An excellent game ends in surprising fashion with Obafemi Martins vaulting Birmingham City to their first major trophy in almost fifty years thanks to a bizarre error by Arsenal's young goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny. With Arsenal players looking as though they'd rather like the ground to swallow them whole, Birmingham and their fans are going mental - they've just beat the Gunners 2-1, won the League Cup, and have booked themselves a trip to the Europa League next year.
For huge swathes of the match, it looked as though Arsenal would win the game at a canter. Even after Nikola Zigic opened the scoring and City began to impose themselves on the match, Arsene Wenger's team of European superstars hauled themselves straight back into the match with a superb volley from Robin van Persie. They then proceeded to absolutely pepper Ben Foster's goal for the remainder of the first half and much of the second.
It looked as though Birmingham were going to be overwhelmed at one point, and that all they'd have to point to was luck - what if Lee Bowyer hadn't been incorrectly flagged offside in the first minute, leading to a red card for Szczęsny and a penalty after the midfielder was felled in the area? What if Keith Fahey's second-half shot had found the net rather than the inside of the post? What if Roger Johnson hadn't picked up that knee injury?
In one fell swoop, Martins consigned all of those what-ifs to the dustbin, smashing home from six yards in the 89th minute after Laurent Koscielny and Szczęsny collided to leave the ball sitting free directly in front of Arsenal's goal. There was no turning back for Arsenal or for City. Amazingly, astonishingly, Birmingham City are your 2011 Carling Cup champions.
