Damned If You Do…

Article by e-Arsenal Correspondent Lewis Borg-Cardona

Follow e-Arsenal on Twitter!

f ever there was a lose lose scenario it was Saturday evening. Beat Wigan and it would be: “Well, I should think so; after all it was only a Championship side. Now forget about the second rate competition that is the FA Cup these days; what about relinquishing Premiership fourth place to Everton, in the much more important Champions League race.” Lose and all hell would break loose: “ Serial Arsenal chokers fail again when the chips are down; Wenger must go as the season is in freefall; nine years without a trophy turns into a decade, etc, etc.”

Well, as things turned out the naysayers had a field day when the expected win was achieved, but only after extra time and penalties. Not to mention a fairly insipid Arsenal performance. So plucky little Wigan get the praise, while the firm favourites contrive to live down to the ancient refrain: ‘lucky, lucky Arsenal’. Or so some would have you believe: The Sunday Times headline writers for one, as “Arsenal stumble into final” was deemed appropriate for Jonathan Northcroft’s otherwise balanced report.

Conveniently forgotten in this version of events are a number of things. Take Wigan for a start. The Championship chumps were actually Premiership material only last season and have a team full of Premiership players, despite their so called lowly status. And let’s not forget, their current non-cup tied loan players included handy youngsters like Man Utd’s Nick Powell; Chelsea’s Josh McEachran; and West Ham’s Jack Collison. Oh, and that ‘lowly status’ sees them enjoying good late season form, with every chance of a Championship play-off place. Then there’s the little matter of their FA Cup form: not only Cup holders, but twice victors over Man City of late, plus the other Premiership scalps of Crystal Palace and Cardiff taken already during their current run.

Meanwhile in the Arsenal camp, there’s been a concerted effort to hobble away with the 2013/14 Premiership Injury League (what do you mean that doesn’t count as a trophy ?). When Arsenal beat Coventry 4-0 in the FA Cup Fourth Round back in January, the squad could boast the skill of Mesut Ozil, the speed of Serge Gnabry, the tenacity of Jack Wilshere, the experience of Tomas Rosicky, the anticipation of Laurent Koscielny… and Nicholas Bendtner. OK, so the only boasting of the latter came from Nikki B himself, but you get my point. Between then and now all have fallen by the wayside, in addition to long term absentee Theo Walcott and perma-crock Abou Diaby. Add Mathieu Flamini’s suspension to that list and that’s at least half a dozen first team starters unavailable to Arsene Wenger. No wonder the Wigan bench was actually stronger than Arsenal’s; the latter featuring the likes of 21 year old midfielder Thomas Eisfeld and 18 year old Chuba Akpom.

So when Santi Cazorla finally delivered the promised land of a return to Wembley, clinically converting the fourth of our coolly taken penalties, it was cue manic rush of players to congratulate penalty hero Lucasz Fabianski, and celebration time for the Arsenal faithful. But not deadpan killjoy (and self-confessed Arsenal hater) Roy Keane. : "These Arsenal players need a reality check…. They’ve beaten a Championship side in the semi-final on penalties.”

Sorry Roy, but from where I was sitting, high in the Wembley stands, the sea of red scarves were held high in a totally justifiable mixture of joy, pride and, above all, relief; in a job if not well done, then at least done. Yes, it wasn’t pretty and no one exactly covered themselves in glory - Fabianski apart – but it was a gritty collective team effort that put Arsenal through to their first FA Cup Final in nine years. If It leads to shaking the ‘lack of silverware’ monkey off our backs, then I for one won’t begrudge the players any number of selfies by way of celebration….even if it is ‘only Hull’ they beat to lift the Cup.

Damned if you do, indeed.

© e-Football 2014 All rights reserved no part of this document or this website may be reproduced without consent of e-Football