Arsenal’s came from behind to defeat League Two side Shrewsbury at the Emirates stadium. A James Colins header after 16 minutes gave the away side the lead following a Mark Wright effort that had earlier struck a post. Left-back, Keiran Gibbs, restored parity for the Gunners with a headed effort to level the scores before half-time, before new signings Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Yossi Benayoun scored their first goals for the club to see Arsenal through to round 4.
Michael Owen celebrated his first appearance of the season by bagging a brace against Leeds. The Manchester United striker was leading the line in a side characterised by experience and youth at Elland Road. His first came after a quarter-of-an-hour following fine work by Park Ji-Sung and Dimitar Berbatov, before an emphatic second, drilling the ball home at an angle from just inside the Leeds area. Ryan Giggs’ deflected shot sealed the victory in first-half injury-time to send the Red Devils through.
In arguably the game of round 3, Newcastle overcame Steve McClaren’s Nottingham Forest in a 7-goal thriller that was eventually settled in extra-time. Peter Lovenkrands had twice put the Toon ahead but each goal was cancelled out immediately, first by Findley and then Derbyshire in the second-half. Danny Simpson gave the away side the lead not long in to extra-time before Marcus Tudgay provided a third equaliser of the night for Forest. The tie seemed to be destined for penalties before Fabricio Coloccini headed home the winning goal after 122 minutes.
In other scores, Tottenham debutant Massimo Luongo missed the decisive penalty in Spurs’ shootout defeat at Stoke. After a dull 120 minutes of goalless football, the game sprang to life in an enthralling penalty shootout, with the home side eventually emerging triumphant 7-6.
Bolton won 2-0 at Aston Villa in the night’s only other all-Premiership fixture with second-half goals from Chris Eagles and Gael Kakuta. Aldershot came from behind to earn their first appearance in the fourth round of the Carling Cup by beating Rochdale 2-1. Blackburn Rovers withheld a late rally from Leyton Orient thanks to a first Rovers goal for Simon Vukcevic providing the difference in a 3-2 win.
Kieran Trippier and Andre Amougou helped Burnley come from behind to secure a place in the last 16 at the expense of MK Dons. Crystal Palace eased past Middlesbrough. A 2-1 score-line at Selhurst Park enough to put Boro’s League win at Palace last Saturday in to the back of Palace fans’ minds. But the biggest winners of the night were Wolves who smashed 5 past hapless Millwall to erase a bad Premiership showing against QPR at the weekend. George Elokobi, perhaps the biggest culprit in Wolves’ early capitulation in that game, was amongst the scorers last night to secure an easy progression for Mick McCarthy’s team.
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