Manchester City down Young Arsenal 3-0: Citizen secure semi-final spot

Manchester City reached their first cup semi-final since 1981 and maintained the dream of ending their 33-year trophy drought by beating Arsenal 3-0 at Eastlands. Carlos Tevez, man-of-the-match Shaun Wright-Phillips and youngster Vladimir Weiss did the damage, sending the Blues over the moon and into Carling Cup orbit, with genuine hopes of emulating their Wembley triumph in this competition under Tony Book in 1976.

Manchester City included former Arsenal striker Emmanuel Adebayor, while Craig Bellamy came in for Robinho and Gareth Barry returned in placr of Nigel de Jong. Arsenal unsurprisingly field a youthful team, which included six players twenty years old or below, but had Tomas Rosicky, Emmanuel Eboue and Mikael Silvestre providing the experience.

It was the home side who had the first attempt at goal just five minutes in. A Gareth Barry corner was swung into the penalty box and with Arsenal lacking in height Emmanuel Adebayor rose highest, but his header was well held by Lukasz Fabianski in the Arsenal goal.

City continued to boss the game and Craig Bellamy missed a glorious opportunity to put the in front. Shaun Wright-Phillips hassled Silvestre out on the ball on the corner of the box and picked out Bellamy with yards of space just inside the box. Unfortunately the Welshman could only drag his shot wide of the left-hand post from 12 yards out.

Arsenal then threatened themselves for the first real time in the game. Jack Wilshere played a cracking pass with the outside of his foot into the path of Carlos Vela and, under pressure from Joleon Lescott, the Mexican striker could only put a left-foot drive over Shay Given's bar. Minutes later Carlos Tevez forced another good save out of Fabianski with a fierce shot at the near post.

Things started to heat-up before half-time, with City still pressing Armond Traoure brings down Wright-Phillips on the right flank and is booked. He is quickly followed into the book by Craig Eastmond who’s shown a yellow for unsporting behaviour. Arsene Wenger and Mark Hughes who have cross swords in the past also started to have some disagreements in their technical areas, but the two sides went into the break goalless.

Five minutes into the second half and Man City took the lead. Tomas Rosicky was robbed of possession by the touchline and Carlos Tevez picked up the ball, powered into the box, and unleashed an unstoppable shot into the top corner, giving Fabianksi no chance.

Arsenal responded to the goal well and tested the City defence when Aaron Ramsey was put through by Carlos Vela. But Ramsey blasted his shot high an wide. Up the other end Bellamy fired a ball across the box with Adebayor waiting, but Fabianski did enough to put the striker off and his touch went over.

Arsenal seemed to be pressing to get back into the game, but with twenty-two minutes remaining Man City all but sealed their semi-final place. Shaun Wright-Phillips drifted in off the right.

Wenger said: "The League Cup is a competition that is not one of our priorities, but we go to Manchester City to win a game. We'll play our young players and some of them will play in the Champions League as well because we are already qualified.

“But losing to Chelsea was a massive disappointment. We have to deal with it and respond by trying to win our next game. It is as simple as that”.

Wenger's comments were echoed by Czech midfielder Tomas Rosicky. "It will be very tough to win the title now, we know that, but to let the season fall apart now would be the biggest mistake we can make."