12/21/24
December 11, 2012
Bradford City stuns Arsenal: For Arsenal, a giant embarrassment against a team that refused to quit.
Arsenal are in a weird situation with the League Cup: silverware is silverware, so they can't just put out the stiffs and shrug it off, but they also can't commit a full squad that has Champions League and Premier League duty most mid-weeks.
Will be interesting to see what kind of squad Chelsea put out vs Leeds tomorrow (aka the 70s Hooligan Memorial Trophy) now that they're out of the CL.
posted by etagloh at 06:27 PM on December 11, 2012
Not quite related, but I need a place for this comment from the Guardian's report of the Manchester derby on Sunday:
"The Rio Ferdinand incident shows that City can't solve every problem just by throwing money at it."
posted by owlhouse at 08:14 PM on December 11, 2012
@etagloh: I thought Wenger put out a surprisingly strong squad for this game, at least compared to what he's normally done for the League Cup in the past. That's why I personally find this loss to be pretty distressing. Normally, I'd just shrug it off as a minor, relatively meaningless competition, but not this time.
posted by sbacharach at 11:08 PM on December 11, 2012
@etagloh: Wenger only changed three starters from the previous weekend's Premier League game for Bradford so I'd say @sbacharach is correct. Liverpool won this trophy last season and at least for me, it was a real positive amidst dark times.
posted by billsaysthis at 12:17 PM on December 12, 2012
I wonder if Wenger needs to win Champions League or reach the finals at least to be running Arsenal this time next year. Money to spend on players aside, he's gone a long time without bringing silverware to the Emirates. As a matter of fact, the team has won no silverware since the opening of the new stadium.