Double-click on any word and see its definition from Cambridge Dictionaries Online.

Click on any of the links in the text to see definitions in our football glossary.

Do a language activity

Return to blog

Manchester United struggled to beat Fulham at Craven Cottage, but the 2-1 win sent them nine points clear at the top of the Premiership. That’s because the second team, arch rivals Chelsea, were busy winning their first trophy of the season, the Carling (League) Cup.

It was the 47th edition of the competition, which is open to the 92 League clubs (four divisions) only, (probably?) the last one at the Millennium stadium in Cardiff (used since 2001 as a stand-in for Wembley while it was being re-built), and, perhaps surprisingly, the first all-London Final; Chelsea’s opponents were Arsenal.

While Chelsea manager José Mourinho played his best team, even risking captain John Terry, who had injured an ankle in the week against FC Porto, the Gunners’ manager Arséne Wenger fielded what was in effect a reserve side full of youngsters: the average age of the team on the day was 21.

But Arsenal’s babes were not at all in awe of Chelsea’s big boys, and even went in front through 17-year-old Theo Walcott with his first ever goal for the club. Arsenal fans will be pleased with the prospect of such young players coming through the club’s youth system, confident about future seasons, but disappointed with the result. If there’s one man in the Chelsea side who you can put money on to win a match for you it’s striker Didier Drogba, and so it proved again this time; the Ivory Coast international got both Blues goals to give Mourinho his fifth domestic trophy after two and a half seasons with the club. He won six pieces of silverware with his former club FC Porto, including a UEFA Cup and a Champions League, and he will be hoping to emulate himself at Stamford Bridge; Chelsea are still on course to win three more trophies this year, the Champions League among them.

However, the Final, played in front of 70,000, with 60,000 of them fans of both clubs, will unfortunately be remembered for two unsavoury incidents. Around the hour mark, fearless John Terry dipped his head to get to the ball in the Arsenal penalty area and was kicked in the face by midfielder Diaby. The Chelsea captain fell to the ground unconscious and it was feared that he could be seriously injured, but after being taken to hospital, he recovered and rejoined his team-mates to celebrate the win. The other incident happened deep into added time at the end of the game: a frustrated Touré had an argument with Chelsea’s Mikel, and both teams congregated in the middle of the pitch for a good old-fashioned brawl. Even the two managers ran onto the pitch, not to join in but to try to calm the nerves of the players. The result was two red cards for Arsenal (Touré and Adebayor) and one for Chelsea (Mikel), but it could have been more.

Another player sent off on the day was Tottenham’s Robbie Keane, after he had scored two goals in his side’s 4-1 win over Bolton in the Premiership. There were two other four-goal results: at Anfield, another Robbie, Fowler this time, got two penalties in the space of five minutes as Liverpool beat Sheffield United 4-0, and at the bottom of the table, Charlton (managed by Alan Pardew, ex-West Ham) beat West Ham (managed by Alan Curbishley, ex-Charlton) by the same score. It was West Ham’s 11th consecutive game without a win, eight of those defeats. “I feel dreadful for the fans”, said Curbishley. Asked about the chances of his being sacked, he replied: “Don’t worry about me – I’m a big boy.”

In Scotland, there was a thrilling finale to the Inverness v Celtic Scottish Cup fifth round tie: Graham Bayne had put Inverness in front on 18 minutes, and they held on to the lead until the last two minutes, when Celtic got two heartbreaking (if you’re a Caley fan) goals, through Steven Pressley and Kenny Miller. Apart from the disappointment at losing the tie, the defeat was also something of a financial disaster for the Highlands club: “It could cost us around £300,000 (450,000 euros) from what we'd get from the semi-final,” said director of football Graeme Bennett. “That's a huge amount for a club of our size.”

Return to blog