Nine Premier League clubs featured on Wednesday night in the Capital One Cup Third Round, all vying to be in the hat for the fourth round draw.
Manchester United proved too strong for Newcastle United at Old Trafford thanks to goals from Anderson and Tom Cleverley in a game that saw the early comeback from injury of Wayne Rooney. Rooney was heavily involved in United’s attacking threat throughout the game but couldn’t get himself on the scoresheet.
Magpies ‘keeper Rob Elliot was also in fine form as he repelled plenty of first half attacks from the hosts but he was finally beaten just before half time thanks to Anderson’s 25 yard screamer. Cleverley had missed a golden chance in the first half but made up for it just before the hour mark with a curling effort beating the diving Elliot.
That looked to be game over, but Alan Pardew introduced Shane Ferguson and Papiss Cisse and the pair combined wonderfully for Cisse to head home his much needed first goal of the season. The Senegalese striker then spectacularly hit the bar but that is as close as Newcastle came to sending the match to extra time.
Arsenal produced perhaps the most comfortable performance of the round as they beat lowly League One side Coventry 6-1 at the Emirates. A few players who had a point to prove also managed to do so as Olivier Giroud bagged his first Gunners goal, Andrei Arshavin scored on his first Arsenal appearance since January and Theo Walcott netted twice to show that he can play in that more advanced position and that contract talks may continue.
A screamer from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and a header from Ignasi Miquel put the icing on the cake for the Gunners who have relished this competition over the past decade, without really winning as many trophies as they should have. Mark Robins was taking charge of just his second game as Sky Blues manager and the only conciliation for him would have been Callum Ball’s excellent second half goal to give the large away support something to cheer.
Brendan Rodgers is slowly bedding in as the manager at Liverpool after a tough start, but his youngsters really impressed as they came from one down to beat West Brom at the Hawthorns. Gabriel Tamas gave Albion an early lead after a mistake from Liverpool stopper Brad Jones, but from then on the visitors seemed in control of the game. Real Madrid loanee Nuri Sahin levelled on 17 minutes thanks in part to another ‘keeper error, this time from Ben Foster.
Rodgers then sent on more youngsters in the second half, including 16-year-old Jerome Sinclair, and the pace and hunger paid dividends as a neat move involving Spanish starlet Suso ended up with Sahin tapping home the winner with less than ten minutes left.
Queens Park Rangers supporters may be getting slightly concerned as yet another defeat continues their poor start to the season. The Premier League’s bottom two met at Loftus Road and it was Reading who would come out on top as a game full of great goals ebbed and flowed.
Junior Hoilett’s solo effort after quarter of an hour put Rangers in front, only to be cancelled out by Kaspars Gorkss’ header against his former club two minutes later. The game became scrappy until Djibril Cisse rifled home a 25 year effort with 20 minutes to go to lift the crowd in West London.
Once again QPR couldn’t hang on to their lead for longer than five minutes as Nicky Shorey hit a peach of free kick in off the crossbar that seemed to be taking the game into extra time. Pavel Pogrebnyak had other ideas. The Russians cheeky back heel inside the six yard box put Reading in front for the first time in the game with eight minutes left and then the striker caused all sorts of problems winning a penalty, only to step up and see it saved by Julio Cesar.
Tottenham comfortably overcame League One side Carlisle, showing the strength in depth that Andre Villas-Boas has collected over the summer. A first Spurs goal for Jan Vertonghen in the first half was eclipsed by a long range strike from Andros Townsend putting the tie beyond United. Another summer arrival Gylfi Sigurdsson netted a third goal as the Spurs go marching on to the fourth round.
Norwich got back to winning ways as they sneaked past League One side Doncaster Rovers at Carrow Road by a goal to nil. Acadamy graduate Alexander Tettey fired home the only goal of a pretty miserable game.