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2011 Football League Cup Final
	Match programme cover
Event	2010–11 Football League Cup
Date	27 February 2011
Venue	Wembley Stadium, London
Man of the Match	Ben Foster (Birmingham City)
Referee	Mike Dean (Cheshire)
Attendance	88,851
Weather	Mostly cloudy; 6 °C (43 °F)
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The 2011 Football League Cup Final was the final match of the 2010–11 Football League Cup, the 51st season of the Football League Cup, a football competition for the 92 teams in the Premier League and the Football League. The match was contested by Arsenal and Birmingham City, at Wembley Stadium in London, on 27 February 2011.^[4] Birmingham City won the game 2–1 and were guaranteed a spot in the third qualifying round of the 2011–12 UEFA Europa League.^[5] Mike Dean was the referee.^[2]

Background

Arsenal held the advantage over Birmingham in the league matches between the two sides in 2010–11, having beaten them 2–1 at the Emirates Stadium in October and again 3–0 at St Andrew's on New Year's Day.^[6]^[7]

Arsenal had played in six Football League Cup finals, but had only won two, most recently in 1993 when they beat Sheffield Wednesday 2–1. Birmingham's only League Cup title came in 1963, when they beat local rivals Aston Villa 3–1 on aggregate after a two-legged final. They also reached the 2001 final, which was played at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff against Liverpool, but the 2011 final was Birmingham's first appearance in the final of a major competition at Wembley for nearly 55 years, their last being the 1956 FA Cup Final.

Road to Wembley

Arsenal			Round	Birmingham City
	Bye		Round 2^[A]	Birmingham City	3–2	Rochdale
Tottenham Hotspur	1–4	Arsenal (a.e.t.)	Round 3^[B]	Birmingham City	3–1	Milton Keynes Dons
Newcastle United	0–4	Arsenal	Round 4	Birmingham City	1–1 (4–3 pen.)	Brentford (a.e.t.)
Arsenal	2–0	Wigan Athletic	Round 5	Birmingham City	2–1	Aston Villa
Ipswich Town	1–0	Arsenal	Semifinal	West Ham United	2–1	Birmingham City
Arsenal	3–0	Ipswich Town		Birmingham City	3–1	West Ham United (a.e.t.)
Arsenal won 3–1 on aggregate				Birmingham City won 4–3 on aggregate

Pre-match

The starting line-ups being announced before kick-off

In the build-up to the game, Arsène Wenger criticised the FA and UEFA for overpricing tickets for their finals. ^{[citation needed]}

A number of Arsenal players missed out on the final. Thomas Vermaelen was not fit, while goalkeeper Łukasz Fabiański had been ruled out for the rest of the season. Theo Walcott picked up a sprained ankle in a match against Stoke City a few days prior, and captain Cesc Fàbregas was also injured in that game; both missed the final. Abou Diaby was also injured.^[8]

For Birmingham, Scott Dann was ruled out for the rest of the season following an injury in the League Cup semi-final, while James McFadden was still not recovered from an injury received in September. Former Arsenal player Alexander Hleb was injured in an FA Cup match the week before, and failed to recover in time to play. David Bentley, who had replaced Hleb in that match, was cup-tied, having played for Tottenham Hotspur in their defeat to Arsenal in the third round.

Match

Summary

There was a moment of contention just two minutes into the match as an early Birmingham chance was created through Lee Bowyer, who appeared to be fouled by Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny in what would probably have been a penalty kick and red card for the keeper. However, Bowyer had already been flagged offside (a decision that replays proved was incorrect).

After ten minutes, Birmingham's Barry Ferguson was involved a collision, and played the rest of the game with what proved to be two broken ribs.^[9]

Arsenal threatened regularly throughout the course of the match, with an eventual 20 attempts on goal to Birmingham's 11 (both teams were denied by the woodwork once), however the fine work of Birmingham goalkeeper Ben Foster kept the north London team at bay. Foster would go on to win the man of the match award, and with it, the Alan Hardaker Trophy (also making Foster the first-ever player to win the trophy on two occasions).^[1]

Birmingham took the lead in the 28th minute when a corner kick was sent into the box, Roger Johnson won the initial header towards goal which was then flicked in off the head of Nikola Žigić past Wojciech Szczęsny into the net. Arsenal levelled 11 minutes later when, moments after Jack Wilshere struck the crossbar with a shot, Robin van Persie volleyed an Andrei Arshavin cross in with his right foot. However, Van Persie injured himself upon landing, and while he was initially able to continue, he struggled as the match went on and was eventually substituted by Nicklas Bendtner partway through the second half. Going into half-time the scoreline stayed at 1–1, with both teams failing to capitalise on good opportunities to score a second, including Arsenal's Samir Nasri who had a long-range effort saved, and then in the second half Birmingham's Keith Fahey was denied by the post.

On 83 minutes, Birmingham brought on Obafemi Martins in place of Fahey. Six minutes later, and in the final minute of normal time, Martins scored to put Birmingham 2–1 up after a mix-up between Szczęsny and defender Laurent Koscielny. A long ball from Blues keeper Foster, flicked on by Žigić, appeared to be heading safely into the hands of the Arsenal keeper. But Koscielny attempted to play the ball, distracting Szczęsny and causing him to bobble the ball into the path of Martins, who tapped it into an empty net.

Too little time was left for Arsenal to recover, and after four-and-a-half minutes of injury time was seen out, Birmingham City secured their second Football League Cup trophy.^[10]

Details

27 February 2011

16:00 GMT

Arsenal	1–2	Birmingham City
Van Persie 39'	Report	Žigić 28' Martins 89'

Wembley Stadium, London

Attendance: 88,851

Referee: Mike Dean (Cheshire)^[2]

Arsenal

Birmingham City



GK	53	Wojciech Szczęsny
RB	3	Bacary Sagna
CB	20	Johan Djourou
CB	6	Laurent Koscielny	35'
LB	22	Gaël Clichy	52'
CM	17	Alex Song
CM	19	Jack Wilshere
RW	7	Tomáš Rosický
AM	8	Samir Nasri
LW	23	Andrey Arshavin		77'
CF	10	Robin van Persie (c)		69'
Substitutes:
GK	1	Manuel Almunia
DF	18	Sébastien Squillaci
DF	27	Emmanuel Eboué
DF	28	Kieran Gibbs
MF	15	Denílson
FW	29	Marouane Chamakh		77'
FW	52	Nicklas Bendtner		69'
Manager:
Arsène Wenger



GK	26	Ben Foster
RB	2	Stephen Carr (c)
CB	5	Roger Johnson
CB	28	Martin Jiránek
LB	6	Liam Ridgewell
RM	7	Sebastian Larsson	41'
CM	12	Barry Ferguson	90+4'
LM	18	Keith Fahey		83'
AM	8	Craig Gardner		50'
AM	4	Lee Bowyer
CF	19	Nikola Žigić		90+2'
Substitutes:
GK	1	Maik Taylor
DF	3	David Murphy
DF	21	Stuart Parnaby
DF	23	Jean Beausejour		50'
FW	9	Kevin Phillips
FW	10	Cameron Jerome	90+3'	90+2'
FW	17	Obafemi Martins		83'
Manager:
Alex McLeish

Man of the match

Ben Foster (Birmingham City)^[1]

Match officials

Assistant referees:
- Ron Ganfield (Somerset)^[2]
- Mike Mullarkey (Devon)^[2]
Fourth official: Kevin Friend (Leicestershire)^[2]

Match rules

90 minutes
30 minutes of extra time if necessary
Penalty shootout if scores still level
Seven named substitutes
Maximum of three substitutions

Statistics

	Arsenal	Birmingham
Total shots	20	11
Shots on target	12	7
Ball possession	56%	44%
Corner kicks	6	3
Fouls committed	11	9
Offsides	2	4
Yellow cards	2	3
Red cards	0	0

Source: BBC Sport^[10]

Notes

A. ^ Clubs competing in the Premier League, but not in UEFA competitions, receive a bye to the second round.

B. ^ Clubs competing in UEFA competitions receive a bye to the third round.

References

^ ^a ^b ^c "Foster makes history at Wembley". football-league.co.uk. The Football League. 28 February 2011. Archived from the original on 31 July 2012. Retrieved 4 March 2011.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f "Officials named for Carling Cup final". football-league.co.uk. The Football League. 31 January 2011. Archived from the original on 11 February 2011. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
^ "Weather History for London, United Kingdom". wunderground.com. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016.
^ "Carling Cup Draw Dates". Carling Cup official website. Molson Coors Brewing Company. Archived from the original on 20 July 2013. Retrieved 24 January 2011.
^ McCarra, Kevin (27 February 2011). "Obafemi Martins grabs glory as Birmingham beat Arsenal". The Guardian. London: Guardian News and Media. Retrieved 28 February 2011.
^ Sheringham, Sam (16 October 2010). "Arsenal 2–1 Birmingham". BBC Sport. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
^ Magowan, Alistair (1 January 2011). "Birmingham 0–3 Arsenal". BBC Sport. Retrieved 26 January 2011.
^ "Arsenal's Theo Walcott ruled out of Carling Cup final against Birmingham and Cesc Fabregas doubtful". The Daily Telegraph. 23 February 2011. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
^ Curtis, John (9 March 2011). "Barry Ferguson to play on with broken rib for Birmingham". The Independent. Independent Digital News & Media. Archived from the original on 27 July 2019. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
^ ^a ^b McNulty, Phil (27 February 2011). "Martins the hero for Blues". BBC Sport. British Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 8 May 2012.