Sunderland (0) 0 - 3 (0) Arsenal
Stadium of Light, Tuesday 25th October 2005
League (Carling) Cup, 3rd round
Arsenal:
Almunia
Eboue Campbell Senderos Cygan
Larsson Muama (Cregg 89) Song Quincy (Bendtner 90)
van Persie Lupoli (Stokes 89)
A terrific performance by the youngsters. Sunderland may not be the
best of Premiership opposition but to beat them so comprehensively
with a just a couple of Arsenal first-team regulars (and a couple
of semi-regulars) is outstanding. One can't say "surprising" though,
because they did it last year too, and the year before that. Sunderland
boss Mick McCarthy
said after the game that they had been "done in every department".
other
remarks from McCarthy included, "mullered us for the last half-hour.
They were stronger, quicker and it shows the benefit of having the best
youngsters around. I said to our lads before kick-off, if they can let
Justin (Hoyte) go it shows what quality they’ve got."
Speaking of whom.. it's worth also pointing out that one of Sunderland's
best players on the night was an Arsenal player.
Sunderland's pricing policy created a terrific atmosphere for the
kids with a 48,000 gate.
The home side actually started a bit better, but only had one shot of note
in that period - a Jon Stead effort which was deflected wide. But
Arsenal started to impose themselves as the first half went on. The
main threat was Robin van Persie, making a tremendous case for more
regular first team appearances. He hit a free-kick over the bar then
forced Justin_Hoye into a crucial interception for Sunderland. Then
on the half-hour he missed a golden chance created from the right wing
by Emmanuel Eboue and Sebastian Larsson. Robin tried to pass the
ball past Sunderland's reserve keeper Ben Alnwick but hit the ball far
too close to him.
Ten minutes later we should have taken the lead again when Quincy's
corner found Philippe Senderos unmarked at the far post but he
shot wide.
Van Persie had a shot at the start of the second half, and then
Sunderland attacked forcing Sol Campbell to slide in and
block close to goal.
The other 2 centre-backs on the pitch (Cygan playing at full-back this
game) nearly combined to open the scoring 10 minutes after the break when
Senderos crossed and Cygan headed wide.
Five minutes later, we finally got the lead we deserved. Quincy had the
ball on the left wing, surrounded by Sunderland players, and played a
simple ball inside to Alex Song. He passed to Eboue who, from 30 yards
out, hit a rocket into the top corner. Alnwick didn't even move.
Six minutes later, Arturo Lupoli was brought down in the box and
van Persie took a superb penalty, belted into the top corner. Showing
the more regular first-teamers how to do it, and effectively bringing
the night's contest to an end.
McCarthy brought on Dean Whitehead who shot narrowly wide with his first touch,
and narrowly over with 10 minutes to go after getting hold of the ball from
a corner. They never really looked like doing enough to drag the game
back though, and 3 minutes from time Larsson put van Persie through
for his second.
One upshot of this is that Ryan_Smith won't be allowed to play
for Leicester City tonight. Unlike Hoyte (and Sunderland's Mart Poom
who spent the evening on Arsenal's bench) permission had not been granted
for him to play for his loaned club against his home club. But it had
been expected that Arsene Wenger would release him if Arsenal had been
knocked out.
In other results, European champions Liverpool were knocked out by
Crystal Palace (again) and West Brom beat Fulham 3-2 thanks to
a late winner from former Fulham and Arsenal player Junichi Inamoto. | 
