This round of games had some interesting fixtures on paper. Believe it or not, all the games on the 29th had the winning teams keeping clean sheets.
Arsenal 3-0 Newcastle ( Emmanuel Adebayor, Mathieu Flamini, Cesc Fabregas)
Newcastle didn’t pose a threat all to the Gunners, and slumped to their eight defeat in 12 games away from St.James’ Park. Dennis Wise would surely not have been impressed.
The Ivory Coast had a splendid opportunity to send rivals Nigeria out of the African Cup of Nations. Instead they did the Super Eagles a huge favour by beating Mali 3-0, and Nigeria qualified by virtue of their 2-0 over Reinhard Fabisch’s Benin. If Nigeria had failed to qualify , it would have been their first group stage elimination since 1982.
This year’s Carling Cup final will feature one of the two teams that played at the Millennium Stadium last year for the title- Chelsea. The other finalist last year, Arsenal, lost to bitter rivals Tottenham Hotspur, who will be making their first appearance in the final since 2002, when they lost to Blackburn Rovers.
This is Chelsea’s third Carling Cup final in four years, and the Blues had Joe Cole to thank for it. After beating Everton 2-1 in the first leg, Avram Grant’s side rode on the back of a goal from midfielder Cole to win the tie 3-1 on aggregate. A frantic search for Chelsea tickets will now begin for those eager to watch the second All London final in the history’s competition. Last year’s final between Arsenal and Chelsea was the first.