Simpson 43, 68, Vela 71 – Divers: De Ridder

I tried coming up with some witty line to open this post using the word Kids, but I guess I’m just not that kind of hack. I’ll leave it to the rest of the Arseblogosphere to treat you to such gems as “The Kids are alright” or “The Young Guns blah blah yadda…“  I just don’t have it in me. Besides, the Gunners I watched in this match played like seasoned veterans… perhaps not the the most technically astute, but certainly all heart, and even more so… all Arsenal. Kids seems almost an insult in retrospect.

Apart from the omission of Emile Heskey (injured), Steve Bruce put out his best side. It wasn’t enough. To be sure, there were more than a few moments when the Latics appeared to be boss of the pitch, but the Arsenal side seemed like that bullied kid we all knew in school who, no matter how bad the nose bleed, always came back with his chin up. That was our side for the first third or so. They seemed to be getting pushed, pressured and all the while Wigan prodded for an opening. But as the match progressed, Arsenal seemed to learn their foe, and the comfort level grew. The pushing around subsided, and then the pushing back began.

Apart from Alex Song and possibly Johann Djourou, no one… and I mean no one from the first team was in the line up. And, I have to tell you… seeing the line up before the match had me grinning ear to ear. You could just feel that this was going to be one to remember. WuTang Fabianski captained the likes of Kieran Gibbs, Gavin Hoyte, Fran Merida, Mark Randall, Aaron Ramsey, Jay Simpson, Carlos Vela and the excellent Jack Wilshere. Amaury Bischoff, Rui Fonte and Henri Lansbury made it off the bench in the waning minutes to contribute. This troupe, with an average age of 19, began the push back… and pushed, and pushed, until Jay Simpson found the net shortly before the break. Things still seemed tentative at that point and Wigan kept on the press in a 4-3-3, but then at 68′ on a perfectly executed counter attack, Carlos Vela found his way nearly into the net before crossing back into the on rush of Jay Simpson to complete his brace. Vela tasted blood, and 3 minutes later, chased down a long ball that he had no right to get to first, and chipped the Wigan keeper from 10 yards wide in what will have to be a strong candidate for Goal of the Year. Arsene Wenger, when asked if he thought Vela’s goal was special, replied by saying he was surprised that Vela hadn’t scored on a similar opportunity in the first half because he makes those all the time. More of Carlos in the first team, please. Thank you.

Were it not for the excellent stopping of Chris Kirkland, we could have made this a 7-0 rout, mostly in the second half. Although appearing to be playing with an injury, Kirkland made some absolutely stunning saves. Although, near the final whistle, Luasz Fabianski made a double save that simply dropped my jaw. His awareness and agility to get back on his feet after a save are simply awesome. When I saw that save live, I yelled “Oh, come on!” and the first thing I thought was that the ball had no business being anywhere but in the net. But it wasn’t… Lukasz had got a hand on it for the second time in 400 milliseconds to keep it out of his goal, with a bit of help from the crossbar. Brilliant keeping – world class.

Arsenal dropped prices to get capacity crowds at The Grove for this one… and it worked. Just shy of 60,000 people got to see the match. I’m all for price drops, but I would have gladly paid full price to see a match like that. If these young fellows are the future of Arsenal, then I can sleep soundly at night knowing we are indeed in excellent hands. Beautiful showing tonight, Gunners. Beautiful.

Bendtner 31 & 42, Vela 44, 49 & 86, Wilshere 57 – Divers: None

Wow… I’ll just go ahead and echo what pretty much every other Arsenal blog is saying today: If there were any concern, trepidation, or fear about Arsenal’s future yesterday… there is none today.

The Blades took themselves a good old fashioned thumping at the hands of Arsene’s Kids, who played one and all like seasoned men, not boys… despite averaging only 19 years of age. They made it seem like a decent Prem side playing a pub team… but this was no pub team. Sheffield United may not be in the Premier league anymore, but they’re still no pushovers. They were just outplayed.

Niklas Bendtner opened up the scoring with a brace, with Carlos Vela getting his own shortly thereafter. 16 year old Jack Wilshere got his first Arsenal goal and then Carlos completed his hat trick. Discussion over.

I really wish I could get these matches here live. I hear almost no one got to see it live, even in the UK, unless you were at Ashburton grove. Oh well…

Ouch… and I say that in a cold, ungreased speculum sort of way. Just… ouch. I didn’t get to see this one and I’m sure as hell glad I didn’t take the time to find a torrent for this match, download it and watch. I would have been a pretty cranky Gooner come 1am when I finally got it on screen. And I know the Pond Life will be expecting all Arsenal fans to be saying this, but… it’s only the Carling Cup. Of course, it would have been nice to stay in it, but it may well be a blessing in disguise. If we’re to have any shot at overtaking Manchester United in the Premier League this year, we need all hands on deck. It’s great to see our younger players out there and getting a shot, but now we can focus a bit more. I hope… come on you Arsenal!

This one was hard to watch. Our young gunners played their worst game this season, but it was still enough. To think that the starting XI for the Pond Life and  playing well, still isn’t enough to beat our reserves… why, it’s enough to make a man chuckle. Isn’t it?

I would like to start my commentary on this match with the following: AHHHHH HAHahahahhhaahhahah! AHHHHHhahahahahahaaaa! Kinda like DeNiro in the theater scene of Cape Fear, get me? AHHHHAHAHAHAHahahahah! AAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAAA!

Ok, I’m back. Seeing our youngest side go up there and beat Mark Hughes best squad was incredibly satisfying. The Rovers fought back nicely from deficit, but even after we went down a man, our pups still pulled it out to knock those twats out of the Carling Cup. Well done, lads.