Obafemi Martins Lifts Birmingham City Past Arsenal For Carling Cup

What an absolute calamity that was from Szczęsny and Koscielny though. That would be an embarrassing goal to concede at the best of times, but with the game level in the 90th minute of a Carling Cup final? Arsenal’s trophy curse is a spectacularly strong one. Oh, and then there’s karma:

With the game coming up to full time and a lot of tired legs on the pitch, each manager has but one substitution available to them. The match looks a near-certainty to be heading to extra time and possibly penalties now - can either team break through before they’re faced with a further thirty exhausting minutes?

Eventually, Chamakh did made an appearance, coming on for Andrei Arshavin. The substitution brought no repreive for Birmingham, and Foster was called into action from a Rosicky backheel and a Nasri long-range piledriver with another pair of excellent saves. Tense times at Wembley, and it’s all Arsenal with just ten minutes of regular time remaining.

The break came at the perfect time for Birmingham - Alex McLeish will be doing his best to calm his side down during the interval and reminding them that they’ve already demonstrated they can hang in with Arsene Wenger’s superstars. It wouldn’t be a big surprise to see Birmingham coming out strong in the second half.

Arsenal (4-3-3): Szczesny; Sagna, Djourou, Koscielny, Clichy; Rosicky, Song, Wilshere; Nasri, van Persie, Arshavin.

Subs: Almunia, Denilson, Squillaci, Eboue, Gibbs, Chamakh, Bendtner.

The Liverpool attacker gained possession to the far left of the West Ham area, turning no the ball and beating his mark to the byline. A left-footed pass through the six yard box was met by Glen Johnson, racing in from the weak side. Robert Green, electing to stay on his line and not play the cross, had no chance on the shot, with Johnson making it 2-1.

Moments later, a long ball from West Ha, won by Demba Ba, saw Gary O’Neil in possession on the right flank, the Senegalese striker running unmarked toward goal. O’Neil lined the cross in toward the near post, with Ba lunging onto the redirection. The shot went just inside the right post under the crossbar, doubling West Ham’s lead.

At 11:00 a.m. Eastern, Manchester City welcomes former manager Mark Hughes back to Eastlands, the first time he has return to City of Manchester Stadium since being dismissed last season. His first match against City as Fulham’s coach did not go well, with the Cottagers on the wrong end of a 4-1 outcome in London. Unbeaten in their last three league matches, Fulham will look to increase the three point distance between themselves and the drop, while City will hope to take advantage of Tottenham’s mid-week loss at Blackpool and solidify their hold on third place.

The action starts at 8:30 a.m. Eastern. SB Nation Soccer will be updating you on all the major events throughout the day.