adminLONDON. — Eden Hazard squandered the decisive penalty as Stoke City exacerbated Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho’s misery with victory in the League Cup on Tuesday night, while second-tier Sheffield Wednesday stunned Arsenal 3-0.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger defended his decision to rest so many experienced players, but admitted his starlets had not been up to a raucous night at Sheffield Wednesday.
Wenger accused his young players of being weak and “naive” as they were beaten 3-0 at Hillsborough and claimed he should have rested more first-team regulars after Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain were hit by injuries.
Glen Kamara, Alex Iwobi and Ismael Bennacer were among those making their debuts and Wenger said: “The occasion was too much for the young players. They were not ready to play at this level, none of them. Two of the goals were from set-pieces. We were very naive. We had a lot of the ball but we didn’t make a lot. We were too short in midfield.”
After Jon Walters put Stoke ahead with a fine 20-yard shot at the Britannia Stadium, Chelsea substitute Loic Remy, on for the injured Diego Costa, lashed home an injury-time equaliser to make the score 1-1.
Following a goalless period of extra time, the first nine penalties of the shootout were all scored, only for the out-of-form Hazard to see his 10th spot-kick parried by Stoke goalkeeper Jack Butland, condemning Chelsea to a ninth defeat of the season and sending the holders out.
Defending his team’s performance, Mourinho said: “What the players did tonight is face some people that write and speak, and said: ‘You are stupid’.
“What some people write and say is really bad for the players. Maybe they think my players are like them when they were players. My players don’t do that. They tried everything.”
Chelsea’s exit came hot on the heels of a 2-1 defeat at West Ham United on Saturday, which left Mourinho facing a Football Association misconduct charge after being sent to the stands, and ramped up the pressure on the Portuguese ahead of Saturday’s Premier League visit of Liverpool.
With Chelsea currently 15th in the league table and third in their Champions League group, British newspapers have speculated that Mourinho could be sacked if their fortunes do not improve quickly.
Matters began to conspire against Chelsea in the 33rd minute when Costa went off nursing a rib injury following an earlier collision with Butland. Mourinho later revealed he had gone to hospital.
Walters broke the deadlock in style in the 52nd minute, gathering a pass from Glenn Whelan on the edge of the box, swivelling and crashing a shot in off the crossbar.
In reply, Kurt Zouma struck a post for Chelsea before Remy levelled matters in stoppage time, crashing a shot into the roof of the net after Zouma flicked on Willian’s corner.
Moments later Stoke’s Phil Bardsley was sent off after being shown a second yellow card for hacking down Chelsea substitute Kenedy.
But the visitors could not make the most of their numerical advantage in extra time and in the ensuing shoot-out, it was Hazard, who has endured a wretched start to the season, who blinked first.
At Hillsborough, Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal were well beaten by Championship side Sheffield Wednesday and also lost Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Theo Walcott to injury in the first half.
Ross Wallace put Wednesday ahead after 27 minutes and then teed up Lucas Joao for the hosts’ second goal shortly before half-time, with Sam Hutchinson completing victory early in the second period. Wenger, who has never won the League Cup, had made eight changes to the team that beat Everton 2-1 on Saturday for the game, which was a repeat of the 1993 final. — AFP.
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