Arsenal 2 Norwich 1 match report: Super sub Eddie Nketiah fires Gunners into quarter-finals
Arsene Wenger's second-string struggled against the Championship Canaries and trailed through Josh Murphy's strike
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EDDIE NKETIAH became the first Arsenal player to score a competitive goal who was born AFTER Arsene Wenger took over as boss.
The teenager not only grabbed the leveller with his first touch after coming on as an 85th-minute sub.
But Nketiah, 18 — who was with Chelsea until he was 13 — then grabbed the winner six minutes into extra-time.
Josh Murphy put Norwich ahead and Daniel Farke’s Canaries should have been well clear.
Nketiah levelled, yet the best was to come as Wenger still feared a humiliating defeat.
Angus Gunn made a terrific save from Theo Walcott yet Mohamed Elneny delivered the resulting corner and Nketiah jumped high to deliver an unstoppable header into the top right-hand corner.
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In the second half of extra-time, Nketiah sprinted clear of the visiting defence incredibly easily and looked set to score a hat-trick but keeper Gunn made a fine save.
Equally, Norwich still pressed for a leveller and there were screams for a penalty when sub Wes Hoolahan went down under a challenge from Mathieu Debuchy.
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There may have been minimal contact but it would have been incredibly harsh on Arsenal.
Hardly surprisingly, the home crowd kept chanting ‘Eddie, Eddie’ as they saluted a new hero.
In future, the bloke who announces the teams at the Emirates will choose his words more carefully.
Or at least get name of the opposition right.
Before kick-off, he named Arsenal’s visitors as IPSWICH.
Yet remarkably, Norwich, cheered on by 8,800 fans, thought they were set to be the first lower-League side to win at Arsenal in the League Cup since Walsall in 1983.
Wenger has never really liked this competition. Despite winning seven FA Cup finals, he has only been in two League Cup finals and the last one was 2011 when Laurent Koscielny and Wojciech Szczesny delivered a cock-up to hand the silverware to Birmingham.
Despite making 11 changes following the 5-2 win at Everton, you would still have expected Wenger’s team to be better than this.
And it was ridiculous Norwich were not out of sight before Nketiah scored with his first touch. Elneny, who struggled at the back for Arsenal, was lucky to avoid a red card when he fouled Nelson Oliveira who was clean through in the 55th minute.
He was clearly the last man but escaped with a caution much to the anger of Norwich boss Farke.
It was 25 years ago this season, in the first Premier League weekend, that Norwich recovered from 2-0 down at half-time to beat Arsenal 4-2 at Highbury.
But an away victory on this occasion seemed extremely unlikely.
England Under-21 keeper Gunn, whose dad Bryan was in goal for the Canaries that day in August 1992, pulled off an outstanding close-range save to deny Rob Holding who comfortably beat Ivo Pinto to a header.
It was all Arsenal — and then Norwich duly scored in the 34th minute.
Tom Trybull showed strength to keep possession against Francis Coquelin, and James Maddison — who scored the winner against Ipswich in Sunday’s Old Farm Derby — released Murphy.
Murphy’s identical twin brother Jacob moved to Newcastle for £12million in the summer, and the Premier League club have also been watching this member of the family.
Although clear of Holding and Debuchy, Murphy appeared to take a heavy touch but got to the ball first before chipping the ball over Matt Macey.
At least the Arsenal keeper prevented Norwich scoring a second when he did well to get down low to his left to keep out a decent effort from Oliveira.
After struggling to get anywhere near their opponents, Farke’s side started playing with some confidence and stopped giving it away.
Walcott forced another decent stop from Gunn and Arsenal’s fans made their feelings known at half-time.
With that front line of Olivier Giroud, Walcott and Jack Wilshere, you would have expected them to deliver more problems but they were continually frustrated by some organised defending.
Ref Bobby Madley made that big call by only giving Elneny a caution but Norwich kept pressing.
Keeper Macey scooped the ball away from the feet of Oliviera after an excellent cross from Murphy.
Then Oliviera should have done better after a terrific raid down the right from right-back Pinto, and Murphy had a golden chance to make it 2-0 when he lifted the ball over from 25 yards with Macey stranded.
Mario Vrancic then wasted another great chance for Norwich.
Arsenal enjoyed more pressure then levelled five minutes from time.
A sub for Reiss Nelson, Nketiah scored with his first touch from close range after a corner was flicked on.
Nketiah made his debut against BATE in the Europa League and this was some impact. Gunn then made a cracking save to deny Wilshere to send the match into extra-time.
DREAM TEAM RATINGS
Arsenal: Macey 6, Debuchy 6, Elneny 6, Holding 6, Nelson 6, Coquelin 6, Wilshere 5, Maitland-Niles 6, Walcott 6, Iwobi 6, Giroud 6. Subs: Nketiah 6, Akpom 5, Willock 6, Da Silva 5.