Last night saw two of the Carling Cup quarter-finals take place, holders Manchester United travelled to bottom of the Premiership West Ham and Arsenal hosted Premiership strugglers Wigan.
A picturesque, wintry Upton Park witnessed a moment of history as Manchester United's 29 match unbeaten streak came to grinding halt in fascinating fashion. United, however, came out the stronger as Sir Alex Ferguson continued his policy of mixing youth with experience. Gabriel Obertan almost put the visitors ahead after six minutes but a magnificent save from Rob Green pushed the ball onto the post and was then cleared. That was as good as it got for Manchester United as West Ham started to come into the game and terrorise a very fragile looking United defence. West Ham thought they had took the lead on the quarter of an hour mark when Victor Obinna's shot took a wicked deflection to beat Kuszczak all ends up. Referee Mark Clattenburg had a talk with his assistant and came to the conclusion that the deflection was off ex-United starlet Jonathan Spector who was standing in an offside position, replays showed that it was the correct decision. However just seven minutes later Obinna played a little lofted ball into the box where Spector was on hand to head the ball past Kuszczak to score his first senior goal in English football. United didn't get much better and continually allowed Spector and co to run great distances with the ball right up until they got to the penalty area. This allowed Spector to grab his second goal eight minutes before half-time and Manchester United were left reeling.
After a half-time hairdryer, Ferguson decided to bring on Macheda for Bebe in search of at least two goals. It didn't improve their performance and United's vulnerable defence proved the downfall again in the second half. It took just eleven minutes before West Ham struck again to virtually put the game to bed, Carlton Cole was the goalscorer. Cole then added a second just ten minutes later after Obinna fond him in the box and Evans allowed him to turn so easily before slotting the ball home. The 4-0 defeat was the first defeat for Manchester United for thirty games and the first since Coventry in 2007 in this competition. As for West Ham, it's their first semi-final appearance in the League Cup for 21 years.
West Ham will be joined by Arsenal in the semi-finals after they beat Wigan 2-0 in The Emirates. Antolin Alcaraz flicked a corner into his own net three minutes before half-time to give Arsenal the first half lead. A 67th goal from Nicklas Bendtner sealed the victory for the rather strong Arsenal side.
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