Tottenham 1 Arsenal 4:IT TOOK extra time but Arsenal eventually overwhelmed their neighbours. With this tie level at 1-1 after 90 minutes, the visitors took little time to progress into the fourth round of the League Cup. Samir Nasri scored a penalty on 92 minutes before notching another four minutes later. With the hosts dazed, Andrey Arshavin sealed the victory with a fourth goal.
For all the capering of Arsene Wenger’s talented youngsters over the years, the League Cup has generally had a limited relevance for the manager and efforts to win the competition have usually looked half-hearted. The strong line-up utilised here must have come as an unwelcome surprise to the opposition. Several established first-team players started and the bench featured men such as Bacary Sagna, Andrey Arshavin and Marouane Chamakh.
Harry Redknapp was surely taken aback. The Tottenham manager had followed custom and, so, the 18-year-old centre-half Steven Caulker made his debut while Jake Livermore (20) made his first start. While Livermore has had experience in loan spells at other clubs, this fixture was an occasion of a different order.
Whatever the incentive, Arsenal were in earnest here, even if was a teenager who put them into the lead after quarter of an hour. The build-up was slick and elusive. Emmanuel Eboue switched play to the left and Kieran Gibbs moved inside before slipping the ball back into the space he had vacated. Tomas Rosicky and Jack Wilshere combined before the latter’s low ball was turned into the net by Henri Lansbury.
The 19-year-old had notched his first goal for Arsenal in his first start for the club. It can only have been soothing for his manager, who was watching from a certain distance. Rather than appeal against the punishment for his treatment of the fourth official, Martin Atkinson, after the game with Sunderland, Wenger preferred to serve it here. He thereby sentenced himself to an evening in a stand full of Tottenham fans.
His priority, of course, was to ensure that the touchline ban did not affect him in the Premier League but the nature of the first half would have had him sitting contentedly in the midst of the enemy. No great strife was taking place then, even if Livermore and Roman Pavlyuchenko were both cautioned.
Tottenham, in their dismay, could not establish a pattern and the Brazilian Sandro, in his first appearance, struggled to get a response from team-mates.
Well before the interval the Arsenal supporters were not so much celebrating as gloating. Such behaviour could have been absurdly premature but it reflected the authority of their work. At that stage this fixture had a harshness for a Tottenham line-up with overtones of experimentation. The goalkeeper Stipe Pletikosa, on loan from CSKA Moscow, was the third Tottenham debutant.
Despite all the crowing from the away fans, Tottenham were only a goal behind. It would not have been lost on Redknapp that there were seasoned figures on the bench whose know-how might conceivably shift the balance of the game. Robbie Keane and Aaron Lennon took over from Giovani dos Santos and Livermore at the interval.
The effect was almost comic in its immediacy, although Wenger cannot possibly view it in those terms. In the 46th minute Kyle Naughton slid in a pass from the right to Keane who was allowed to continue when he seemed to be in an offside position.
Arsenal ought to have survived but their goalkeeper could not keep out a finish by the Ireland international that was close to his left hand.
Gradually the impression had grown of a significant prize being at stake and that was confirmed when Arsenal felt obliged to introduce yet more experience in the shape of the substitutes Chamakh and Arshavin.
GuardianService
TOTTENHAM: Pletikosa, Naughton, Bassong, Caulker, Assou-Ekotto, Bentley, Livermore (Lennon 46), Palacios, Sandro (Kranjcar 96), Pavlyuchenko, Giovani (Keane 46). Subs Not Used: Cudicini, Hutton, Huddlestone, Jenas. Booked: Livermore, Pavlyuchenko, Naughton.
ARSENAL: Fabianski, Eboue, Koscielny, Djourou, Gibbs (Clichy 102), Lansbury, Denilson, Wilshere, Nasri, Rosicky (Chamakh 73), Vela (Arshavin 73). Subs Not Used: Almunia, Sagna, Eastmond, Emmanuel-Thomas. Booked: Koscielny, Lansbury.
Referee: Lee Probert (Wiltshire).
