Young Gunners Beat Liverpool 2-1

While Arsenal have not lost at home for five seasons, the visit of Liverpool in the Carling Cup has a few of us wondering if that streak was going to come to an end. How would the young Gunners react against a tough opponent like Liverpool. After the performance last night, we should be have been “why are we worried”
Arsene Wenger’s young Arsenal side were impressive in beating Liverpool 2-1 to reach the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup. This was not a lucky cup win. Arsenal deserved to win. They were the better team on the night.


So many potential stars shone. Bendtner, Insua and Merida scored, but Aaron Ramsey, Craig Eastmond, a right-back making his first team debut in a midfield holding role, and Kieran Gibbs all excelled.
It was also good to see Samir Nasri back in action while while Lukasz Fabianski in goal gave his back four a confidence that has been missing in recent games.
It was Fran Merida, the 19-year-old former Barcelona trainee just back from the Under-20 World Cup with Spain who opened the scoring for Arsenal and Nicklas Bendtner, who is still only 21, produced a powerful finish after 50 minutes that become the match winner.
Wenger was happy with the quality of the Arsenal performance commenting:

“It was more like a European Cup game than a Carling Cup game, so high was the quality. We were excellent in every position.”

The Arsenal boss believes the performances of the likes of Merida shows just why he continues to believe in the young Gunners.

“It is always difficult to convince people we do not need players, but when you see them tonight, you understand why. We see them every day in training and have so much quality with our young players that we are not specially out on the market. Fran is 19, [Aaron] Ramsey and [Craig] Eastmond still only 18. To play in a game at that level, they deserve a lot of credit.”

This was a big win for Arsenal, but it will not get any easier when the draw for the quarter-final is made on Saturday with the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United and Man City all potential opponents. But after last night’s performance, Arsenal will feel confident that they can beat anyone they come up against.