Blades Overwhelmed By Sharp Kids

ARSENAL 6 – 0 SHEFFIELD UNITED

1 – 0 Bendtner (30)
2 – 0 Bendtner (41)
3 – 0 Vela (43)
4 – 0 Vela (49)
5 – 0 Wilshere (56)
6 – 0 Vela (86)

A not unexpected result, Arsenal winning at home in the Carling Cup but a truly unexpected scoreline. Any concerns about the youthfulness of the starting line-up were washed away by half-time, Sheffield United taken apart, dismantled and as the gulf between the Premier League’s elite and the rest was brutally exposed by the pace and passing of the hosts, it was a case of ‘men against boys’. Except that physical age and development had nothing to do with it.

Pure and simple, technique undid the visitors. United might be sitting in the lower reaches of The Championship but they had little to combat the abilities of the likes of Vela, Wilshere and co in attack, with little in defence to unduly trouble a makeshift back four of Hoyte, Song, Djourou and Gibbs.

A night of firsts by all accounts. Bendtner scored more than once in a senior match for Arsenal – something that I find hard to believe but somehow willing to accept. The first, a curled effort from twenty yards, showed great vision and technique to control the shot and keep it low, whilst putting it beyond the reach of Kenny, opened the scoring on the half-hour mark. Eleven minutes later, Ramsey’s run took him into the box and seemingly away from goal before a backheel conjured the opening for the Dane to expose a frail United offside trap and score under the ‘keeper’s body, effectively ending the tie. That did happen two minutes later when Vela broke from the right to curl a shot into the far corner, his first goal in his first senior start.

Seats were barely filled for the start of the second half when Vela scored what will probably be the individual goal of the season. Chesting a long ball over a defender, he turned and sprinted into the area, waited for Kenny to lower his body ready to dive and then impudently chipped the ball over the keeper. In moments like that, you understand why Arsene went to the extraordinary lengths of having him in Spain for a couple of seasons in order to obtain his work permits. Jack Wilshere then added his first goal for the club, a fierce drive from the edge of the area. Little wonder that Arsene looked so please with the performance. The rout was completed as Vela broke through and finished in similar fashion to his opener, completing his hat-trick and no doubt raising expectations along the way.

It was an evening to enjoy. The pressure associated with more senior tournaments was not there; it does not mean the desire and will-to-win was any less but the atmosphere somewhat less intense than your usual Saturday. A night to remember the basic joys of watching football before the money came in and exploited the sport’s naivete even though the surroundings remind you of the positives that the aforesaid money can bring to the game.

Which is the sort of thing that you would expect Michel Platini to enjoy. Indeed, you would have thought that he and Wenger would be natural allies, wanting to see the game properly run and played the ‘right’ way. It seems to be an alternative route that they are taking for the leader of the game detests big clubs despite having played for one of the biggest in the game during his career, and having been a foreign player to boot, his two pet hates exposed the hypocrisy of his current stances. It is difficult to criticise the words Platini reportedly has said in that they are extracts from an interview, published today, so translatory differences may well ensue.

One thing apparent, is that Platini does not take kindly to Wenger’s comments on the money in the game and assistance for referees. The former is something that all of UEFA regularly bleat on about so why the criticism of Wenger? The latter is not surprisingly a root cause of difference, it attacks the root of FIFA and UEFA’s belief in the infallibility of officals. Fundamentally though, any time Wenger raises a point on the way the game is run, Platini’s paranoia kicks in, fearful that his shallow platform for running the game will be finally exposed as devoid of any flair or originality, traits that marked is playing career. They also expose his organisations inability to run football properly, not fit for purpose.

’til Tomorrow.