0 – 1 Adebayour (85)

If Southend dumping Manchester United out of the Competition was the shock of the round, this was the surprise result of Wednesday nights fixtures. I will never forgive Adebayour for his goal, scored from a corner. This is Arsenal, we don’t do that sort of thing. Dear God man, that is one less thing for me to bang on about.

The innate stupidity of footballers never ceases to amaze and in this instance, infuriate, as no doubt David Moyes will attest for the dismissal of James McFadden in the 19th minute made what should have been a routine home win, albeit hard earned, into an uphill struggle. There are differing reports as to what McFadden is supposed to have said to Graham Poll but the referee confirmed that he heard “Cheat” whilst the player says it was “Shite”. Not a wise choice of words in any case, given the Scouse / Scots accent will have made the two sound very similar. Andy Johnson’s reputation will no doubt be claimed to be acting against the player, being considered a little “lightweight” in the tackle in penalty areas does not help his case; Robert Pires suffered for years with that reputation and to my mind at least, was denied considerably more penalties than he should have won.

From that moment on, the best that the Home team could hope for was to nick a goal and to sit back and defend out whatever time was left. In the end, they held out for a further sixty nine minutes before Adebayour settled the tie. The goal itself was what is commonly termed “soft”. Adebayour, completely unmarked steered Flamini’s corner into the net.

A quiet, unassuming individual, Graham Poll would no doubt have been hoping for a less tetchy encounter than Sunday and the ensuing publicity; as it turned out, he is back in the public eye for this dismissal. Am I the only one who finds it vaguely pathetic that a referee is deemed to be at risk of injury to such an extent that they require a Police escort from the pitch, simply for officiating at a match in what let’s be honest, is a tournament that ranks marginally above the Johnson’s Paint Trophy?

Everton’s robust tackling has given plenty of food for thought, Valente’s scything tackle on Denilson bordering on a straight red card, the player lucky that he nicked the ball in the challenge. But the Arsenal performance was excellent, given the nature of the squad and their opponents full strength line-up; a pleasant surprise given the low expectancy I had ahead of this fixture.

The defence held out on occasion with the returning Eboue and Senderos performing well; Poom on in place of Almunia had a couple of nervy moments with crosses towards the end but made some excellent saves whilst Djourou continued to show the potential that he has with a solid display. Before the match, I suspected that facing Carsley and Cahill would have been a stern test of Song and Denilson. They proved up to the task and more, for the most part containing their opponents before Denilson succumbed to the injury inflicted by Valente and horror upon horrors, Mark Randall, an Englishman came onto the pitch. Not only that, an Englishman who came through the Academy. Arsene will no doubt be on another FA Charge for that one.

The draw for the Quarter Finals is made at lunchtime on Saturday and I guess the composition of the team in the next round will depend on the opponents. The teams left in the competition are Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham, Southend, Newcastle, Charlton and Wycombe. If it is Chelsea, they have been fielding a full strength side in each match this season. Unlikely that Arsene would do the same but he may well put five or six of the first team out but ties that everyone wants will be Wycombe or Southend at home in order to continue resting players. Which means we’ll get Tottenham, Liverpool or Chelsea away.

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