The scarf is for football

I know that most of you reading this probably don't care too much about football, and especially not the Carling Cup, but indulge me a little, because this week there were some really great results and stories. Which is nice, since the Carling Cup is the third most prestigious domestic competition in England, so it's often an afterthought, accompanied by a shrug and a who-cares. But not this week! (PS - I don't want to end up sounding like this guy)

Arsenal 6 - Sheffield United 0

I have to begin with this one. The average age of the Arsenal team that started this match was 19, their youngest ever. And while Sheffield United are in a lower league, they were in the Premiership not long ago (the debate is still raging in courtrooms about that) and therefore would be no pushover. But our kids knocked them out. A hat-trick from Carlos Vela, who was starting his first competitive match! His second, in particular, was a peach. As an Arsenal fan, it often gets frustrating to hear "We've got great young players, in a few years' time they'll win trophies" but nights like this make it worth the wait.

Brighton 2 - Man City 2 (Brighton won 5-3 on penalties)

Manchester City are the world's richest club. They just signed the most expensive player in English history. At the weekend they put six past Portsmouth, who are no slouches. And yet, they just got beaten - on penalties, no less - by a team who, this past weekend, lost to nine-man Walsall. This is the kind of result where you just have to rub your eyes and say "What?!"

Newcastle 1 - Tottenham 2

This was one of those matches where I wished that both teams would lose. Newcastle are currently undergoing a huge, and dare I say, hilarious, meltdown. Their hugely-popular manager was fired, leaving the club in the hands of a beer-downing millionaire who's way out of his depth. Their season has already imploded, and yet they still had a chance against Spurs, who're rock bottom of the Premiership after selling all their decent players. Spurs got the win, but not being bottom of the league is probably their greater priority at the moment. Also, they're Arsenal's big local rivals, so any failures they encounter are, as a rule, hilarious to me.

Watford 1 - West Ham 0

I was in New York over the weekend seeing some old friends, one of whom is a Watford fan. Hopefully at least one of you will appreciate his Luther Blissett t-shirt. At the weekend, they had the world's biggest refereeing blunder go against them. So, it was great to see them pull off a pretty big upset against West Ham, a team with a high-profile new manager, who are a league above. I love it when Premiership teams (that aren't Arsenal) get knocked out by lower teams. See ya later, Fulham and Villa!

Liverpool, Chelsea and Man Utd all won their fixtures, so we'll see how interesting the next round is.



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