Advantage Ipswich as Gunners fail to fire

THE ONLY consolation for Arsene Wenger after this humiliating defeat was that the blow was not delivered by Roy Keane, Arsenal’s old adversary from the Irishman’s days at Manchester United.

Instead, the Ipswich team that Keane built delivered a superb performance to beat Arsenal, deservedly claiming victory thanks to Tamas Priskin’s cleverly taken goal late in the second-half.

The Tractor Boys, who sacked Keane last week, have given themselves a wonderful chance of reaching the Carling Cup Final, and if Arsenal’s trophy drought is extended by another year then Wenger should question himself and many of the players he has at his disposal.

This was a poor display, and one that would hardly have been expected considering the strength of the side that Wenger fielded at a joyous Portman Road.

Cesc Fabregas and Jack Wilshere were peripheral, while Nicklas Bendtner and Andrey Arshavin were simply woeful.

The centre-back pairing of Johan Djourou and Laurent Koscielny — the only pairing that Wenger has available to him — were given the run-around by Priskin, a striker who has never played above the Championship.

Wenger was unable to mask his disappointment at the display, and is now pinning his hopes on the return leg at Emirates.

“We didn’t create many chances,” said the Frenchman. “Ipswich defended very well and we were caught out.

“We had no spark, Ipswich were sharper than us and we made a defensive mistake which they took advantage of. But we’re at home in the second leg and that could make all the difference.”

In mitigation, this was a fine performance by Ipswich, who belied their place in the Championship table, where they are just three points off the relegation zone.

Keane was sacked last week after a run of seven defeats in 10 games, and his replacement, Paul Jewell, does not assume control of first-team affairs until this morning.

In his stead, Charlie McParland took the reins, and his side delivered a display to be proud of.

Indeed, it was difficult to comprehend that nine of Ipswich’s starting XI played in Sunday’s 7-0 humiliation at Chelsea, a defeat which makes this victory even more astounding.

McParland is now hoping the result can spur the players on for the rest of the season.

“I’m delighted for the boys,” he said. “It shows their character, to come back from the 7-0 defeat against Chelsea.

“They kept their shape tonight and worked hard, we might have had three goals and limited Arsenal to a couple of shots. I’m dead proud of them – now they have to carry on that hard work under the new manager and they’ll be fine.”

Ipswich harried their more illustrious visitors at every opportunity and barely gave them a sniff of a goalscoring opportunity.

Arsenal actually started well and Theo Walcott wasted a wonderful chance after just 90 seconds, cutting inside when he should have shot.

And, in the first-half, that was it from the visitors.

Ipswich visibly grew in confidence as the game went on, and they should have been ahead by the break, Priskin correctly seeing a wonderful overhead effort ruled out for offside, shortly after he had driven a low effort inches wide of Wojciech Szczesny’s far post.

A much improved performance by Arsenal was expected in the second-half, but if anything they became even worse.

Koscielny and Djourou simply could not deal with Priskin. They were caught out just after the hour by a simple long ball, with Djourou volleying inches over his own crossbar as he attempted to retrieve the situation.

Yet there was to be no let-off when the Hungarian burst through with just over 10 minutes to go, drawing Szczesny before curling low into the far corner.

It was a fully merited goal, and a capacity Portman Road crowd erupted.

Arsenal threw everything forward in the closing minutes, but they never looked like scoring. Well over the allotted four minutes of injury-time was played, but it simply prolonged the inevitable.

McParland punched the air on the touchline, while Wenger scowled.

The whereabouts of Keane were unknown, but he would surely have enjoyed seeing his side humiliate Wenger — something he made a habit of over the years as a player.

For the Arsenal boss, meanwhile, it was a night to forget.

They could hardly have given a worse performance than last night, and disaster is on the cards. Barcelona, their opponents in the Champions League, will hardly be quaking in their boots.

IPSWICH: Fulop 8, Peters 7, McAuley 9, Delaney 9, Kennedy 7, Edwards 7, Norris 8, Healy 7, O’Dea 7, Wickham 8, Priskin 9 (Murray, 90, 6).

ARSENAL: Szczesny 6, Eboue 5, Koscielny 5, Djourou 5, Gibbs 7, Walcott 6, Denilson 5, Fabregas 5, Wilshere 6 (Song, 68,6), Arshavin 4, Bendtner 4 (Vela, 80, 6) (Chamakh, 68, 6).

Referee: Martin Atkinson 7.