Ipswich can’t stop the march to Wembley

We are going to Wembley...the players go bonkers as the realisation hits them

And so we make our way into an actual cup final since 2007. It is in the same competition where we did it then – the Carling Cup – last time out. We contained Ipswich for exactly an hour and broke down their resistance with good goals all round from the much-maligned Nicklas Bendtner; confirmed defender now masquerading as occasional goalscorer Koscielny who also happens to be namesakes with a certain African dictator clinging on stubbornly to power despite an election that voted him out of office; and yes, the ‘non-leader’ Cesc Fabregas.

So we are going to Wembley to face one of relegation battlers, West Ham or Birmingham City, who have both shipped in three goals from our world famous(!) strikers in the recent past. Life couldn’t be better as a Gooner, ay? Not really. At not what you would have thought after the first half of last night’s game when the score stood at nil-nil and the Tractor Boys were still ahead of us on account of that lone goal they scored in the first leg.

Just as we all shook our heads in resigned wonder at the halftime of last Saturday’s game against Wigan when the score was a miserable 1-0 despite the mother-of-all-bombardments on their defence. So did we all wonder if we would have to endure a night of more frustration yesternight. Well, cue Jack Wilshire, who in my most humble was the stand out player on the pitch. His well measured, 35-40 yarder of a pass to Bendtner turned out to be the secret code to unlock Ipswich’s hardworking but tiring defence.

The ‘Bendtnerman’, also now a new father, still had to figure a way of getting past Carlos Edwards who was marking him. And therein lay one of the moments of the season for me. The thing with Bendtner is that he is so predictable and clumsy that even fans in the stand can read his next move miles and miles before it happens. So for defenders faces with our ego-drunk Dane, he must be one of the easiest attackers in the world to mark. Devoid of speed, he actually makes defenders jobs even easier.

Emotion overflow as Cesc is overwhelmed by it all

But on collecting Wilshire’s glorious pass, the Bendtnerman executed  a swift leg-over-cum-dribble that would have made Christano Ronaldo really proud. Leaving Edwards for dead, he drove into the Ipswich box and with defenders approaching from all angles, he composed himself enough to aim for the far, right hand corner of the goal and lo and behold, it went in for a delightful gamebreaker!

The relief around the Emirates was as palpable as the beauty of the goal itself. Only a frustratingly-enigmatic character like Bendtnerman could have pulled that off. Whatever else he has done wrong this season so far, forgiveness was swift and total last night. Probably he really needs a regular run in the team to repeat his heroics and his chestnut-out-the-fire form for us late last season when Van Persie was missing with injury and we were suffering in front of goal.

However, whatever we all think of him, Bendtnerman redeemed himself and his fledging place in our collective hearts last night with that collector’s item.

Koscielny doubled his season tally with a thumping header just three minutes later off a good, good Andrei Arshavin corner kick. His ‘pregnant-woman’ might suggest that a lass somehow behind the scenes is probably due to deliver him a bouncing little tot. Who knows? He delivered for us most crucially himself last night and the passion and energy with which his goal was celebrated by all and sundry in the red shirts showed the players are as desperate as we all for some silverware. Even the Carling version.

The ‘non leader’ wrapped things up beautifully in the 77th minute by appyling the finishing touch to a 70-yard move involving him and another maligned Gunner, Arshavin. It was a coup de grace that Ipswich never recovered from and rubber-stamped our passage to Wembley and within sight of what I will term a well-deserved trophy at last. For a club the size of Arsenal, it is a welcome development too far-between and too infrequent. 

Stand out performances on the night came from the smallest player on the pitch and the smallest in most games involving us this season – Mr Wilshire. Alongside him, Fabregas, Bendtner and Djourou all shone.

Ratings: Szcznesny 6, Djourou 8, Koscielny 8, Clichy 6, Sagna 5, Denilson 6, Wilshire 8, Fabregas 7, Arshavin 7, Van Persie 6, Bendtner 7, (Subs: Eboue 6, Nasri 4, Walcott 4)