There were no major surprises tonight in the Capital One Cup as Liverpool, Manchester United, Tottenham and Arsenal all won as expected.
At West Brom, Jerome Sinclair became Liverpool’s youngest-ever player after coming off the bench for the last nine minutes of his side’s 2-1 Capital One Cup third round win.
Nuri Sahin sent Brendan Rodgers’ men through to round four with an 82nd-minute winner after the Turk had earlier equalised Gabriel Tamas’ third-minute opener for the hosts. But it was Sinclair, just 16 years and six days old, who stole the headlines when Rodgers opted to send him on moments before Sahin’s winner in place of German Samed Yesil.
At Old Trafford, Wayne Rooney returned from injury as Manchester United beat Newcastle 2-1. Anderson lashed home a superb 44th minute opener and when Tom Cleverley added the home side’s second in the 58th minute, Ferguson’s side seemed to be home and dry. But Magpies substitute Papiss Cisse came off the bench to reduce the deficit in the 62nd minute and almost grabbed a stunning equaliser when his overhead kick struck the bar.
In front of another sold our crowd at the Emirates, Arsenal ran riot over Coventry City, thrashing the Sky Blues 6-1. Amazingly it the game was still scoreless until the 39th minutes when Oliver Giroud scored his first goal for the Gunners.
In the second half Arsenal were able to take advantage of tired Coventry legs with goals from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Andrei Arshavin, Ignasi Miquel and a double from Theo Walcott.
Tottenham handled the potential tricky tie with Carlisle well, winning 3-0. Spurs goal came from Jan Vertonghen in the 37th minute, a stunning Andros Townsend strike on 53, and a late third from Gylfi Sigurdsson.
Reading enjoyed some relief from their tough start in the Premier League as they twice battled back from behind to win 3-2 at QPR. David Hoilett’s early strike for the hosts was cancelled out by Kaspars Gorkss, only for Djibril Cisse’s 71st minute penalty put Rangers back in front.
But the Royals responded in style with Nicky Shorey equalising five minutes later and Pavel Pogrebnyak (did not realize he was still at Spurs), scoring the winner nine minutes from time.
Chris Hughton’s youthful Norwich side edged past League One Doncaster 1-0 at Carrow Road thanks to a 26th minute goal from full debutant Alexander Tettey.