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It looked decidedly wrong inside the Millennium with huge swathes of empty terraces where Blackburn fans should have been. Arsenal’s end was chocker-block while theirs was colourful only in the places fans could be found. They had lots of newly bought flags while Arsenal had their usual and unusual assortment of home made banners. Good to see that the huge O2 shirt has been found and top marks to the biggest flag of the day from the Daventry Gooners, but my favourite was one that simply said ‘Arsene Wenger – Gods gift to Arsenal’.
Predictably Blackburn did their very best to spoil this game as a spectacle and succeeded admirably for the vast majority of the first half. Tedious tactics, over aggressive closing and tackling, dire sportsmanship and a spoiling game were the order of the day. Kick, hack, tug, nudge and then moan repeatedly when Arsenal won a free kick at the third or fourth time of asking. Referee Steve ‘What handball?’ Dunn fully complied with the dirty northern bastards throughout the match. That said, they did the job well and didn’t allow Arsenal to play. Dickov being caught offside was the prime feature of the opening half, along with Steve Dunn’s abjectly poor refereeing. If Dunn was renamed King Cnut only the spelling would be wrong.
The first foul was on Bergkamp the second on Reyes, the third which was on Vieira wasn’t spotted, nor were numerous others. In order for Pat to get a free kick he had to be kicked three times, have his shirt tugged and then be shot down by an anti tank missile. Thompson and Dickov were the niggleist foulers, Neill the slyest and Flitcroft the most obvious. But it worked well enough for Blackburn to dominate the early stages without ever really threatening our goal. Their pressing was good, their attacking ability piss-poor.
What rare glimpses of football we saw came when Reid had a low shot easily saved. Bergkamp fired in a free kick that Kolo nearly got on the end of. A Vieira charge saw Dennis with cross that was headed clear, this was our first serious move in anger and it took us twenty minutes to get there. But more typical was Flitcroft with high-studs into Pat for a yellow card, that not even Dunn could ignore. Reyes had a shot from Vieira’s ball on a break and Pat was very definitely our main man. Despite the attentions of everyone in a blue and white shirt who took turns in attempting to cripple him. Thompson with his third hack in as many seconds got a yellow card for his personal attempt and then, typically, complained.
We tried to play football but failed, they tried to hit us on the break but were repeatedly caught offside with Pedersen, Neill and Dickov all guilty as charged, although one of Dickov’s where he went on to hit the post looked a tad marginal. Our offside trap works again because we now have a young effective leader at the back. Senderos was shouting, pointing and cajoling ‘his’ defence into the right positions, he has what it takes and he will be ‘the man’. In my opinion he still has a lot to learn but I already I love him to death.
A great ball from Dennis to Jose saw our Spaniard pushed but he fell too easily for a penalty. The tide was turning however and we started pressing more effectively late in the half. A goal looked on when both Reyes and Pires had close-range attempts blocked in quick succession. Dickov blatantly kicked the ball away but didn’t get a yellow card. What was even more noticeable however, than Dickov’s continued petulance, was the total lack of ball-boys as Senderos had to go and retrieve it.
Lungberg was axed by the Matteo aka 'The Pub Landlord' for a free kick. Thompson then axed Reyes for a very obvious cast iron second yellow card but with Dunn in charge the obligatory blind eye was turned. With the half winding down Rob restarted a move from deep that had almost broken down. There was a ball in to Pat who was central; he lobbed one out to Kolo on our left, who had remained forward from the previous attack. Toure controlled well, cut inside his defender, looked up and pinpointed a low cross to the far post where an unmarked Rob had drifted into their box. A tap in made it 1-0 to The Arsenal.
Within seconds of the restart Dickov was seriously late on Senderos and Todd scythed Pires down as play carried on despite the assistant refs flag. Two more very obvious bookings for my money but no cards were shown by Dunn. Mokoena was carded however for hacking Vieira down when an advantage should have been played. Dickov closed down the shot from Kolo free kick and the half ended. For all their hard work and pressing play Blackburn might have thought themselves unlucky to we a goal down at the break. For their pure filth and negativity they deserved nothing less.
Arsenal kicked off the second half towards the travelling Gooners, as Blackburn were caught offside early doors. Lehmann caught a high cross, which was as about as far as he was stretched all match. Gilberto to Dennis for almost a great ball. Freddie was replaced early in the half by Fabregas. Senderos was tripped again but he is ice, no reaction whatsoever. Emerton came on to replace Flitcroft as Blackburn almost decided to attack us, but not quite. Lauren to Gilberto with a great ball but Silva’s shot was tipped around the post by Friedel. A good deep corner followed that was headed back across goal. Fabregas was then booked for his first tackle of the game that was no worse than about twenty of Blackburn’s previous fouls. Fabregas attacked down our right but had his cross caught by Friedel. Fabregas with a great chance saw his shot blocked following great stuff by Rob, Pat and Ashley down our left. Neill was booked for an obvious foul on Reyes, he then shoved Reyes back down, presumably accusing him of going down because his legs were taken away, the prat should have got a red card.
Friedel held a Bergkamp free kick as Arsenal were now in total control. A staggering forty passes plus passing move came next from Arsenal, this was a really controlled piss-take but at 1-0 was a bit early in the day. The Gooners cheered every pass. Blackburn then put together half a dozen passes that were cheered by the blue. Jens saved a speculative shot by Emerton low and with ease. Savage was booed onto the pitch as he replaced the noxious little runt Thompson; it goes without saying that his first touch was a foul. Cole cleared and was carded for kicking the ball away as it had apparently gone out of play. Which would have been fair enough if the whistle had gone, but it hadn’t. A rather late challenge on Jens won a free kick and got our usually passive German a tad upset …and yes my tongue is firmly planted in my cheek.
Dickov won a corner, which was taken by Savage and headed clear by Pat. Savage then went in with all his studs showing and hitting Fabregas high. No card and no foul awarded by the inept Dunn, who had earlier booked young Cesc for his first foul. Blackburn were still giving their all, especially verbally whenever they conceded numerous free kicks. Cesc made a rare error giving away possession, but Senderos was there to tidy up and clear. A great charge forward by Cesc came by way of atonement but was saved by Friedel for a goal kick. Pat was then sandwiched for another free kick before Reyes won a corner.
With eight minutes to go our non-flying Dutchman was replaced by his younger fellow countryman. Stead replaced the Pub Landlord in a belated attempt by Blackburn to save the tie. Arsenal answered with a sweeping move. Goal of the game followed when Robin turned on a sixpence leaving his marker for dead, he then side-stepped the last man before slotting a low shot in the corner of the net to Friedel’s left. 2-0 and we’ll be back again in May thank you very much. ‘Two-nil to the Arsenal’ ‘One Arsene Wenger’ ‘And its Arsenal, Arsenal F C they’re by the greatest team the world has ever seen’.
A header at the far post by Reid was Blackburn’s immediate response, but Jens was up to it. Gilberto burst forward to win us another corner before Freidel saved from Fabregas once again. Pires was about to receive a fine ball but was well blocked off it by the wanker in the black. Reyes gave way to Aliadiere who had picked up this season’s injury on this very pitch back in early August. Along with Pires he was involved in our final goal as Jeremie cleverly found Pires in acres of space in which to cross for Van Persie to volley home another great goal. Todd spoiled the moment by elbowing Van Persie in the head as he wheeled away to celebrate. 3-0 but Robin was down and bloodied. He had to be taken off to receive treatment and change his bloodied shirt as the big screens showed the replay of Todd’s elbow deliberately whacking into Van Persie. Strangely enough Dunn didn’t watch the replays.
After he’s watched the screens he apologised claiming an accident but this was pure bullshit and typical of the nasty attitude shown by Mark Hughes’ side on the day. ‘Accidents’ such as this are totally avoidable, Todd chose not to avoid ‘accidently’ flattening Van Persie he should get a three-match suspension as an absolute minimum.
All that remained was for the final whistle and the pleasure of the entire team throwing their shirts into the delighted crowd of Gooners. All except Kolo that is who apologised as he threw a Blackburn shirt to a Gooner in case he or she was short of bog paper.
This was our biggest semi-final win since Malcolm Macdonald saw off Orient back in the late Seventies. Like the Orient match this was a right result but a pretty crap game.