So here’s some of the reaction to the penalty shoot-out win over Wigan which saw Arsenal go through the FA Cup final next month.
The record books don’t carry any sense of artistic merit, of why a burning sense of injustice may endure down the decades, well beyond what might be termed the norm. All they will record is that she will be wearing her yellow ribbons at Wembley in May: Arsenal won. And I don’t care about the style, grace or aesthetic beauty of it all. Winning yesterday was all that mattered. – A Cultured Left Foot.
When Santi Cazorla steered the decisive kick down the middle of Scott Carson’s goal, Wenger grabbed Aaron Ramsey, embracing him like a son, then about turned and disappeared down the tunnel. Lord only knows how he felt inside. This emotionally turbulent season takes another twist. Arsenal are in the FA Cup final. – Amy Lawrence, Guardian.
Were we nine minutes from the end of an era? Arsène Wenger might have been adamant that his future would be unaffected by this result but it is difficult to see how, after eight years since his last trophy, he could withstand losing to lower league opposition in an FA Cup semi-final. That it came so agonisingly close for Uwe Rösler’s Wigan Athletic should still prompt plenty of questions. – Jeremy Wilson, Telegraph.
Something that did come across was that moaning about the team is not an age related thing or the preserve of the “I want it now” generation of youngsters. A pensioner next to me was totally negative all the way through the game and had decided we’d lose after seeing only ten minutes of the game; needless to say not one word of encouragement or singing for the team left his lips all the way through the game. – 7amkickoff.
It felt as if Arsene’s future hung on a game of chance. Fabianski pulled off two great saves of their first two pens (one low left, the other low right) to give us a great start whilst Arteta, HFB, Kallstrom and Santi executed their penalties perfectly, giving a very dynamic Carson no chance at all. Wigan’s 3rd and 4th were scored but by then the confidence inspired by Fabianski’s first two saves seemed to carry us through. – Goonerholic.
Getting in the final was the point of the exercise, and on that level the aim was achieved, but it was a performance that raised a lot of doubts and questions. Naturally, the view, we are in the final – who cares how, can be taken, and on one level, fair enough. Arsenal won their last trophy playing a truly dreadful match and no-one complained about that amongst the supporters. Yet, this performance was indicative of a wider malaise, and demonstrated a very stretched squad. – Online Gooner.
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We won, that’s all I care about. Enjoy the moment.
We’re on our way.
We’re on our waaaaaaay.
We’re going to Wembley, we’re on our way.
How we gonna get there? I don’t know.
How we gonna get there? I don’t care.
All I know is we are on our waaaaaaay.
We deserved it. Totally dominated the game and hit the woodwork several times. Wigan offered little, but defended well. That’s not a surprise looking at their wins against Man City.
We’ve got to finish the job now. Good luck, lads!
Am I the only one who thinks the performance wasnt THAT bad? The boys had energy and enthusiasm at the very least, jesus how we missed rambo.
COYG
I watched the game on TV without commentary. I thought we played pretty well. I think everyone saying that we played poorly has fallen victim to the negativity that has been perpetually spewed by the media and even some “supporters”.
Could anyone please tell me who would have taken our fifth penalty? Ox, Sanogo or Vermealen?
Fabianski would have cooly dinked it down the middle
Why do you even care?
Giroud, he’s so handsome he gets to take it twice.
Wenger would have. Top right corner. 58.37 MPH. With top-spin.
Who cares who would have taken the fifth penalty. We didn’t need it. It seems or domination of the game, hitting the woodwork twice and forcing Carson into some good saves passed most of the media by. We weren’t great but penalty aside did Wigan create another chance?
The fifth penalty taker is interesting only because we used all our midfielders and our key striker + Sanago and the Ox looked buggered, so Wenger would have chosen a defender with the coolest head and best technique..who is? I would of loved to see who Wenger chose out of Sagna Per Verm and Gibbs.
And agreed we did play well, that being said, I would not be surprised if Wigan got promoted. Although not up to our midfield standard, Jordi Gomez is a classy player.
After the Bayern game when Ozil missed the pen, Wenger said that his 3 penalty takers on the pitch at the time were Ozil, Cazorla and Sagna, so I suspect that the 5th penalty would have been his.
They definitely did, I remember that Powell bloke on loan from United causing problems up top by hassling our defenders and he missed a couple of shots. There were also quite a few crosses from Wigan in the first half that were a toe away from being knocked in (kind of like we had with Sanogo). We were the better side, but not by much.
We turned up. We won. Vast improvement if you ask me. Well done guys!!!
I dont know how anyone can criticise a team for celebrating getting to a final. It doesn’t matter how it happens. there are a lot of bitter individuals out there.
I for one couldn’t be happier. My team are going to wembley. Again! And in some ways i hope they do it in the same fashion, just to annoy roy keane.
They make me sick. bitter people….should shut the fuck up. bitter cunts.
See what most people don’t understand is the principal of the press. When newspapers started it was to tell the truth to as many people as possible and to fund that they sold advertising space. Now in the age of instant internet news the idea is to find guff to fill the bits between the adverts which pay for all the jollies. Fur we Gooners all that matters is we’re in the final. the tabloids and bloggers have to write a ton of stuff so they just waffle on. The pundits and bloggers and twitter twats can kiss my old… Read more »
I dont think ive even seen the media wanting Arsenal to lose so bad since the invincibles era. Every article is bitter to the extent of hilarity. Even claiming Wigan deserved to win and that we should not be happy were in the final. If we swapped shirts with Wigan before the match, all the headlines would be about how incredible Wigan were, how they dominated the match from start to finish and how the fully deserve their win. Also, why wouldnt we celebrate? So much pressure lifted. Its as if our run up to facing Wigan was just forgotten.… Read more »
Yes, Roy Keane can eat a dong.
http://m.youtube.com/results?q=mertesacker%20wigan&sm=1
gives me goosebumps every single time, even in Spanish!! definitely will go down in our proud history books
They didn’t all come off for him (obviously or we’d have been safely gone inside 90) but Sanogo displayed some fine strength and touch for that layoff!
Not enough, in fact nothing from what I’ve read, has been made of how good of a header that was. Finding the space, the positioning, the control, and the placement were all top quality. Great goal!
i ain’t gonna lie, when wigan scored that first penalty at 63 minutes i started crying and praying 🙂 . I just pray that we end our trophy drought misery, we been through alot and winning this cup will be such joy.Keep the faith!COYG!
We won, that’s it!
Roy Keane, the media, even some so called Arsenal fans can go fuck themselves for questioning our right to celebrate any victory , much less a trip to a final.
Today isn’t a day to debate whether it’s Arsene’s time to go or not either.
And another thing, come May if we finally get that mother fucking monkey if our back, I’m gonna spank it to within an inch if it’s life!
Our penetration these days looks close to none. but fuck it, the boys won and Wembley is calling. All that matters
Are you talking about football? or…
Just pretend Wembley is a girl’s name, and well, the sentence is put in an entirely different context.
Ah penetration 🙂 !
So Man City can lose to Wigan twice in two years and they are a ‘strong team’ but when we beat them they are just a ‘Championship team’..
Manchester City and Liverpool have an exciting team project (spending spree) going on, so when they win its “Liverpool starting to bear fruit” “Manchester City stars shine” and when they lose, it gets dismissed quickly because of the “we are still building”, even though that charm is starting to wear off for city. Remember how much lean way we had during our ‘growing phase’ 5-6 years? City get that as well…regardless of how much they have spent. Chelsea get a lot of shit for their strikers, but Mourinho is hailed as the emperor in the UK. Then there is us… Read more »
Not just Journalists and pundits, if you watch arsenal games on SNWL or BTsports. The commentators there are so against us.
We are not respected, we are hated or you can say despised.
That Amy Lawrence piece was quite unfair in my opinion. There is no way Wigan’s game plan was working as it’s simply untrue they were able to “break with menace”. They never looked dangerous. They defended well and we couldn’t take our (many) chances. As far as I saw they were entirely dominated. I think the narrative of that article was decided before the game.
Anyone else reading this comment in anticipation its Rambling Pete?
Agreed. I think she is yet another very dull journeyman journo who happens to come from Islington. She offers no insight and frankly just mirrors the team view of the rest of the wasters from the Wig and Pen. The common feature of her pieces are an over abundance of words and nothing really said. I know she’s an Arseblog fave but I’m afraid she is just John Cross in a skirt.
“Wenger has not once deviated from his guaranteed strategy this season: back four; two midfield anchors; three attacking midfielders; big man. It spoke volumes that they offered so much more threat when Wenger was forced to play two up front late on to try to salvage the game.” Amy Lawrence getting her dig in. This is not the first time Wenger has played two up front, he has done it earlier this season, playing Sanogo and Giroud at the same time, but I can’t recall when. Also, Walcott at CF against sp*rs in the FA cup, not exactly a ‘big… Read more »
For good reason. Cut and paste journalism.
yes
Arsenal won, but truth be told hardly convincingly. We were 9 minutes away from another seasonal implosion for the 9th year in succession.I thought perhaps we should have exacted our season’s frustration on Wigan but on the contrary the passage to the final was a photo finish. Those who are wise should take constructive criticism on the chin. Accordingly, I believe Roy Keane’s words that Arsenal played like a veterans team against Everton is true.Ditto Chelsea. What made Arsenal successful during the invincibles era was skill, pace and power combined. These days we assume skill and tippy tappy is enough.… Read more »
For the 4,237th time, you don’t go from a selling team to Invincibles in a year.
I’ve told you 10,000,000 times not to exagerrate
I agree with what was said above about BT commentators. That’s why I LOVE watching Arsenal play on bein sports with Arabic commentators. They really respect Arsenal and keep talking about our amazing history + achievements.
I was praying for any type of win. My first ever final with the ARSENAL!
I wonder if HFB or young Santi were up for 5th spot but they did a little quick jiggerypokery mid way to keep pressure on.
Dear Phil McNulty and Roy Keane. You are to journalism what a one legged cat is to a turd burial! Not particarly useful! To say a team can over celebrate reaching the FA Cup final is incredibly disrespectful to both the competition and the thousands of players who have stepped out for their clubs over the hundred+ years. Last time I checked it was still the most prestigious domestic club comp in the world, and reaching the final would be any players dream. Regardless of who they play for, or who they’ve beaten to get there. So Fuck You and… Read more »