Eddie Nketiah came off the bench to rescue Arsenal as the Gunners recovered from a goal behind to beat Norwich 2-1 after extra time in the Carabao Cup.
Arsene Wenger once again opted to favour youth more than experience in the League Cup and, whilst it was great to see the likes of Reiss Nelson and Ainsley Maitland-Niles start, I was initially concerned by the lack of seniority on the bench. I was wondering who on earth we could call on should the game not be going in our favour in the closing stages. How wrong I was! Step forward Nketiah, who took just 15 seconds to make his mark on the game.
But before Nketiah's decisive introduction it had been a very poor showing by Arsenal. Take nothing away from Norwich though, they battled valiantly and put their bodies on the line in defence and had deserved their lead.
We also got lucky with a few decisions, but this game will be remembered as Eddie's day. It may only be the League Cup, which is a competition that admittedly I fail to get too excited about until the semi-final or final stages, but you can only beat what's put in front of you and I am pleased we are into the next round.
An opposition fan did briefly have me worried after the final whistle when he showed me a tweet from a journalist stating that we may have broken a substitution rule. Original rules had stated that you can only make one additional substitution in extra time, but we made two, so I genuinely began to wonder what the backlash might be. But from what I understand the rules were tweaked at some point since their introduction, so no wrong doing has been done and let's hope that's the end of it.
Back to the match and in truth the first half was rather forgettable for us with very few decent chances. Although we enjoyed most of the possession we just couldn't make it count. Alex Iwobi curled a shot over after 13 minutes, but our best chance of the half fell to Rob Holding soon after. The defender rose highest to get his head onto Theo Walcott's corner, but Norwich goalkeeper Angus Gunn produced a fine save to tip the defender's effort over for the crossbar.
Apart from Mario Vrancic dragging a shot wide Norwich hadn't really threatened too much either, but the visitors opened the scoring with a very well-taken goal after 34 minutes. Josh Murphy latched onto a fine through ball from James Maddison before bursting through on goal and dinking the ball over debutant Matt Macey in the Arsenal goal.
Macey was in the thick of the action again soon after, but this time he came out on top by excellently parrying Nelson Oliveira's curling strike.
Walcott saw his low strike saved by Gunn as Norwich maintained their slender 1-0 advantage going in at the break.
Olivier Giroud headed over from a Jack Wilshere free-kick within five minutes of the restart and Arsenal really didn't look anywhere close to scoring.
Arsenal had a big let off five minutes later when Mohamed Elneny received a yellow card for his foul on Oliveira. Some sections of the crowd felt it should have been a red card as the Egyptian stopped Oliveira from bursting clear. There is a chance the man behind him might have been able to catch the Norwich man, but Elneny may still count himself lucky to have stayed on the field.
The Gunners survived another scare as Macey saved Murphy's header before palming away a dangerous cross from the same player soon after.
Arsenal continued to try and push forward in search of an equaliser, but Norwich battled hard throughout and threw themselves in the way to block some shots on goal.
Norwich could have extended their lead if they had been more ruthless with their chances but, fortunately for Arsenal, Oliveira, Murphy and Vrancic all sent shots off target.
It looked like it just wasn't going to be Arsenal's day as Walcott curled a shot wide and sent a header over the crossbar as the game entered its final 10 minutes.
Luckily 18-year-old Nketiah, who was making only his second senior appearance, had other ideas! The young forward had barely been on the field when a corner from Walcott was flicked into his path for him to prod home. What an introduction!
Arsenal had chances to win it in normal time, but were unable to convert them as Gunn kept out Wilshere before substitute Chuba Akpom shot wide.
Nketiah scored his second and the decisive winning goal six minutes into extra time. Walcott's low strike was turned behind for a corner by Gunn and from the resulting set-piece Nketiah powerfully headed home to send the home supporters into raptures.
Arsenal nearly increased their lead in the first half of extra time, but Gunn produced a decent save to deny Giroud.
Nketiah came close to completing what would have been a memorable hat-trick after the restart, but his shot was well saved by the legs of Gunn.
With eight minutes of extra time remaining Norwich were left incensed by the referee's decision not to award them a penalty. James Husband appeared to be fouled in the box by Mathieu Debuchy - it would have been a soft penalty had it been given, but there is no denying there was contact. Norwich had another chance soon after, but Yanic Wildschut sent his effort wide.
Arsenal finished extra time strongly as substitute Joe Willock blasted a shot over the bar before Nketiah also curled an effort off target. But the Gunners held on to book their place in the quarter final after what was a very gutsy display by their Championship opponents.
OPPOSITION VIEW
Norwich fan Sam Foulger believes there is still exciting times ahead for his side, who he felt were unlucky not to get anything out of the game.
"I wasn't there tonight, but by all accounts we played incredibly well," said Foulger. "I don't miss the biased Premier League refereeing. Elneny should have gone and a clear penalty was not given. It wasn't a corner for the goal as the ball hadn't gone out of play.
"It shows how far we have come under (Daniel) Farke to push any sort of Arsenal team. Only four changes following the derby on Sunday, so to put in those minutes was impressive.
"We are still in a process of transition under the new management structure, but there are exciting times ahead."
Fellow Canaries fan Adam Edwards was also feeling upbeat by the events at the Emirates before extra-time had kicked off, saying: "It was an unexpected scoreline following Arsenal's great performance against Everton. Hopefully Norwich's form will continue in the league."
MY FINAL THOUGHTS
We got lucky at times and needed the help of one of our young superstars to bail us out, but ultimately we got the job done by getting the result and progressing through to the next round.
I have always preferred the FA Cup to the League Cup by a big margin, regardless of how we have performed in either competition, but I'm still pleased we got the right result.
Focus now switches back to the league and the visit of Swansea, which has the potential to be a very tricky match so hopefully we can maintain our impressive home record.
With a trip to Manchester City looming next month we need to make sure we take the level of performance up several levels as that will be a different test entirely.
But for now let Eddie Nketiah have his day! He well and truly bailed us out and he deserves to take the headlines!
COME ON YOU GUNNERS
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