Tottenham and Chelsea will slog it out for the Carling Cup final today. Had Spurs not beaten Arsenal in the semis, Eduardo Da Silva would have probably been able to avoid the horrendous injury that occurred in the third minute of the Arsenal- Birmingham League Cup game. Blues defender Martin Taylor was sent off for the challenge on the Brazilian born Croatian striker, with both Arsenal and Birmingham players looking stunned as Eduardo received medical treatment on the pitch for nearly 7-8 minutes before being stretchered off.
After initially saying that Taylor should never play football again, Arsene Wenger later retracted his statement.
To add insult to injury, Arsenal were prevented from taking all three points by James McFadden’s late goal.
Eduardo is likely to miss Euro 2008, and it will be a long time before we see him in action again.
Liverpool beat Middlesbrough 3-2 thanks to a hat trick from Fernando Torres.
Manchester United took full advantage of some atrocious Newcastle defending to thrash the Toons 5-1 at St. James’ Park.
After being 0-2 down at the break thanks to goals from Ronaldo and Rooney, Newcastle started off the second half brightly when Damien Duff forced Van Der Sar to make a save from an acute angle.
The third goal was comic- with Faye failing to clear the ball after winning it from Ronaldo. He merely poked it ahead, and the ball came back to Ronaldo courtesy an interception from a United player. Steven Taylor tried to stop Ronaldo but failed, and the Portuguese winger rounded Harper before making it 3-0.
After United brought off Ronaldo and Vidic for Saha and Scholes, Newcastle got a consolation goal through Faye. But that joy was shortlived as an Alan Smith clearance from a United corner found its way to Wayne Rooney on the edge of the area, and the striker curled it in beautifully past Harper.
Rooney was unselfish later in the game, allowing Louis Saha to add a late fifth when he could have tried for a hat trick himself.
Here is the video from the Arsenal Birmingham game. Taken from Dailymotion. Warning-The video may appear to a bit disturbing