Attendance 56,758
Rangers' dream of annexing the Emirates Cup ended late this afternoon as they crashed to a comprehensive 3-0 defeat at the hands of host club Arsenal, who secured the trophy for the second time in three years.
In truth the Ibrox men were never at the races - more than anthing else Rangers needed a steady start to settle into the game, only to concede two goals in the opening ten minutes.
Manager Walter Smith made four changes from yesterday with Allan McGregor, Steven Naismith, Kevin Thomson and DaMarcus Beasley coming in for Neil Alexander, Nacho Novo, Lee McCulloch and Kenny Miller. Arsenal Boss Arsene Wenger meanwhile made no fewer than nine changes - underlining both the srength of his squad and the fact that he had fielded a weakened team yesterday.
Rangers got off to the worst possible start when youngster Jack Wilshere opened the scoring inside two minutes when his weak shot following a Cesc Fabregas / Andrey Arshavin move somehow trundled under the diving McGregor.
It was a dreadful goal for the 'keeper to concede - and ten minutes later things went fromn bad to worse when Eduardo slotted home a Fran Merida pass for number two.
Arsenal were in complete control - a class apart - and Merida almost added a third on the half-hour when his turn and thirty-yard shot was just wide of goal.
Rangers finally managed an effort on target in 42 minutes when from a Pedro Mendes corner to the back post Beasley nodded down for Madjid Bougherra whose shot was deflected over.
Just before the interval Wilshere demonstrated his class when he skillfully created space for himself some 25 yards out then swivelled to test McGregor with a chip that the goalkeeper touched over.
Desperate times require desperate measures - and Walter Smith made no fewer than three substitutions at the interval, McCulloch, Novo and Miller replacing the ineffective Thomson, Beasley and Lafferty. In truth a few others were lucky to still be taking part...
Novo's pace and energy caused problems for the home side from the restart - his break down the right in 51 minutes producing a low cutback that almost reached both Naismith and Davis before being cleared.
Eight minutes later another Novo cutback saw Davis' flick held by 'Gunners goalkeeper Manuel Almunia.
The miss of the year occurred in 62 minutes when in a lightning break Davis laid the ball on a plate for Naismith who somehow allowed Almunia to block his effort.
It was a truly awful effort - and Wilshere made Rangers pay the penalty ten minutes later when he buried substitute aaron Ramsay's pass.
Miller had one final goalscoring opportunity in the closing minutes - but dragged his effort wide from a Davis pass.
The final whistle was greeted with relief amongst the Light Blue legions as much as joy amongst the home fans.
Afterwards Walter Smith was realistic in his summary:
"We knew this would be a tough test. Arsenal are an exceptional passing side. We don't come across teams of their calibre very often."
Thank goodness for that...
ARSENAL Almunia; Eboue, Gallas (Denilson 45), Silvestre, Clichy (Traore 45); Wilshere, Fabregas (Rosicky 73), Song, Merida (Ramsey 67), Arshavin (Bendtner 63); Eduardo (Watt 63)
UNUSED SUBS Sagna, Van Persie, Djourou, Szczesny
RANGERS McGregor; Whittaker, Weir, Bougherra, Papac; Beasley (Novo 45), Mendes, Davis, Thomson (McCulloch 45), Naismith; Lafferty (Miller 45)
UNUSED SUBS Smith, Boyd, Velicka, Aaron, Alexander, Little, Shinnie
REFEREE Mike Dean