Luck of the draw?

For some reason, writing about Senderos yesterday felt more natural than commenting on our FA Cup exit. Then just I was about to write a post acknowledging the one year anniversary of this blog, I realized something.

The first ever post I wrote was after watching the FA Cup match against Cardiff last year.

If you thought we weren’t good with an understrength team against Stoke, cast your minds back to when we played Cardiff at Ninian Park a year ago. The squad for that game was miles better than the one we had against Stoke and yet Cardiff could have humiliated us. We escaped with a draw and we know what happened after.

There is no doubt that on the whole, Stoke deserved to win on Sunday. They took advantage of the imbalance we had between attack and defence once Wenger introduced Arshavin, Eduardo and Ramsey. Even before that, they were committed towards to protecting their goal.

But really was it a surprise to see Stoke emerge the stronger team? Prior to the match, Fuller suggested a Stoke team playing to its strengths would emerge victorious.

And it is easier to do that with a full strength team which they had. And why could Pulis afford to put a strong team out?

As much as you would like to suggest that it is because he has super fit players, could it be because their next game in ANY competition is on the 1st Feb (on a MONDAY night)? By then Arsenal would have played Villa AND Utd.

Wait. Wait it doesn’t stop there.

At the moment, Stoke have played 21 games in the EPL, Arsenal have played 22. So by next monday morning, somehow Arsenal would have played THREE more games than Stoke.

Still thinking that FA Cup draw was a co-incidence? I have a few more co-incidences for you.

• Man City played Scunthorpe earlier in the League Cup. Kudos to anyone who can tell me the odds that those two would meet again in the FA Cup.
• Had we beaten Stoke, we could have faced Man City. Can you imagine, a third successive away tie at a Premiership Club, against the team we played against in the Carling Cup. Again, kudos to anyone who can tell me the odds of that happening.
• Chelsea played Watford in the FA Cup (for the second year in a row). After drawing Cardiff – at home – they would have played 3 games against Championship sides.
• Even Utd and Liverpool had on paper, easier draws against Leeds and Reading. But thanks to their incompetence on the day, we are now talking about the magic of the FA Cup.

As for suggesting Arsene doesn’t care about the FA Cup well this is what he had to say after that draw at Ninian Park last year.

We could do without it, 100%, but let’s not complain because we play football.

It’s one more game to play. If that’s the price we have to pay to stay in the hat, we’re happy to do it.

We are short at the moment and cannot rotate much. I could rest a few players in this game but not as many as I had wanted.

More concrete examples of Arsene not caring about the FA cup. The blasphemy.

• Under Arsene, as far as I can remember, we have never been knocked out by a non-Premiership side in the FA cup. Under Benitez’ management, Liverpool have lost to Burnley, Barnsley and now Reading.
• Under Arsene we have almost always negotiated the third round, which is something you can’t say about Ferguson and Benitez.
• Arsenal have won the FA Cup 4 times since 1998, 3 times between 2000 and 2009. The same as Chelsea, who needed Roman’s millions to help them win the last two.
• At least Arsenal didn’t withdraw completely from the FA Cup like Man Utd did back in 2000.

If Arsene places the Champions League and/or the Premiership ahead of the FA Cup, it isn’t just because he loves those two competitions more.

The sad truth is that most top clubs value those two because of the financial benefits it brings. While the FA Cup will always bring a “giant-killing” or two every season, those men in suits with money on their mind couldn’t give a damn if their FA cup dream ended.

The only reason you are seeing Man City, Villa, Spurs do well in domestic competitions is because they don’t have the added responsibilities of playing in a much higher profile competition. And you know why Chelsea are doing well in it.

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