time by an extra minute. Huh!
Arsenal were looking stronger now mentally and crucially, the momentum was with us. In first half of extra time, Chamakh scored a low shot after some good work by Arshavin and Giroud down our left flank. 4-5 the score. But it was over.
In the second half of injury time, with only about 6 minutes left to play, Reading equalised again after some sloppy Arsenal defending... yawn... 5-5. Now it was truly anybody's game, but Arsenal still looked the fitter team and most likely to score the winner.
And so it was. Arshavin drove down the left flank, into the Reading box and shot with his left peg. the ball was saved only to land in the path of Walcott who had been screaming for it from Arshavin in that move. He thumped into the net before him with aplomb. 5-6.
Reading tried to get another equaliser but they were too tired. corner was cleared by Arsenal, the ball bounced over a Reading defender in the centre circle. the poor guy was too tired to run. Chamakh ran past him, controlled and lobbed the keeper who was way off his line. 5-7 the score. Arsene Wenger just shook his head.
I went back to Facebook to look for my Mancies United friends who had been making fun of Arsenal during the 1st half. They had all crawled back to wherever they had come from and were nowhere to be found.
The greatest ever come back? possibly. But please let's never go through that again.
COYG!!
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