Arsene Wenger was pleased that his mix-and-match Arsenal side overcame Norwich’s stubborn defence as a brace from 18-year-old striker Eddie Nketiah saw the Gunners through the quarter-finals after extra-time.
Here’s what the boss said to Sky Sports about the performance.
On beating a tough opponent…
It was a difficult game, Norwich have not lost for eight or nine games and you could see why. Defensively they were very solid. We struggled a little bit to create clear cut chances. They marked very tight. It was very difficult for us to find some space. Overall that [the equaliser] was a big lift.
On Elneny getting a yellow instead of a red…
I don’t think it was a clear goal scoring opportunity, this is a grey area. Sometimes you get a red, sometimes you get a yellow.
On the late Norwich penalty claim dismissed by the referee…
I have to watch it again, I don’t know. Maybe it was. I don’t know, honestly. We got a penalty recently that was not a penalty at all. That’s part of the game.
On trying to win the Carabao Cup…
We try to go as far as we can and to try and win every competition that we are in. This team has played a very difficult game last week in Belgrade and tonight again they had to dig deep. For us it’s good to have a mixture of experienced players who need competition and young players who learn very well from this competition.
The thing that needs to happen now is that Eddie gets a starting place against Red Star and perhaps a substitute appearance in the Prem. Last season we had some incredible performances in the league cup from the likes of Perez, Ox and Iwobi, only for them to be totally disregarded by Wenger who ignored them until the next cup tie. Unless the carrot is there, these players are going to find it hard to believe that good cup performances can translate to breakthrough seasons. Oh and play Reiss in his actually position from time to time, for the love… Read more »
Didn’t Eddie play out of position last night? BS about playing a teen in position when they need is minutes. Get use to playing for the Sr team.
Hopefully we get an easy draw… I want to see these kids play again.
The kids will play again regardless of who we get. We’re basically using two different teams for the different competitions this season.
We were lucky.
Then we put on Eddie, Eddie, Eddie…
I didn’t see it …….
A good win for the lads. Here’s hoping we get a favourable draw at the quarter finals.
Congrats Eddie. You already have had a better Arsenal career than Yaya Sanogo.
I.m happy. Been following Nketiah’s progress for a while now. Don.t want to get ahead of myself but he looks an exciting prospect ?
Yes, he does have a bit of the poachers instinct that we’ve missed for many years now. Fingers crossed…
I stumbled across an Arseblog post from 2002 (what a fuckin excellent year) the other day. Must have been around then that my dad started reading it, before he made me aware of it.
It’s weird to think last night’s hero is not much older than this website.
https://arseblog.com//dec2002.php
The second team as it were had played a game last week and one this week so how the hell is that “digging ” deep ? The first team has played only one game a week too so hearing about possible tiredness from super fit young men is laughable! I wish Wenger would stop playing Nelson and Maitland Niles as wing backs his penchant for forcing square pegs into round holes has ruined the careers of more than one or two players! Since Henry’s conversion to striker from winger Wenger thinks he can achieve the same result every time! Sometimes… Read more »
Are you suggesting he’s ruining the careers or AM-N and Nelson?
Where did Eddie play last night?
Pls tell us who he should play in the back 5 then without involving the 1st team regulars? You?!
We will have a far better chance in the next round if Wenger would bench Walcott and go with someone like Nelson in his role.
Not to take anything away from Nketiah (who played marvellously) but Arsenal were quite poor and on balance in my opinion, did not deserve to win the game. El Neny on any other night would have had a red card instead of a yellow, and Norwich had a clear penalty at the end. Arsenal need to sort out the center midfield straight away, not to mention the defense. Make Wilshere captain when playing matches like these also
Sadly, injuries dictate that Elneny will play centre back in the second XI for the short term. When Chambers is fit again, we’ll go back to having a round peg in a round hole in that position. As for getting the rub of the green on the refereeing decisions – no doubt about it! But so what? How many times have we bemoaned losing due to a bad decision? Referee mistakes happen. When all is said and done, we won. End of.