Written by Lindsay Melrose Monday, 28 February 2011 15:59

GunnerTalk Blog

Gutted

By Lindsay Sheehan

Apparently, yesterday was the 10th Cup final The Arsenal have lost.

The day started so well. I awoke to a beautiful shining of both sun and optimism radiating from us Gooners. Plans were made, pubs were mooted and excitement levels rose. I did have a severe case of ‘Wembley Belly’ and had to poo 3 times by 12 O’clock but that could have been down to the night before and a large Dominoes Veggie Supreme. 

We set off only to find the A1 closed, maddening traffic everywhere, trains delayed topped by the opening of the heavens. We joked that Arsenal were going to bring their style while the Brum had clearly bought their weather.

Wembley Way was awash with Reds singing, face painters, the smell of £8 burgers, flag sellers, blue coloured noses, silly wigs, Curtis Davis and there were media everywhere clamouring to interview us fans.  There was also a strong smell of marijuana but I never found the source (s) damn it.

As I took my seat in block 113 row 20 seat 56 I felt a strange lack of nerves. Those who read my waffling regularly will know this is really unusual for me. I'm always nervous. I don't know why but I've always suffered like that. From my first match aged 5 crippling tension always grabs me round the middle no matter how hard I fight it. It seems only when we lose am I not nervous before so I should have read the omen. Maybe somewhere deep down my body knows not to expend energy on the pointless.

We stood for the whole 90 and of course all 5ft 4 of me got the seat behind a 6ft Rasta made at least 2 ft taller than that by his dreads. Peeping around his elbow I watched the match unfold.  (By the way it wasn’t his dope earlier – I sniffed him up well and good just to check)

I'd heard Sky Sports News discussing McLeish's ‘secret tactics’ before I'd left the house. I don't think you needed to do a weird handshake or be a nipple flasher to get to the bottom of his plan. Pack the midfield, waste time at every opportunity, tackle ‘hard’, defend heroically and lump the ball to the lanky fucker over the top where we are most vulnerable.

We have conceded the most goals from set pieces; they have scored the most, so their first was no shocking surprise. Steve said to me “Well at least we didn’t go one nil up.”  We were also saved loosing Chezza in a Lehmann CL final stylie due to an offside ruling.

We equalised from RVP after Jack had bruised the crossbar with an almighty thwack and at that point it was looking good that we'd push on in the second half to victory and an end to the trophy doubt. Start small we thought.  

After a £4 Sprite and a wee I settled back into the comfort of the Rasta’s elbow ready for our onslaught. Foster (usually tres shit) proved the suspicion that even completely rubbish goalies become world class when facing The Arsenal. As the clocked ticked tocked towards 90 minutes without us scoring, I remarked on my FB page that I felt a sucker punch was coming. Now we'd got away with one against Stoke so I hoped against hope it wouldn't happen, the Brum players were dead on their feet and you had to believe ET would see us pull in front.

Then yet another trade-marked Arsenal calamity and the game was over. Penned in amongst the jubilant Brummies whilst inching back up the road we had travelled down so merrily mere hours before was torture. Most were lovely and putting our disappointment aside who would not be happy for them?  As they sang 'We've never won fuck all' and danced like loonies on crack one must remember that this is what cup finals are about. They deserved it. Simply, they wanted it more than us and gave it their all.

So where does such a defeat leave The Arsenal. Well to be honest I'm kinda finding it hard to be positive today. It seems RVP may also be consigned to that shitty bastard cnuting injury list which means apart from Nasri our creativity is well and truly fucked. I didn't think TR7 was appalling yesterday, just not good enough for Arsenal. Bendtner looked like a carthorse and there was no real sparkle without Cesc. AA23 went AWOL in the second half. There was a moment where Clichy was battling in our penalty area and he was still moseying around by Foster from our previous chance. It seems our Russian has taken 1 step forward and 2 steps back.

Of course the fans new favourite Jack was outstanding. I can't say anything new to you about him that I haven't said before. That he was on the loosing team is unjust-worthy but unfortunately down to his team mates.  

A mistake lost us the final but in reality yet again it was the lack of taken chances, desire and bollocks that really saw the Silverware slip down the Swanny.

As Rele said on FB the next 9 days are absolutely crucial or it could be season end in mid march. I don't know what more to say. Maybe we'll feel better mid week, there is still so much to play for, but when trophies are there for the taking and you gift wrap them to the opposition it's hard to find the strength to believe.

If you gave me a choice between loosing yesterday or winning the Prem/CL then duh but I wasn’t given that choice. That was our best shot of bedding that sentence “Nothing for 6 years” and banishing mental hoodoo but we blew it.

A performance against Orient and 3 points at home to Sunderland will soothe the wound. That's the most comfort I can give right now.