Owls soar into next round of Capital One Cup with Arsenal win
Published:
Matt Haynes | October 27, 2015
Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 Arsenal
- Arsenal dumped out of Capital One Cup
- Carlos Carvalhal’s side dominate from start to finish
- Two early injuries severely cost Arsene Wenger’s side
Hosts fly out of the blocks
It’s official. Owls really do wake up on a night. Roared on by a capacity crowd at Hillsborough, high-flying Championship side Sheffield Wednesday started as they meant to go on.
Pinging the ball about with zip and precision, they were playing Arsenal at their own game. It was a theme that continued throughout, while the Gunners fired blanks.
True to form for this competition, Arsene Wenger used the occasion to field youngsters Alex Iwobi and Glen Kamara, while Ismael Bennacer and Krystian Bielik were later introduced.
The tone for the match was set after five minutes when Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain came off due to a hamstring tweak to be replaced by Theo Walcott, though his night was over after two minutes with Bennacer playing his part in what was beginning to resemble a game of musical chairs.
Wednesday take full advantage
With Arsenal clearly stunned, they capitulated again not long after. A seemingly harmless delivery saw frontman Lucas Jaoa lose the sluggish Calum Chambers in the area, to meet the ball with a bullet header to double his side’s advantage.
In-form Olivier Giroud seemed by contrast to last time out uninterested by proceedings on a cold midweek evening in South Yorkshire and was nowhere to be seen when Joel Campbell sent a lofted through ball over the top just before the interval, summing up Arsenal’s half.
Bad to worse for Arsenal
It was testament to the work rate and industry of the home side to starve their visitors of the ball, applying the same steel synonymous with the city’s nickname.
A Per Mertesacker header after great work from Mathieu Flamini was comfortably saved by Joe Wildsmith and this epitomised Arsenal’s evening on a night where nothing seemed to go right. Perhaps Wednesday should play on Tuesday’s more often.
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