Dec 20 2007
Red Cards Aplenty in The Carling Cup Quarters
The quarter finals of the Carling Cup are now over and Everton, Chelsea, Arsenal and Tottenham are all through. Everton defeated West Ham last week 2-1 thanks to goals from Leon Osman and Yakubu after West Ham had earlier took the lead through Cole. Tottenham became the first team this year to win at the city of Manchester stadium when they beat Manchester City 2-0 with goals from Defoe and Malbranque. Tottenham played 70 minutes of the match after Zokora was sent off for a rash tackle on Elano. Despire having 10 men Tottenham outplayed Man City and deserved their victory. Arsenal had a tricky tie away to Blackburn. In typical Arsenal fashion, Wenger played a young side in this competition and once again they were victorious, this time against a very strong Blackburn side. Arsenal found themselves 2-0 early on after goals from Diaby and Eduardo but Roque Santa Cruz pegged one back for Blackburn before the break and the goal hungry striekr scored a second to level the tie. Denilson was sent off for Arsenal late on and Arsenal had to play extra time with 10 men. However it was Arsenal who took the advantage when Song burst from defense to pick out Eduardo with that killer ball and the Croatian made no mistake with his cool finish.
The tie of the round saw Chelsea entertain Liverpool. The first half was very tight with neither side managing a break through. Frank Lampard broke the deadlock on 59 minutes when his shot deflected off Carragher and into the back of the net. How many more deflected goals will Chelsea score against Liverpool? Moments after the goal things went from bad to worse for Liverpool when peter Crouch was sent off for a reckless challenge on Mikel. The final half hour was easy for Chelsea who late on found their second when Shevchenko scored from a tight angle.
Arsenal will now face local rivals Spurs in the semis, whilst Chelsea face Everton. Personally I was hoping for Liverpool to go through so we could have had two local derbys in the semis. Instead Chelsea and Arsenal could be set for a rematch in the final.