Arsenal’s youngsters & injury returnees put on a show in Carabao Cup

Arsenal crushed Nottingham Forest 5-0 in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday, with plenty of youngsters and injury-returnees in the spotlight.

If you sat down on Monday night, or Tuesday morning, and wrote a script on how Arsenal would achieve a perfect 90 minutes in their opening Carabao Cup fixture against Nottingham Forest, it still likely wouldn’t have gone as well as the actual match did. With Gunners fans aching to see the likes of Bellerin, Holding, and Tierney return from injury for weeks, Unai Emery delivered, putting the latter 2 in the starting XI and placing the Spaniard on the bench, to feature later in the match.

Arsenal ran away 5-0 winners, and some of the individual performances and achievements on the night were almost out of a fairy tale.

Brazilian youngster Gabriel Martinelli certainly made an impression in his first ever start for Arsenal, opening the scoring and finishing it as well, with the final goal being a sublime curling effort from outside the box. Martinelli only turned 18 a few months ago, and joined Arsenal for a fee of £6 million in early July – which is now looking like an excellent transfer, when assessing his quality and potential.

The likes of Joe Willock, Reiss Nelson, and Calum Chambers had particularly excellent matches, with the former 2 finding the score-sheet late in the match, while Chambers had a stunning 3 assists on the night, from both right-back and left-back, as he displayed his versatility and maturity following a season on loan at Fulham.

But the real stars of the show, were the injury returnees who featured in the match: Kieran Tierney and Rob Holding, who started the match, and Hector Bellerin, who featured late-on.

Kieran Tierney, on his Arsenal debut, was exquisite throughout the game, putting in mouthwatering crosses on more than a few occasions, and beating his man whenever necessary. It was certainly a performance that will have fans excited for what’s to come.

Rob Holding had a relatively quiet match until he pulled on the armband following Mesut Ozil’s substitution, and powered home a thunderous header from the ensuing corner-kick to score his 2nd goal for Arsenal in his first match since last December, where he suffered a serious knee injury at Old Trafford.

Hector Bellerin also made an impact in his first appearance for Arsenal since January where he also suffered a knee injury: Less than 1 minute after being substituted on, the right-back provided a slick assist for Joe Willock’s goal.

Emile Smith-Rowe’s departure on a stretcher in the first-half due to injury was the only real dent in the match for Arsenal, although he is expected to make a full recovery very soon.

On Monday, Unai Emery’s men will take on a struggling Manchester United side who will be hungry for a win against Arsenal. After this performance in the Carabao Cup, Gooners will surely be hoping to see the likes of Holding, Tierney, Willock and co feature there as well.