A Much Not-Needed Cup Replay

By: travis | January 26th, 2009

It was another sub-par performance from the Gunners yesterday, and with the 0-0 result after the 90 minutes at Ninian Park, we’re headed towards a replay at the Emirates for February 3rd. Geez, it’s February next week. Time flies. The winner of the replay will get the winner of the West Brom-Barnley replay, so perhaps a chance for revenge if they find a way past Cardiff.

The game was far from an impressive one. Wenger trotted out a strong side–or at least what counts as a strong side these days–with Van Persie and Bendtner up top. I was surprised to see Van Persie and Nasri in the side, but the boss gave an explanation in the post game news conference:

“We are very short at the moment and cannot rotate too much, so with two games coming up I could have rested more players than I did. I planned to take [Robin] Van Persie off if possible but it didn’t work out that way. It shows in football that you can try to plan but it never goes how you think it will .”

The first half was quite forgettable. Cardiff City had a bit of an edge in the first 15 to 20 minutes and the defense looked well out of sorts. Chance after chance went begging for the Bluebirds, and it was really an ugly sight for Arsenal fans all around. Aaron Ramsey didn’t impress me much, which could be attributed to return-jitters and the fact that he’s only 17 or 18 years of age. Simply put, a team with a bit more quality up front could have been up 2 or 3 goals in the first 30-40 minutes of the match. They could barely even get a shot on frame, and had a few golden opportunities to take the lead. The action of the first half is a recurring theme of the Arsenal season — dominated for long stretches, then striking back against the run of play or near the dying stages. Not a tactic that you want to rely on, and it didn’t backfire thanks to the poor finishing.

On the offensive side of the ball, Ramsey’s struggles weren’t aiding things in the center of the pitch, Eboue was rubbish as usual, and Nasri missed the one good chance of the first half that Arsenal managed to create. It was reminiscent of the previous week against Hull — Van Persie had the ball at the top and found Nasri wide open on the left, only this time he didn’t finish in the far right hand corner.

Things were brighter in the second half, despite the fact that no equalizer could be found. I laugh at Arsene’s quote, however, crediting Cardiff’s defense:

“In the second half we were on top and it was the quality of their defending and their commitment that stopped us scoring. The pitch, too, was not easy, but it was a great cup game and showed what this cup is about.”

It was definitely their defending that caused Van Persie’s freekick to go just wide or Adebayor shank the ball when facing an empty net. Not to take away from Cardiff, they did play well. I would go out and say that they deserved to win this fixture. The pressure did pile on them in the latter stages of the game, but the Bluebirds held firm. Wenger did not want to draw this game, that much could be seen by his substitutions. Bringing on Adebayor for Eboue (did I mention that he was rubbish?) signaled his desire to not go to a replay. This side, undermanned and underperforming doesn’t need an extra 90 minutes. That’s the last thing an Arsenal player/coach/fan would want. And I hope it doesn’t screw things up even more in this already difficult season.