Capital One Cup: Reading 5-7 (FIVE-SEVEN!) Arsenal – Gunners Stage Uber-Comeback In 12 Goal Madness At The Madejski (Photos & Highlights)

Alan Duffy

30th, October 2012

16 Comments

By Alan Duffy

Reading 5-7 Arsenal – Capital One Cup – 30th October 2012

That there is pretty much one of the most bizarre games of football you are ever likely to see, a game which echoes the words of the great poet Ronan Keating, who sung Life Is A Rollercoaster. Well, for fans of both Reading and Arsenal on Tuesday night, there were highs and there were lows, there were tears and there were laughs, and there were lots and lots and lots of goals.

Right, basically, a second-string Arsenal side produced a performance of utter horse manure in the first half, with Laurent Kosielny returning to the shoddy form of the 2010/11 campaign. Reading, on the other hand, were fluent and more importantly, potent, so potent in fact that by the 37th minute they were all of four goals up (courtesy of Jason Roberts, a Koscielny OG, Mikele Leigertwood and Noel Hunt).

With their team in disarray on the pitch, Arsenal’s travelling support stared to sing ‘Give us our money back’ and indeed ‘Give us our Arsenal back’. Just before the break, Theo Walcott got one back for the Gunners and then, in the second half, they produced a bizarre comeback courtesy of a header from sub Olivier Giroud, an 89th min goal from the rather busy Koscielny and a last-gasp equaliser from Gooner Carl Jenkinson (although it may end up being attributed to Walcott).

With eight goals scored, and everything all square, it was time for extra-time. None other than forgotten man Marouane Chamakh then put the Gunners ahead on 103 minutes as the north Londoners looked set for victory. However, Pavel Pogrebnyak had other ideas, getting the Royals back into the game on 116 minutes. Where would it all end!! Well, with the game headed towards penalties, Walcott netted the winner before Chamakh bagged his second of the game as Arsenal killed off the game. Two goals for Chamakh? Yup, that’s how crazy this game was. And not a racist in sight!

As for poor old Brian McDermott, he can be happy with his side’s magnificent first half display. As for Arsene Wenger, Andrei Arshavin was superb and played 120 minutes, and must be edging his way back towards some regular first team action, while young German Thomas Eisfeld looks a player.

Phew.

Photos…

Highlights…

Photos: PA

Posted in Arsenal, League Cup, Reading, Videos

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16 Comments

  1. Jarren says:

    As I now live in Canada I can’t watch these matches live.

    Usually it’s okay, I don’t mind catching up on replays and making do with feasting upon the Premiership games live when I’m off on the weekends.

    However, I got in from work this evening to be greeted with the final score on the BBC as Reading 5 – 7 Arsenal.

    And you know what? I wished I was f**king back in the UK.

    What a game that must have been to watch!

    Oxlade-Chamberlain’s tweets said it all.

  2. Jarren says:

    Just watched the highlights you provided there.

    After the third goal for Reading, it began to dawn on me that the Spanish commentator may get rather more exited once the actual drama began to unfold.

    I was not wrong!

    The guy made the footage even MORE epic, as if that was actually possible!

    Oh, and on a sidenote just to reiterate, I am a Man U supporter.

    Looking forward to the game this Saturday.

    Try not to think about last year too much, eh Gunners? :P

  3. Teddy Ballgame says:

    @Jarren

    Check out rojadirecta.me to watch games, I live in Seattle and I was watching the whole game during class. The site has a lot of annoying ads, and some of the streams are choppy, but its great for footie fans in North America.

  4. Sex God says:

    Theo Walcott…truly potential future sex god material. I approve.

  5. squiggle says:

    I like the camera lingering on Djourou after Giroud scores. Hehehe.

    Speaking as an Arsenal fan, that was a beautiful second half.
    Giroud was a game changer, and it was really good to see Chamakh looking like Chamakh again (Arsene, buy him Gourcuff and make him happy. Go on.). Walcott, of course, was superb.

    Also, I don’t speak much Spanish but that guy should commentate on every match, for everyone, everywhere.

  6. The Belgian says:

    Wasn’t it Walcott that equalised, instead of Jenkinson?

  7. SwissMafia says:

    I didnt see the match live unfortunately. But apart from the obviously amazing score, there is one part that really stood out for me. Arshavin’s selfishness. I CANNOT believe that he did not make the pass in order for Walcott to score his Hat-trick. Yes, he missed his shot and got to Walcott anyways (very fortunate), but if you look at the replay, the goal is completely covered by the defenders and the goalkeeper. Additionally, Arshavin was at a very tight angle. However Walcott was completely free right in front of goal. Cannot believe he did not pass to Walcott instead of shooting. Arshavin still isn’t looking very promising these days and Arsenal should let him go. It seems he is more detrimental to this team then anything these days.. But hats off to Arsenal. Amazing display by them!
    Congrats

  8. Meldeath says:

    @The Belgian, I think it’s debatable if the ball crossed the line with it’s full circumference there, so we could use some clarification there. This match was a really crazy one, but I have one conclusion – the goal on the right’s net took an awful lot of punishment.

  9. mcfc says:

    Two things Reading fans won’t appreciate you leaving out are, Koscielny avoiding a second yellow card for bringing a rampant Roberts down when he was going towards goal, right before Koscielny scored Arsenal’s third; and Arsenal scoring their fourth goal after the fifth minute of four minutes of injury time. Reading were robbed. If this happened Arsenal, you wouldn’t hear the end of Arsene’s moaning. McDermott is taking this with a lot of class. As for the game, dear god was there some bad defending. It was like a car crash. Walcott was the best player on the pitch because he was the fastest. It was so open that I was embarrassed for both teams. Arsenal are in trouble this Saturday. Man United will have been watching Arsenal like a cheetah watching a limp plump antelope unable to keep up with the herd (even if it was their second team).

  10. Jesus says:

    Christ! First time I can say “Thanks, Ref”. It was a second yellow to Koscielny(he was stupid enough not to believe that they can win the game and decided to act like a total prick and get Roberts down). But the added time – Reading made a sub, the crowd was keeping the ball(on a throw in I think), so during the added time there was mostly time wasting.

  11. Mr. Chopper says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20053678

    Look at those times when Walcott scored: 45, 90 and 120. Surely that’s got to be some kind of record. He was only missing one on 105 and he’d have had a hat-tri- Well, some sort of prize.

  12. Kate says:

    This match was absolutely fantastic. As a Spurs fan, I was loving the first half. I had to go to class and miss the last 25 mins, but I told my class what was going on, and they wanted to watch it too! I had to pull up a link, and we all watched the rest on a big projector. I also had to describe what was going on, who the teams were, and give a little history. I am a Brit who lives in the States, so I was over the moon that I got em all to watch it. They absolutely loved it! They couldn’t believe that they played for 2 hrs and were still going. I couldn’t believe that my prof let us watch it!
    P.S. @Jarren I always use thefirstrow.eu for all my matches if they aren’t televised on Fox Soccer. Its a good site, with good picture quality

  13. milt_palacio says:

    Was a darn exciting match. But my god, what poor tactics from Reading. You’re up 4-1 against an opponent you normally have no business defeating and you keep attacking, swalloing counter-attack after counter-attack. Than you’re up 4-2, same thing. Not really clever.

    Giroud looked ace after coming on, same for Eisfeld. Arshavin seemed really quick on his feet but his decision-making was pretty bad, often just looking for his own shot. Coquelin was okay going forward but defensively he allowed too much, especially before the first goal when he was way too far away in midfield.

    I think it was okay to extend the injury time to five minutes, with the sub and quite a few throw-ins. Rather unusal to see a refree give that extra-time, but he enjoyed that match too, as it seems.

  14. Jarren says:

    @Teddy Ballgame, @ Kate

    Cool, thanks for the links guys!

  15. Hamed says:

    Who was Arsenal’s captain on the night? With those shirts it looked like….everybody?

  16. K-Force says:

    Djourou, although he didn’t do much. Damian Martinez and Olivier Giroud kept us in the game all night!

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