Arsene Wenger has never won the League Cup and his grim record in the competition continued against Sheffield Wednesday as his young Arsenal team, weakened by more injuries to senior players on the night, was overpowered at Hillsborough.
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Oxlade-Chamberlain lasted just four minutes before before taking off as a precautionary measure, with his replacement Walcott limping off around the 18th minute mark.
Iwobi and Kamara both started the game alongside the likes of Petr Cech, Per Mertesacker, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Olivier Giroud but Wednesday stormed into a first-half lead through goals from Ross Wallace and Lucas Joao. The Gunners lost their two crucial players to injury, whereas even after enjoying more than 70% possession, Wenger’s men could not produce anything to match the hosts. “We lost two players”.
Key Player: Mathieu Flamini – The Frenchman is probably still on a come down after his two goals in the last round at Spurs.
“It [the occasion] was too high for them [the young players]”.
“I have to manage the workload of the players and at the end of the day I still think I maybe brought too many experienced players here”. The Gunners are among the best teams in the country and popssibly Europe but squad rotation is so important to keeping things fresh that this cup is a good way for Wenger to allow fringe players to get game time.
“How big the damage is, I don’t know as we need to wait 48 hours to have them scanned”, Wenger said.
“I’m convinced he will get a chance here and that he will take it. He has another opportunity against Sheffield Wednesday and I’m hopeful that he will show that he has the quality to play for Arsenal”.
“We have another game in three days so we can make sure we win it, forget about this one and move forward in the Premier League”. It was a full stadium, with a new generation of fans.
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Sandwiched in between those games was one of the club’s greatest European triumphs as they beat a scintillating Bayern Munich side 2-0 at the Emirates.
