UNITED SCRABBLE TO NINE POINT GAP, CHELSEA WIN EVENTFUL CARLING CUP!

 

 

 

Well United opened up the season by trashing Fulham at Old Trafford, and since then Chris Coleman's crew have scrabbled around in the lower half of the Premiership table. So United hit Craven Cottage for a return to Premiership football and a relatively straightforward looking three points. The one change in lineup from the Lille game was Brown at right back with Giggsy given the captaincy for unknown reasons given that Gary was said to be fit.

Fulham were keen to make up for recent batterings though and turned the heat up on United's defence early on. That resulted in us crumbling badly in the 17th minute, leaving Brian McBride to fire into an empty goal. Eventually we got our act together though and an attacking spell of our own led to Rooney to run through in the 29th minute and cross to Giggsy to level the game. From there on in United stayed on the attack but couldn't complete the turnaround before half time.

Fulham opened the second half as they opened the first, but this time out they were unable to find the United net for one reason or another but it was enough for Fergie to realise that something needed to be done and after a quick rejig involving the introduction of Saha, United took over in the later stages of the game. However if you want to win a scrabbly game like this there's only one player that you need and his name is Christiano Ronaldo. His 87th minute burn and bang made for mission accomplished.

Well that result left United extending their lead over Chelsea at the top of the Premiership to nine points though the Blues admittedly have a game in hand. In news elsewhere, Lille aren't sure whether they're going to appeal UEFA's decision to declare Giggsy's goal against them as legal and won't decide till this coming Monday. The only leg they've got to stand on is the fact that quick free kicks are illegal in the French League! Unfortunately for Lille this was a Champions League tie and their moaning is a waste of time.

The main event this weekend for English football fans in general was the Carling Cup final though. Last year, United won it. This year, we got embarrassed at Southend in round 4. So once again it was by the TV on a Sunday afternoon in late February, watching the first final of the English season with neutal interest, though knowing that this fixture can have it's interesting moments, the tournament so far has certainly done so, far various reasons.

As for this year's combatents, well for whatever reason I can't remember watching the '05 final, which was Chelsea's last appearance at this stage. I do remember hearing about the Blues winning 3-2 in extra time though, and the history books say a Mateja Kezman hit the winner to give Jose Mourinho his first trophy in England! I can just about remember him. I have better memories of the '93 FA Cup final between Arsenal and Sheffield Wednesday as a kid living in Scotland than I do of what was called the Coca Cola Cup final between the same two sides that year! A George Graham gaffered Gunners side still won the minor competition at the old Wembley stadium, with Paul Merson and Steve Morrow on the scoresheet as they won 2-1!

And so here we are. The first ever all-London League Cup final in any of the competition's incarnations and the game's at the Millenium Stadium, hopefully the last time a major English Cup final has to be played west of the Severn! Arsene Wenger was taking one heck of a gamble in his first ever appearance at this game, naming the youngsters that got him this far while Mourinho went in all guns blazing for what could well be his last trophy in England.

Well sure enough it was Arsenal that were the first team to have a solid attack and it wasn't long before the allstars caved, failing to clear a corner in the 12th minute which led to a Theo Walcott-Vassiriki Diaby 1-2 and the 17 year old lobbing the ball into the top corner. Chelsea responded when Michael Ballack lobbed the Arsenal defence in the 20th minute to set up Didier Drogba to equalise even if he looked slightly offside. Amazingly though, the rest of the rest half was largely the Arsenal show with the Cocky One not sure how to avoid embarrassment.

The Gunners picked up where they left off in the second half untill the first of two darker moments in the game when John Terry got knocked out by an Arsenal boot while going for a header. That quite rightly stopped play for ages and the shock of the incident slowed the game down a lot and Chelsea looked like they would let it go into extra time. However the Gunners eventually ran out of fuel and an Arjen Robben cross n the 84th minute allowed Drogba to head in the winner, though Chelsea didn't get to lift the trophy before 7 minutes of injury time had been played which included a major fight that had the game ending 10 vs 9.

Chelsea are the winners of the Carling Cup, they were always going to be. Credit to Arsene Wenger for getting what was best described as an Arsenal under 25s side into a major final though and being as competitive as they were for most of the match. Whether they can go one better next year remains to be seen. Terry somehow managed to recover from his injuries by the end of the day even if he can't remember a thing about the match itself(which must feel wierd).

And now it's FA Cup action midweek.

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