Match Day Arsenal vs Chelsea - 17:30 - FA Cup Final

[Stevencc]

A kick in teeth or a parting present for Wenger?

Or, more likely, a loss and he stays anyway?

 

[Benji]

I think Arsenal will lose. They don't really have a defence. My only hope is that it is interesting.

 

[Stevencc]

Not quite the start we were expecting.

 

[Benji]

So many individual battles going on, this is way more interesing than I expected.

 

[Stevencc]

So many individual battles going on, this is way more interesing than I expected.

Welbeck vs gravity has been a particularly captivating one.

 

[Stevencc]

Moses

 

[Benji]

One of my favourite things in football these days is a second yellow card for a dive.

 

[Stevencc]

That was a really enjoyable final.

Deservedly won by Arsenal, too.

 

[Benji]

We should have known, Arsenal always perform when the pressure is off. Some outstanding performances, the makeshift back three were excellent.

 

[Bilo]

Arsenal deserved winners you have to say, they were really good on the day. A good game all round and Mertesacker was a rock.

 

[Cornish Piskie]

One of my favourite things in football these days is a second yellow card for a dive.

Most notable in this instance for the fact that it seemed to be so calmly accepted by the rest of the Chelsea team. Either Moses is not the most popular player among his team mates and they were glad to see the back of him, or the dive was so horribly blatant (which it was) that even footballers didn't have the brass neck to surround the referee in protest.

Well done the referee for doing the right thing. Far too often in matches of such importance, referees take the "It's-A-Cup-Final-Let's-Not-Spoil-The-Spectacle" option. Both Moses' yellow cards were for stick on offences which merited punishment and while I have no personal gripe with the player, I'm glad the official had the bottle to do it.

Good refereeing. In my opinion.

 

[Super_horns]

He got booked for diving in the semi final too..

Got a reputation now..

If that had been Costa/Sanchez the media would be going mad and making it front page news!

 

[The Paranoid Pineapple]

We were dreadful.* I could gripe about the first Arsenal goal as it shouldn't really have stood but, given how superior they were, that would seem rather churlish. The sending off (completely justified) came at a bad time because with Fabregas on the pitch instead of Matic (who was garbage) and the score still at 1-0 I still fancied we might still pull of an outrageous piece of daylight robbery, but yeah... even when we did manage to claw our way back in we seemed to completely lose concentration to concede almost immediately.

Congrats to Arsenal, they outplayed us. And on the whole I can't really grumble, it's been a brilliant season. Just a shame it ended so limply. Hopefully this will convince the board of the need for reinforcements over the summer as, whilst I can't fault the effort of the side this season, there are a couple of positions that we can improve upon, and greater strength in depth is required if we want to effectively compete on four fronts next term.

*think Danny Murphy almost outdid us in the awfulness stakes, mind. The guy's a fucking appalling commentator.

 

[Cornish Piskie]

.

*think Danny Murphy almost outdid us in the awfulness stakes, mind. The guy's a fucking appalling commentator.

I so love his 'benefit of hindsight' piece of commentary for the BBC on Match of the Day.

I believe the commentary for MOTD* is dubbed on after matches because Auntie doesn't cover them live any more and when Arsenal scored their first goal and nobody knew exactly what was going on, Murphy commented: "That's a good goal. That's going to stand."

You called it, Danny..? Yeah right, mate.

It's dead easy, this commentating lark. After the event.



*Please put me right on this if anybody knows better, but I read that little factoid some time ago in a rather interesting article in The Grauniad about the declining standard of commentary across the entire BBC sporting canon.

 

[Benji]

I think it may happen on MOTD in general, but this game was live on BBC.

 

[Cornish Piskie]

I only saw the highlights but if it is the case that Murphy made his comment in live time then I stand corrected. Oooops..!!

 

[harryduseja]

The two major cup competitions are the FA Cup and the EFL Cup, with the winners of those competitions qualifying for the UEFA Europa League.