The first round (for Arsenal) of the Carling Cup, which of course means cheap tickets, and young(er) players. Arsenal designated this as "members game", which means reduced prices - but the way they imply that they are doing the fans a favour by "giving something back" (as opposed to being forced to reduce prices to have any hope of selling out), always seems a bit cheeky. The squad for the game, announced earlier in the day, contained a number of unknowns in Francis Coquelin, Abu Ogogo, Emmanuel Frimpong, and Jay Emmanuel Thomas. There were some knowns in the extremely promising Jack Wilshere, Fran Merida, Mark Randall and Henri Lansbury. And, despite there not being a player over the age of 23, still 5 internationals in Song, Fabianski, Bendtner, Vela and Djourou.The crowd for the game, like the players, was quite a bit younger than normal - the reduced prices and increased availability meaning that many people who don't normally go to games were there. So, there were lots of people milling around outside, looking clueless about where they were supposed to be going. It took until about 20 minutes into the game for the stands to properly fill up, such were the number of people that took an age to work out where they were supposed to be. Maybe I'm being harsh here, but even if you've never been before, these things are all well signposted - with colours, letters and numbers. Maybe people lose the ability to read, and lose any common sense, when they visit a strange place for the first time.
By the time the lower tier had everybody in it, Arsenal were 1-0 up, Nicolas Bendtner (one of the most senior players, of course), scoring with an excellent low shot into the corner. Up until that point, Arsenal had had the vast majority of possession, and created a few chances - Sheffield United just didn't really seem to be at the races. In fact throughout the game, I struggled to work out whether Arsenal were completely outplaying them, or whether they just weren't really trying all that hard. I suspect it may have been the former, which makes the win all the more impressive.
By half time, Arsenal were three goals to the good, Bendtner (again) and Carlos Vela adding the other two. Just after half time, Vela scored a very skillful and cheeky second, to make it 4-0. Then Jack Wilshere, who had been terrorising the away side all game with his passing and movement, scored with a great low shot from 20 yards. Finally, with a few minutes left on the clock, Vela completed his hat-trick for 6-0.
This was a stunning victory, which proves once again how very good these kids are. Obviously they were playing with something to prove, but the way they swept aside a team that (presumably) have aspirations of promotion to the Premier League - and a team that have a number of decent players like James Beattie and Gary Speed too - was extremely impressive. Merida, Wilshere, Vela and Gibbs all had fantastic games, all the more amazing considering their ages, and of course all the journalists were purring about the kids, like in this Guardian Report.
For me, watching the game, the incredible thing was that it was just like watching the Arsenal first team - they play exactly the same way. Replace Fabregas with Merida, replace Eduardo with Vela, replace Adebayor with Bendtner, replace Toure with Song, or Gallas with Djourou (except that the latter two looked like they can play together). Everybody slots into a specific position in the team, but the team itself plays exactly the same game in exactly the same way. A fantastic thing to see, and all thanks to Arsene Wenger - I'm sure every Arsenal fan is well aware of the huge debt we owe that man, after watching what incredible players he has brought us - despite what that idiot Michel Platini says. Roll on the draw for the next round, and I'm certainly hoping for another lower division team at home, to try to do it all again.
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