Treble’s still on…

Arsenal tonight played their Carling Cup Quarter Final against Manchester City who are currently top of the league and more better off than we are.

Both sides played their ‘B’ teams so to speak, except Koscielny and arguably Djourou no first team players flirted with the starting eleven, Van Persie and Walcott were rested, Gervinho and Vermaelen were on the bench with other former first teamers like Arshavin on the bench also.

Manchester City opted to play their ‘B’ team also, but most of their secondary eleven is filled with last season’s regulars like Zabaleta, Kolarov, Toure, De Jong and Johnson, with first choice striker Aguero coming on and Dzeko who’s been fairly regular this season also starting. It was Aguero who was the difference maker, scoring with seven minutes of normal time remaining to break the dead-lock and send City through to their second Carling Cup semi-final in 3 years.

There wasn’t much wrong with Arsenal’s performance, other than anyone scoring, youngsters like Miquel, Frimpong and Coquelin and especially Oxlade-Chamberlain showed us there’s a bright future (as cliché as it sounds when it comes to Arsenal) of young talent to come. Every player tonight may not have been the most skilful on the pitch but showed passion and that’s exactly what we’ve lacked in matches like last year’s Carling Cup final and aftermath when we slipped from title contenders to fourth.

The main issue was however, our goal scorers. Park-Chu-Young may take some time to adjust to the new league but Chamakh tonight didn’t impress. I know some go through goal-droughts but he had so many chances tonight, especially one in the dying minutes to grab a late equaliser.

All-in-all we need another new striker, whether that’s Podolski or me, we need someone who can get a few goals and aid the team, at the moment, that’s not Chamakh or Park and they’re not played enough to be played into form because they aren’t good enough.

Decent performance and three trophies still on but we had chances to win it.