Arsenal 1 Leeds Utd 1:AT TIMES Arsenal in their cups have been intoxicating, as Arsene Wenger has used these occasions to demonstrate the qualities of his emerging players. But in struggling to force a replay against Leeds United, a home team that initially showed nine changes from the side who had shared a scoreless Premier League encounter with Manchester City three nights earlier merely reminded us why reserves used to be known as "the stiffs".
While there was no shortage of first-team experience there were few signs of first-team form, and Andrey Arshavin had all the enthusiasm of a man asked to work on his day off. Just when Arsenal appeared to be on the point of going out of the FA Cup to Simon Grayson’s disciplined, industrious Championship side, Robert Snodgrass having given Leeds the lead with a penalty early in the second half, Cesc Fabregas saved them from the spot as the tie entered stoppage time.
In a crowded programme Wenger was not looking for a resumption of hostilities at Elland Road tomorrow week, but as the Arsenal manager said: “It was not the wish I had before the game but it was the second worst wish. The worst would have been to go out. That would have been a shocker.”
The League Cup remains Arsenal’s most immediate chance of avoiding a sixth successive season without a trophy and on Wednesday they begin the task of reaching Wembley with a visit to Ipswich Town in the first leg of their semi-final. The final is on February 27th, by which time Arsenal will have re-engaged with Barcelona in the Champions League. So it might be as well to retain the FA Cup as an optional target should things go pear-shaped elsewhere.
Arsenal should not have been surprised by Leeds who, since going out to Histon, a Cambridgeshire village team, in the second round two seasons ago, have made a point of not embarrassing themselves further. As Wenger said: “It is a good warning that we got today. We knew before that Leeds went to Old Trafford last year and won and that they had a draw at Tottenham.”
Until Fabregas came on for the last half hour, to be followed by Theo Walcott a few minutes later, Arsenal lacked the mental and physical pace needed to break down a Leeds defence solidly organised around their dominant centre-backs, Alex Bruce and Andy O’Brien, and backed by the exceptional goalkeeping of Kasper Schmeichel.
Arsenal must have felt there were falling victim to the sons of the fathers. Bruce, son of Steve, soldiered on with a painful ankle and Schmeichel, son of Peter, kept Leeds in the Cup in the closing minutes with a second outstanding save from Denilson. “Schmeichel and Bruce,” mused Wenger. “Maybe these two names want to make my life difficult forever.”
As it was Nicklas Bendtner made it hard enough in the short term by rounding off a galumphing performance with a hopelessly miscued volley after Fabregas’s long lob forward had left him clear at 1-1. Yet a replay was the least Leeds deserved and they might have been spared that had Wojciech Szczesny not dived hard to his right to keep out a header from Luciano Becchio which would have given them a 2-0 lead.
The penalties brooked no argument, Denilson bringing down Max Gradel and Ben Parker holding back an escaping Walcott, whose admission that he had dived for one that was not awarded was a good George Washington moment but irrelevant in the general scheme of things.
Walcott bared all on the club website, which so far as one can recall was less enlightening on the day Robert Pires went down for the penalty taken by Thierry Henry which spared Arsenal a home defeat by Portsmouth early in 2003-04, the season they became unbeaten champions.
