Having successfully negotiated past West Bromwich Albion and Liverpool in the two previous rounds, Arsenal’s youngsters came up short against a strong Manchester City side at Eastlands last night.
Some established first-team squad members, such as Emmanuel Eboue, Alex Song and Tomas Rosicky, started to complement the array of potential talents on show but, ultimately, it proved to be too difficult a task against Mark Hughes’ expensively-assembled outfit and Arsenal went out of the Carling Cup at the Quarter-final stage for the second season in succession.
After starting off brightly, Arsenal then wilted as City began to dominate and could consider themselves somewhat fortunate to go into the break without conceding. For all the nimble footwork and technical ability on display in Arsenal’s ranks, the lack of any significant firepower up front was all too evident. Carlos Vela hit a shot over the bar and Aaron Ramsey headed over but, other than that, Shay Given was unperturbed.
Craig Eastmond, starting just his second game the club, applied himself well initially, but then tired as the game progressed and had to be withdrawn. By that time Arsenal were already a goal down after Carlos Tevez had capitalised on a sloppy ball from Song and launched a ferocious drive into the back of the net via the corner of the crossbar. Watt added some much needed attacking impetus but City doubled their advantage soon after following a wonderful goal from Shaun Wright-Phillips, who bamboozled Mikael Silvestre.
Arsenal lacked nothing in determination and effort but they just couldn’t exert themselves on the game with City’s high-pressure tactics proving a nuisance. The lack of experience on the bench was telling and meant that Arsenal had no real route back into the game. City continued to push forward and eventually sealed the win after Vladimir Weiss coolly applied the finishing touch to a superb ball from Craig Bellamy. Fran Merida rattled the crossbar late on but it was irrelevant, the game was already over.
The Carling Cup has been a fantastic experience for the likes of Eastmond and Watt this season and will stand them in good stead for the future. Players such as Merida, Ramsey and Wilshere need games and this competition provides them with that.
Hopefully, however, Wenger will change his policy for the FA Cup and play a strong side against West Ham at Upton Park. It is now one of only three trophies we can win and is probably the easiest to do so. The FA Cup may have lost some of its prestigiousness in recent years but, should Arsenal apply themselves fully, it is certainly winnable and would put an end to the trophy drought.
Totally disagree with the ‘lacked nothing in determination and effort’ I saw players, including seasoned pros walking back into position, watching players run past them all evening.
Instead of stepping up I think quite a few of the youngsters seriously put themselves back down the pecking order last night. The ‘CC is meaningless’ mantra seemed to have adopted by the team and instead of it freeing them up to play with no pressure it meant they didn’t want to win anything like enough to beat experienced pros.
A very poor night for the whole club, we went out with a whimper and a whinge not a man or potential man amongst the whole lot of them. Very disappointing.
when I said that I meant the young players, not the experienced ones. I am very dissappointed with the result and also with Wenger’s statement about how he would rather get to the Champions League semi-final than win the Carling Cup. Obviously financially it is better but one doesn’t have to compromise the other.
He didnt compromise, he put out a decent team that just didnt perform.
The performance was more down to lack of cohesion in attack position, holding the ball for too long, no forward movement, forward passing, no diagonal long passes, turning with the ball from Citeh’s pressuring.
For me Rosicky should not have played, he doesnt understand what it means to these youngsters, i dont like it when Wenger mix the team, just play youngsters with two experienced CBs.
The shortcomings that plagued us against Chelsea at the weekend were all too evident again last night.
Lack of physical power and sharpness in the opposition’s last 30 yards and our own. Also you can obviously notice how poorly we defended invididually and as a team when we get 6 bookings to 2, in a game where all our players are smaller and do usually provoke bookings with their technical ability.
Man City were very sloppy with the ball and as a unit defensively when we managed to create space beind their fullbacks, therefore, considering the also very limited intimidation factor coming from their fans, I am overall very disappointed with the lack of self-belief shown by the youngsters, all of whom played sub-par as far as I am concerned.
Now to add to that flat cup exit we have managed to lose our last field player above 6ft in Alex Song to a suspension for the Stoke game, which is bound to come back and bite us big time.
Having been at the game I think there were good and bad points. I disagree about Rosicky, he had one of his better games and did his best to inject some forward momentum. Wilshere had a good 55 minutes but Ramsey, Merida and Vela were poor, they were out muscled by a big Citeh side. Eboue looked clueless at times and was poor. Going forward we had the same old problem of trying to walk the ball in where as Citeh shot on site and they did score two good goals. Overall a worry that the guys up front looked lightweight and I would think a striker is a must in January.
I think the senior players let themselves down last night. They made too many basic errors. Attacking wise it didn’t work but all the City goals were all created by sloppy play by senior players.
The other players wilted with about 60 minutes on the clock but that can be expected with the amount of time they have spent on the pitch this season with this level of intensity of this level in a game.
I don’t even think the Carling Cup team needs two experienced CBs. I think one is enough.
Agree that Wenger probably included too many senior players. But, honestly, that choice is a function of a team that is somewhat rutterless at present. Clarity at the club seems to be lost on many levels right now, including the supposed purpose of the CC, to bleed youngsters and let them fend for themselves in big matches against top competition.
The team has lacked a unifying will and a collective understanding since Van Persie left. I know he would not have featured against City even if healthy, but I feel his absence has done something to the team’s energy as a whole. Obviously, I’m not on the training ground with them every day so this is all speculation, but consider the number of goals we’ve scored in the games since his injury.
The wheels have spun off offensively and it’s more to do with collective understanding and confidence than talent.
The team’s most important players, the three it’s built around at the moment are Song, Fabregas, and Van Persie. RVP may actually have been the most critical becuase since he’s been gone the team has been all busy ineffective energy between the boxes and little to know creativity near the opposition goal.
Bottom line we need a strike force should give Sunu, Watt and Thomas start up front vs Stoke? Throw a surprise mighty Arsene !!!! Go Gunners!
JET is not a striker and Giles Sunu cannot finish, so that only leaves Sanchez Watt
I hope to see more of Watt in a forward role. He just look dangerous all the time for me. Vela look so much class… and he will soon find a way to score a lot more goals aginst big strong defenders. I hope he starts against Stoke.
They will get another chance against Olympiacos bcuz we have already qualified