Football: Arsenal's triumph devalued: Football: Injury to match-winner Morrow in post-final celebrations mars Gunners' day as Parker profits from penalty to revive Atkinson's ambition

Arsenal. .2 Sheffield Wednesday. .1

Steve Morrow won the Coca-Cola Cup for Arsenal here yesterday, but missed last night's party after fracturing his right arm in a bizarre accident after the end of the match.

The Northern Ireland defender, a surprise selection in midfield, was celebrating his decisive goal - the first of his career - when he took a tumble over Tony Adams, and was carried off on a stretcher.

While the rest of the team were performing a subdued lap of honour, Morrow was on his way to hospital. He will not play again this season, and misses the FA Cup final, also against Wednesday, on 15 May.

George Graham, the Arsenal manager, shook his head in stunned disbelief. 'The whole thing has devalued the day for us,' he said. 'Steve had an excellent game, nullifying John Sheridan, and what has happened to him spoiled everything for me, and all the players.'

Adams hoisted Morrow into the air in celebration, then appeared to lose his grip on the 22- year-old Ulsterman, who was punching the air in triumph. The Arsenal captain was too upset to discuss the incident afterwards, hurrying straight home without comment.

The England defender is no stranger to misadventure, having needed the best part of 30 stitches last month after a night out to celebrate his daughter's first birthday.

For Arsenal, it was a distressing end to what should have been a triumphant occasion. First blood, and the first trophy of the season. The Coca-Cola Cup was not quite the one they had in mind back in August, when they set out as championship favourites, but automatic entry into Europe is not to be sneezed at.

Paul Merson, the man of the match, savoured the moment after eclipsing Chris Waddle, who did nothing to cause Graham Taylor the slightest embarrassment.

Morrow's sorrow apart, it was an afternoon when Arsenal got everything right. Nigel Winterburn, with assistance from Merson, kept Waddle quiet, and Sheridan, Wednesday's playmaker, was subdued by his hapless Irish minder.

Most encouraging of all, from the Highbury viewpoint, Graham's unexpected decision to recall Paul Davis was vindicated by a performance rich in the elegant composure a prosaic midfield has been crying out for all season.

After a difficult start, during which Wednesday took a 10th- minute lead, Arsenal waxed stronger the longer the game went on. By the end, their power play had given them an unshakeable grip, and Wednesday will need to go back to the drawing board to find a way of releasing Waddle and come up with more aerial power in central defence if they are to turn the tables when the two sides meet again in the real Cup final.

Waddle's first pass flew straight to Merson, epitomising what was to follow. Having again omitted the Wednesday wanderer from his latest England squad, Taylor decided it would be politic to be elsewhere, and travelled to Italy for Milan v Juventus. He need not have worried. This was Waddle at his most frustrating, dropping ever deeper and playing no more than a peripheral role.

Even without the playmaking influence on which they have come to rely, Wednesday still contrived to make the more assertive start, and Paul Warhurst volleyed against David Seaman's left-hand post before they took the lead.

A collector's item, the first goal scored by an American at Wembley, had its origins on the edge of the penalty area, from where Sheridan's free-kick invited Phil King to scuttle forward on the left.

The full-back cut the ball back in textbook manner, and David O'Leary's clearance got no further than the 18-yard line before John Harkes drove it low, past Seaman's right hand.

Arsenal were staggered, but only momentarily. Quickly gathering their senses, and their strength, they charged back into the fray, with Merson's driving pace and determination creating all manner of good things on the left.

Ian Wright should have scored from one of his crosses, but headed wide from six yards. The man himself then showed the Premier League's leading scorer how to finish, fastening on to a Davis free-kick and thrashing in a right-foot volley from the edge of the D.

Mark Bright ought to have restored Wednesday's lead at nodding range, Kevin Campbell shot against a post seconds later, and with both sides going at it hammer and tongs it threatened to develop into a classic.

It never quite fulfilled that promise, and an untidy second half was notable only for Morrow's 68th-minute winner, belted in gleefully after Carlton Palmer had been able to do no more than stun another cross from Merson, six yards out.

The ecstasy was all too brief. Agony took over in Arsenal's moment of triumph and the morrow was to find poor Steve prostrate in London's Princess Grace Hospital.

Arsenal: Seaman; Winterburn, Linighan, Adams, Campbell, Wright, Merson, Parlour, Davis, Morrow, O'Leary. Substitutes not used: Selley, Smith.

Sheffield Wednesday: Woods; Nilsson, Palmer, Anderson, Wilson (Hirst, 73), Waddle, Warhurst, Bright, Sheridan, Harkes, King (Hyde, 82).

Referee: A Gunn (South Chailey).

(Photograph omitted)