Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 Arsenal: Woeful Gunners crash out of League Cup
CuteNaija
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Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Arsenal suffered a League Cup humiliation at the hands of Championship side Sheffield Wednesday, who eased to a 3-0 win at Hillsborough to progress to the fourth round.
Ross Wallace, Lucas Joao and Sam Hutchinson to make it a night to remember for the hosts and left Arsenal rueing the loss of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott to injury.
Buoyed by a fine recent run, Arsene Wenger named an experimental XI featuring the likes of Glen Kamara, Alex Iwobi and Joel Campbell.
The Frenchman was left scratching his head before 20 minutes had passed, though, as first Oxlade-Chamberlain and then the man who replaced him, Walcott, were both forced off with suspected muscle injuries.
And Wenger's expression was considerably more pained by half-time, with Wednesday 2-0 ahead thanks to excellent goals from Wallace and Joao.
Things went from bad to worse when Hutchinson converted from close range just after the break, and Carlos Carvalhal's team comfortably saw out the rest of the second half secure their place in the last 16.
Wenger made a slew of changes to the side that beat Everton on Saturday, with just three players retaining their place in the XI.
Oxlade-Chamberlain, Petr Cech and Olivier Giroud were the only survivors, with the former immediately taking centre stage as he picked up a hamstring problem inside five minutes and was forced from the field.
Walcott initially looked a threat when coming on in his place, but that did not last long as he Oxlade-Chamberlain back to the bench with a similar complaint.
Scenting an opportunity for a shock, Wednesday held their own in the opening exchanges and took the lead in the 27th minute.
Daniel Pudil worked his way down the left wing before sending in a superb low pull-back that Wallace expertly curled into the bottom corner.
Carlos Carvalhal's men continued to look a threat thereafter and almost grabbed a second when Jeremy Helan wriggled through on goal and forced a good save from Cech.
The goalkeeper was powerless moments later, however, as Wallace sent in a delicious centre that Joao nodded home.
Whatever Wenger said to his side at half-time hardly had the desired effect, as the buoyant hosts added a third six minutes after the restart.
Barry Bannan delivered a lovely free-kick to the back post, with Tom Lees - who looked marginally offside - sending a controlled volley across goal for Hutchinson to poke home.
Not content with three, Wednesday continued to push forward and almost netted again when Joao nodded narrowly wide from Bannan's centre.
Arsenal finally created their first real opening in the 70th minute, Per Mertesacker seeing a close-range header turned over by Joe Wildsmith.
But that proved the only real moment of Arsenal resistance as Wednesday finished the job impressively.
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