February 25 – The Drog Downs Arsene’s Young Gunners

FOR a spell in the late ’90s and early 2000′s the League Cup was a chance for some of the lesser lights of English football to pick up some silverware. Since Middlesbrough’s win in 2004 though, the Big Four (if we’re still allowed to call them that) have had their mitts all over it.

But, if these finals are all going to be as entertaining and action-packed as Arsenal’s clash with Chelsea from today in 2007, then we won’t mind so much.

The two London rivals had to head over to Cardiff as the finishing touches were still being made to the new Wembley, so the Millennium Stadium hosted it’s last English cup final. Around 2,000 cockney fans had reason to lament this as major train delays saw them miss kick-off thanks to Network Rail’s usual shenanigans.

As luck wouldn’t have it, the latecomers missed out when the final started with a bang. Arsene Wenger put his faith in the youngsters that had got his side to the final, selecting a team with an average age of less than 21 and after 12 minutes 17-year-old Theo Walcott bagged his first goal for the Gunners as he ghosted past Ricardo Carvalho and slotted home past Petr Cech.

Under the stewardship of the Special One, Chelsea didn’t give up easily and Didier Drogba soon equalised with his 27th goal of the season, which had more than a suspicion of offside about it.

Arsenal’s youngsters took the game to Chelsea, but failed to take advantage. The game was held up for over five minutes when John Terry went headfirst into Abou Diaby’s incoming boot, causing the England captain to lose consciousness and be stretchered off to hospital.

This seemed to galvanise the Chelsea team, just as Arsenal’s young legs began to tire. With five minutes remaining Drogba headed substitute Arjen Robben’s cross past Manuel Almunia to give the Blues the lead.

Seven minutes of injury time were signalled by the fourth official, in which the game turned nasty, as John Obi Mikel and Kolo Toure clashed, sparking off a mass brawl that saw the two protagonists plus Emmanuel Adebayor all receive red cards from referee Howard Webb and even had the two managers ploughing in.

Eventually, after 11 minutes of added-on time the game ended and Chelsea picked up the trophy and would go on that season to add the FA Cup after defeating Manchester United in one of the most boring Cup Finals ever.

See which other side were celebrating a League Cup triumph today here and if you’re feeling tech-savvy then why not follow us on Twitter here.