Arsenal Vs. Birmingham City, Carling Cup Final: Refereeing Controversy Already

The 2011 Carling Cup Final is underway and referee Mike Dean and company are already having a shocker. First, Arsenal forward Samir Nasri is blocked off in rather vicious fashion whilst attempting to run onto a through ball, only to see Mike Dean wave play on, and then not thirty seconds later Lee Bowyer finds himself clear in the Arsenal penalty box, one on one with Wojciech Szczęsny. The goalkeeper got nowhere near the ball in his despairing lunge, sending Bowyer tumbling - it would have been a clear penalty and red card for Szczęsny - except for the fact that the linesman already had his flag raised for offside. The replay showed that Bowyer was onside by at least two yards, played on by left back Gael Clichy. Oops.

Despite that early defensive scare, Arsenal are settling in fairly nicely and looking very dangerous going forwards. They're going to have some trouble dealing with the height of Nikola Zigic when Birmingham launch long balls forward, but they've already shown their attacking intent - Andrei Arshavin was denied brilliantly by Ben Foster after the Russian international created space in the box to turn and shoot, and Robin van Persie has also been looking fairly menacing. Arsenal starting the better here.