Just as cup draws always seem to do, two former rivals will fight fiercely against each other once again. Former Manchester United captain, Roy Keane and his Ipswich side have been drawn against United’s notorious rival in Arsene Wenger and Arsenal, while the former Birmingham owners will see their current club, West Ham take on their old side.
Keane was renowned for his highly competitive, and aggressive style of play – the perfect leader therefore, for a massive club, and his Ipswich players would probably tell you that he hasn’t lost any of his massive passion for winning. In his playing days, there was no team that Keane loved beating more than Arsenal, so the Irishman will gratefully snatch the chance to re-live his United glory days and progress to the Carling Cup final.
Birmingham, who progressed to this stage thanks to a 2 – 1 win over bitter local rivals Aston Villa, have been drawn against lesser rivals; but rivals for a different reason. David Sullivan and David Gold owned Birmingham for 15 years, but left amid certain allegations in 2008 and admitted that:
“deep down the public have had enough of us”.
Thanks to comments made by Gold, including calling the Birmingham chairman “disgusting” he was banned by Birmingham’s ground, St Andrews for the recent Premier League match between the Blues and the Hammers, so it will be interesting to see the on the pitch battle between the two teams fighting for a cup fnal place.
There will be two legs to the semi final games, and the winners will book a place at Wembley on February 27th. The semi finals look like they will be entertaining games, but surely this cup is Arsenal’s to lose as their biggest challengers, Manchester United, crashed out 4 – 0 in the quarter finals against West Ham.
