By Chris Wright

With Palace going into the game with a 1-0 aggregate lead courtesy of centre-back Anthony Gardner, Cardiff levelled the score after just 7 minutes through Palace centre-back Anthony Gardner who somehow got his head down lower than his own feet to power a header past Julian Speroni and in off his own post.

By Alan Duffy

Chelsea's erratic first half of the 2011/12 campaign may have all but ended their title dreams, but the news that Ghanaian midfield supremo Michael Essien is back in action will surely give AVB and his army of Blues' fans a right old boost.

Many fans were hoping for early activity from the Gunners in the transfer market, especially to bolster the defence, but things have largely been quiet. Given that Ferguson had to go back to Paul Scholes and Chelsea are taking so long over the Cahill deal, one can assume this is going to be, at best, a tricky month for football business.

In a day of very few shocks, two Premier League sides Bolton and Wigan were surprised by lower league opponents in the 3rd round of the FA Cup.

Wigan's troubled season took another turn for the worse as they crashed out 2-1 too League Two side Swindon Town. Calum McManaman had put Wigan 1-0 up but Swindon, managed by Italian Paolo Di Canio, struck back to claim a famous win with goals coming from Alan Connell and Paul Benson.

By Chris Wright

'What goes around...' and all that jazzaroonie.

Tim Howard admirably chose not to celebrate after opening the scoring for Everton against Bolton in specatcular, hoof-tastic fashion on Wednesday evening as a mark of respect for his opposite number, Adam Bogdan telling reporters après le match that he'd 'been there before himself a long, long time ago' and that he knew 'it wasn't a nice place to be'.

szólj hozzá: Man Utd v Blackburn 2:3 MOTD

David De Gea's horrendous flapping at a corner led to Grant Hanley following up on his header by bulling through to the ball again for Blackburn's winner and his debut Premier League goal. It was a shocking win for the cellar dwellers and it completely knocked the sails off the celebratory mood enveloping Old Trafford before the game on the occasion of Sir Alex's 70th birthday.

The next three Arsenal games against Wolves, QPR and Fulham are played in the span of a mere six days. Rotation is the name of the game in the Premier League and as such you will see just about every team in the league forced to field bench players or even a second-string side to [...]

Conor Coady has paid tribute to Jay Spearing and Jonjo Shelvey after the duo excelled during their respective run-outs for Liverpool Reserves recently.
The Melwood pair hit a double apiece as the second-string romped to wins over Sunderland and Wigan - and the 18-year-old midfielder feels he can only learn from playing alongside such dedicated first-teamers.

Disappointing midweek arrived for English teams in their Europa League campaign, Fulham have to forget their European ambition as they're journey ended on Wednesday after only picking up a point against Odense BK.

Meanwhile, Stoke City suffered their first defeat in the competition but still secure their passage into the next round although that loss relegated the Potters into runners up position behind Besiktas.

After mix-up in the air Stoke City finally made to Istanbul late on Tuesday night!
They landed at the wrong airport .....
Stoke City's plane ended up on the Asian side of Istanbul Sabihan Gokcen airport rather than the European side,Ataturk International airport!

By Alan Duffy

Enoch Balotelli remember the name, Actually, to be honest, it's not an easily forgettable one, is it? Well, the 19-year-old Italian has followed his more famous brother over to England in an attempt to get himself a contract with Stoke City.

Olympiakos 3 (Djebbour 16, Fuster 36, Modesto 89) Arsenal 1 (Benayoun 57)
(Champions League Group Stage)

It seems the knives are out again. Described as Euro flops in some quarters, and a laughing stock in others, it seems many of the press are finally able to pull the trigger on the negative stories they've been unable to run over the past month, thanks to our improved form.

Although Arsene Wenger played a second string team in last night's 3-1 defeat at Olympiakos, Arsenal still managed to sustain an injury to one of their first-team players. Lukas Fabianski was taken off with a cut during the first half, but the only remaining left-back at Arsenal, Andre Santos, was taken off with an ankle [.

Match report Video (via @arsenalist)

Sometimes, like against Manchester City in the Carling Cup, we see a performance from the second string that lifts the spirits and gives us hope and encouragement for the future. And sometimes we get performances like last night which reflect little more than why these players are part of the second string.

Arsenal are visiting Greece for the final group game with top spot secured. Such games can easily become an unwanted, tiresome chore but they can also be an opportunity for the some of the players to show what they are capable of with a chance to perform in a pressure-free environment.

Of course, we don't want the team to be frivolous and roll over but I feel the squad that Wenger has taken to Olympiacos is full of professionals who respect the badge on their shirt and the game/competition.

Although Arsenal's senior team performed brilliantly against Wigan yesterday, Arsene Wenger will field the youngsters for all to see once again on Tuesday night. The second string of players combined with youngsters will play against Olympiacos in the last group stage match in the Champions League. With Arsenal already topping the group, the match is [.

Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has admitted he would love to face Liverpool in the Carling Cup final should the Eagles overcome fellow Championship rivals Cardiff.
The South London outfit dumped a second-string Manchester United side out the competition on Wednesday night thanks to a dramatic 2-1 extra-time victory at Old Trafford.

The game in the Carling Cup against Manchester City was one of the better ones I have seen for some time from the "second-string", or more precisely the young starlets. Ignasi Miquel looked the most assured of the defenders (bar the first five minutes), Oxlade-Chamberlain had a great game down his side, Frimpong held the [.

By now we all know the story pretty well: the defense was crap at the beginning of the season, but by the end it was one of the Portland Timbers' strengths. Individual players improved, as did communication amongst them, and the front office augmented that development with a shrewd mid-season trade.

I have to say I was not expecting such a good performance from our second string last night, looking at the two sides on paper it really should have been a whitewash, but Arsene has been overachieving with these kind of elevens for years now, I really should not have doubted his skills.In the end the side that cost about the same as Edin Dzeko was the better of the two in a battle against a side

It's back to the second string tonight in a game where Spurs need to grab at least a point in order to ensure qualification for the next stage of the Europa League.

The big news is up front where officially, Harry Redknapp has declared Roman Pavlyuchenko and Gio Dos Santos to be ‘struggling' while in reality it seems likely that neither will make it.

Liverpool Through To Semi Finals

An emotional Craig Bellamy during the minutes applause for Gary Speed... Liverpool have booked themselves a place in the Carling Cup Semi Finals after beating Chelsea for the second time in ten days at Stamford Bridge. The 2-0 win saw Martin Kelly and Maxi Rodriguez bag the Reds their goals whilst Chelsea couldn't even muster a consolation.

An emotional Craig Bellamy during the minutes applause for Gary Speed...Liverpool have booked themselves a place in the Carling Cup Semi Finals after beating Chelsea for the second time in ten days at Stamford Bridge. The 2-0 win saw Martin Kelly and Maxi Rodriguez bag the Reds their goals whilst Chelsea couldn't even muster a consolation.

I'm proud of the team today.

An Arsenal side composed mostly of our youth players and our second string benchwarmers did much better than anybody expected, outplaying a "reserve" Man City side that still had the likes of Nasri, Dzeko, Aguero, Johnson, and De Jong on the pitch and which likely cost more to assemble than 15 first XI's in the EPL.

Gimme a minute, I'm just shoveling coal into the Liveblog 3000. It's a bit clunky this morning (afternoon/evening for many of you). Nothing a cuppa won't fix, mind. *pauses, thinks...* Gimme a minute, I'm just shoveling tea into the Liveblog 3000.

If you haven't read it, then you should run, don't walk, to Darren's preview of this match.

It's back to Stamford Bridge for Liverpool as they seek progression to the semifinals of the League Cup for the first time since 2005. The timing of the fixture makes it challenging for both sides for Liverpool, who've sent out strong squads in each of their three wins in the competition, it's cause for serious questions about who and what we'll see.

This is a tough one to call. Arsenal are very strong at home in the Carling Cup the last eight games ending in wins with a cumulative score of 23-3. On the other hand, City are probably the only club that can put out a second-string side that would not look far out of place in the Premiership.

For the visitors, Dzeko, Adam Johnson, Nigel De Jong, Kolo Toure, Kolarov, Zabaleta, Savic, and even Hargreaves might get a start.

Come on Robin be honest, you can't dribble past 4 players can you?

One more match before the return of Samir Na$ri to the Grove. Not as if Arsene Wenger sees Manchester City as any kind of a threat. Such is the confidence of the team at the moment, the manager looks to put his second string side to face the league leader.

After losing veteran midfielder Justin Mapp to the Montreal Impact in the Expansion Draft, the Philadelphia Union claimed fellow midfielder Nizar Khalfan from the Vancouver Whitecaps in the Waiver Draft.

The Union also released central defender Juan Diego Gonzalez and goalkeeper Thorne Holder.

Kenny Dalglish was full of praise for the attitude his fringe players showed in the reserves as they crushed Sunderland's second string 5-1.
First-team squad members Jay Spearing, Sebastian Coates, Jon Flanagan and Danny Wilson were all part of the side watched by the Liverpool boss from the touchline at the Kirby Academy.

By Chris Wright

We'll have some proper reaction up once we've cobbled it together later this morning but, rather than the obligatory draw, a largely second-string England actually beat Sweden for the first time since the year of our Lord 1968 (13 games if you're counting) at Wembley last night a 22nd-minute own-goal from centre-half Daniel Majstorovic (with a cunning assist from Gareth Barry) eventually proving to be the difference between the two sides.

By Chris Wright

We'll have some proper reaction up once we've cobbled it together later this morning but, rather than the obligatory draw, a largely second-string England actually beat Sweden for the first time since the year of our Lord 1968 (13 games if you're counting) at Wembley last night a 22nd-minute own-goal from centre-half Daniel Majstorovic (with a cunning assist from Gareth Barry) eventually proving to be the difference between the two sides.

By Alan Duffy

Following in the footsteps of Molde's title-winning boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, Paul Scholes looks set to take over the Manchester United reserve team outright as current boss, Warren Joyce, moves back to his former club Hull City.

By Chris Wright

From a home perspective, the good news seems to be that Vicente Del Bosque is going to give some of his 'second string' a run out against England at Wembley on Saturday afternoon. The depressingly bad news being that most of said second string would probably, nay definitely, meander straight into Fabio Capello's first XI.

Tottenham Hotspurs failed to present a gift for their coach, Harry Redknapp, who has just had an operation, after the Lilywhites' second string got beaten by Rubin Kazan in the latest Europa League group stage tie.

Meanwhile, Stoke City continues their excellent run in Europe by picking up another victory against Macabi Tel Aviv, proving their ability to compete with foreign teams in the competition yet still pretty competitive in the league.

By Chris Wright

A pair of beautifully-taken goals from the Yaya Monster (the footwork before the second of the two is definitely worth another look) and a penalty both won and dispatched by Mario Balotelli saw Man City cruise to victory over a bare-bones Villarreal side that put in the worst performance by a Spanish club in Champions League history (© Martin O'Neill).

Here we go again. Why do we play you twice a week? Not an ideal order of things in this universe, is it? Let's face it, anything better than a two goal defeat is actually a good result in a game like this. In the game against the second string City team nine of our [...]

By Chris Wright

Just the five? How disappointing.

Manchester City (or more accurately, their second string) made it 21 goals scored in their last five matches with a 5-2 rollocking of Wolves at Molineux last night easing into the Carling Cup quarters alongside Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, Blackburn, Cardiff and Crystal Palace.

Tweet my Goal! Wolves 2-5 Manchester City

A second string Manchester City side crushed Wolves 5-2 at Molineux in the Carling cup on Wednesday night. Wolves 2-5 Manchester City Five-star City reserves cruise past Wanderers These were the funniest Tweets on the game from our @MirrorFootball feed :

View the full story here: The Mirror

A news article on 2011-10-26 23:41:59 from: The Mirror

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

szólj hozzá: Wol 2-5 Man

Manchester City continued their rampant scoring tonight as they beat Wolves 5-2 in the 4th round of the Carling Cup tonight after coming from behind after Nenad Milijas gave the home side a surprise lead. With City to meet Wolves again at the week-end in the EPL it looks as if they will remain five points clear of the pack or extend their lead given this demolition job with a virtual second string side.