Arsenal 7-5 Reading: Why Football Truly Is The Beautiful Game

Few would have thought it at first, but the Capital One Cup tie that brought together Arsenal and Reading was to be one of the greatest games of this or any season. It was a match between what was essentially an Arsenal reserves side; featuring unproven youngsters mixed with fringe players from the first team, only Theo Walcott and Laurent Koscielny of the starting eleven could be considered fully fledged first-teamers; and a Reading side with six changes to the one that drew 3-3 with Fulham at the weekend.

Arsenal started the game incredibly sluggishly, managing to play the kind of uninspiring and dreary football we saw against Norwich and Schalke, blunt going forward, sloppy at the back and we were made to pay by Jason Roberts very early on, then succumbed to a series which included an own goal and a goalkeeping howler which put us 4:0 down after 34 minutes, with Arsenal fans already leaving the ground. The atmosphere was surreal, neither set of fans were comprehending what was happening before them. Just before the half time whistle however, Theo Walcott then made a lightning run through the middle and converted clinically from what was Arsenal's only chance of the first half to put them 4:1 down going in to half time. At this point the question to be asked is who would have ever thought that Arsenal would be inspired to a major fightback by the likes of Arshavin and Chamakh? Arsenal started showing some signs of improvement after the break, with a distinct change in attitude and work ethic by the entire team and a palpable belief that the game was within reach. Wenger made two great substitutions on 60 minutes, bringing on Eisfeld and Giroud, both of whom changed the game. The German teenager started spraying passes from midfield and really making Arsenal play, like an Arteta mark II, and Giroud's attacking influence was sublime, he combined directness with supreme hold up play and really took the game by the scruff of the neck like Chamakh never could. He got his reward, scoring a good header from a Theo Walcott corner. Arsenal then missed a series of chances and it really looked like the game had got away from them, but Koscielny made it 4:3 in the 90th minute fom another corner, and Walcott equalised in the 5th minute of added time as mania ensued at the Madejski, 4:4. Then came extra time and Chamakh suddenly realised that he was a professional footballer and did a beautiful backheel, made a run and then scored from outside the box! At this point it was 5:4, and an inexperienced Arsenal fan would have probably thought that that was game over, nope, nothing like it. Reading managed to score in the second half of extra time, Pogrebnyak staying onside and heading past Martinez. By this point, a penalty shootout was looking likely but it wasn't to be, Arshavin made a blistering run down the left, leaving a series of Reading players in his wake, then selfishly choosing to shoot from an angle only for the shot to be cleared to the awaiting Walcott who bagged his hat-trick. At this point I'm not even celebrating, I'm just staring at the TV and contemplating what I've just witnessed in numb disbelief. Unsurprisingly, Reading then committed everyone forward, when the Arsenal defence hoofed a clearance-cum-long ball in the general direction of the Reading half, only to see it bounce over Gunther and fall to Chamakh who got his second of the night with a classy lob from outside the area. That was the final goal of the game, a game in which the supporters really must have been more tired by the end of than the players, a game that will never be forgotten.