SOCCER: ARSENAL HAVE vowed not to let the shattering League Cup final defeat to Birmingham City derail their pursuit of the season's bigger trophies as thoughts begin to turn to the remaining three prizes for which the team are competing.
They play Leyton Orient at the Emirates in an FA Cup replay tomorrow – win that, and they will travel to Manchester United for a quarter-final – while they face Barcelona at the Camp Nou holding a 2-1 advantage from the first leg.
In the Premier League, the trophy manager Arsene Wenger appears to want the most, they sit four points behind leaders Manchester United with 11 games to play. They might take heart from the fact United still have to visit Chelsea, Liverpool and the Emirates.
“Mentally, the cup final was a huge blow, but we really have to focus on our other targets now,” said striker Marouane Chamakh.
“We’re lucky that we can play again straight away (against Leyton Orient). We have to forget the final quickly and make sure that the defeat doesn’t stay on our minds. We will bounce back. We still have a lot of big games to play and we will fight on until the end.”
Midfielder Tomas Rosicky added: “We’ve three trophies to go for and we need to pick ourselves up. We’ve got a game on Wednesday and we have to perform. The season doesn’t finish now, we are in a good position in other competitions so we have to forget the Carling Cup.”
Most of the players are still smarting after the 2-1 defeat, which was inflicted in the final moments at Wembley following an excruciating mix-up between Laurent Koscielny and goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny which allowed Obafemi Martins to tap in the winner for Birmingham.
To make matters worse, Arsenal are also anxiously awaiting the results of a scan on Robin van Persie’s knee. The striker damaged it while scoring his team’s equaliser and he is a doubt for the second leg of the Champions League last-16 tie in Barcelona next Tuesday.
Arsenal’s irritation was also reflected by Jack Wilshere, who revealed his annoyance at how Barry Ferguson had ruffled Koscielny’s hair as he sat hunched in despair after the winning goal.
“Well done to the BCFC player who slapped Koscielny on the head when they scored, very big of you,” Wilshere said on Twitter.
So far, Birmingham have not commented.
GuardianService
