Arsenal perform comedy routine to give Birmingham the Carling Cup

Arsenal's Twitter trashing-talking goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny and saboteur defender Laurent Koscielny capped off a slapstick end to the 2011 Carling Cup final and gave Birmingham's supposedly 26-year-old Obafemi Martins an 89th minute winner on an empty net (see it here). So Arsenal's six-year stretch without a trophy marches on as Birmingham win their first major (well, relatively major) trophy since the last time they won this competition in 1963.

As if that wasn't painful enough for the North London club, Martins poured salt on his finger then stuck it in Arsenal's open wound by saying (via Soccernet):

[O]n-loan Rubin Kazan player Martins admitted afterwards on Sky Sports: "I think this is the easiest goal I've ever scored in my career - and it's very important. I'm glad I scored today and I'm glad we won. I think it was my second touch. I'm very happy."

That's Obafemi Martins saying Arsenal gave him the easiest goal of his career in the 89th minute of a 1-1 cup final. That has to hurt. Especially since before the match, Arsenal were reportedly considering a request to see if the FA would allow injured captain Cesc Fabregas to lift the trophy in the event of them winning.

Here are more photos from Wembley...

Photos: AP, Getty, Reuters