Clarke will take heart from this display as he plots return to the top-flight
STEVE CLARKE sprang up and pumped the air with his fist. All of a sudden, there was a little extra bounce in his box-fresh training shoes and a fire in his belly burned a little more fiercely.
As a Chelsea player and coach, Clarke has fought hard across the capital with Arsenal over the years but through the first half at Wembley, his Reading team struggled to match their opponents.
They were flat. They backed off and defended and offered a little too much respect to the team with the best form in the Premier League since the turn of the year.
Arsenal have been irresistible since they improved at the back and supplied a stronger base for the flair of their many attacking stars to perform upon.
Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez, bought for a total of more than £70million, combined to open the scoring. What could Reading do with that sort of money?
Ozil and Sanchez swaggered down the tunnel for the start of the second half, deep in conversation, planning more damage but Reading stirred, found an equaliser and added urgency to their game.
Clarke sprang up and threw a punch of delight into the air. His team were back in the contest and they contributed to a thrilling FA Cup semifinal. It was their first since 1927, so it would have been a shame to go
home without a fight. As for Clarke, this must have felt good. He has been away from the cut-and-thrust of football’s elite since he was sacked by West Brom, but he detected an FA Cup final as Wojciech Szczesny was unable to keep out a deflected volley from Garath McCleary.
The Reading boss won the FA Cup with Chelsea in 1994, a game he considers a defining moment in the history of the club.
They barely looked back and were tightening their grip on a fourth Premier League title as Reading took Arsenal into extra-time. For all their quality, Arsene Wenger’s team still have vulnerabilities. Clarke, having learned much at the shoulder of Jose Mourinho, will have been aware of that. He will have been disappointed with the first-half display but hugely proud of their response and the desire they showed.
In the end, Reading were unable to wreck Arsenal’s defence of the trophy or Wenger’s drive towards becoming only the second manager in history to win it six times, after George Ramsay with Aston Villa, all prior to 1920.
But, as Clarke goes back to the Championship and a home game against Birmingham on Wednesday, he will take strength from this display and use it to inspire his return to the top-flight.