Arsene Wenger declared himself confident that Arsenal’s future is in safe hands after watching the club’s youngest-ever side inflict a 6-0 League Cup drubbing on Sheffield United.
Despite an average age of just 19, the young Gunners put the Blades to the sword with a pass-and-move masterclass that resulted in an embarrassingly one-sided League Cup third round tie in which Mexican teenager Carlos Alberto Vela claimed a hat-trick.
Nicklas Bendtner scored a double and 16-year-old Jack Wilshere notched his first for the first team to leave Wenger purring with delight over what he described as a “complete” performance.
PHOTO: AFP
“The team showed a good mixture of talent and a mature collective spirit to play football the way we want to play,” the Frenchman said.
Wenger said the performance was vindication of his parsimonious approach in the transfer market.
“When you are under immense pressure to buy in every transfer window, when you know that you have these players behind it would be killing the work we have done,” Wenger said.
Elsewhere, Cristiano Ronaldo celebrated his first start for Manchester United since the Champions League final with a goal as Sir Alex Ferguson’s side beat 10-man Middlesbrough 3-1 at Old Trafford.
Liverpool took a leaf out of Arsenal’s book by naming a second-string side for their Anfield clash with League One’s Crewe.
But they could not match the Gunners in terms of quality as they labored to a 2-1 win.
Championship side Burnley pulled off the biggest upset of the night when they knocked out Premier League side Fulham, courtesy of a late strike by Jay Rodriguez.
Watford also claimed a Premier League scalp by beating West Ham through a Haydn Mullins own-goal.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but