Arsenal have made it through to the next round of the League Cup thanks to Eddie Nketiah.

As predicted, Arsenal started the stronger of the two with Reiss Nelson and Ainsley Maitland-Niles looking sharp on the flanks.

Nelson in particular was keen to get forward and into the box, although often ran into congestion and got dispossessed.

Maitland-Niles was involved in some impressive play in the box, which led to a chance for Alex Iwobi.

Although Norwich got forward once or twice early on, it didn’t take long for their game plan to become clear. Just as most teams do against Arsenal, no matter which team we put out, the Canaries were happy to sit back and attempt to hit us on the break.

This was until they realised that they really didn’t need to sit back since our attack wasn’t going to trouble them at all.

Nelson and Mathieu Debuchy continued to drive the Gunners’ play forward, with the Frenchman overlapping nicely and offering our side some pace. He also prevented the play from becoming too stagnant.

On the other side, Maitland-Niles also continued to threaten throughout the opening 20 minutes.

The midfield, however, was completely missing.

Jack Wilshere burst onto the scene in the 28th minute after being pretty quiet up until this point. The midfielder slid in for a two-footed challenge and was lucky not to get a card. He was then poor for the rest of the game except for one or two bursts into the box later on in the game.

It was Norwich who scored first. Josh Murphy managed to dance past Arsenal’s defence and Matt Macey came charging out. All the Canaries’ ace had to do was chip him. Bit embarrassing…

Francis Coquelin, who was partially responsible for conceding the first goal, continued to look as if he didn’t believe he was actually playing. The midfielder continually watched the ball roll past him and misplaced passes. While I’ve never been a huge fan of the Frenchman, his display against Norwich was particularly horrific.

https://twitter.com/NicoleHolliday/status/922906965310918656

Arsenal’s entire team, especially the midfield, was disjointed and unbalanced. One minute, they were playing too far apart, the next they were crowding each other and failing to provide their teammates with options.

Coq was diabolical and, towards the end of the second half, Nelson appeared to be the only player on the pitch with a bit of zip about his play. Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud were nowhere to be seen.

After the break, Iwobi didn’t waste any time in doing Arsenal’s next stupid thing when the forward decided to turn into a wrestler when a Norwich player wouldn’t hand him the ball for a free-kick. He was lucky to not get punished since his outburst was completely uncalled for.

While some recognised what he did as a bit foolish, others were just happy someone was showing some fight. If that’s what you call it.

https://twitter.com/bideyy/status/922913609818054656

https://twitter.com/worldstarbro/status/922913445837553664

Mohamed Elneny, keen to not get left out of all the tomfoolery, dragged back Oliviera despite the Norwich player being the last man. He was heading away from goal though so our midfielder got a yellow.

https://twitter.com/TheGoonerette/status/922914972673327105

Norwich continued to get chance after chance, almost doubling their lead in the 58th minute.

Arsenal looked devoid of ideas or enthusiasm.

After the hour-mark, Wilshere decided he had to take things into his own hands and started to make bursting runs through the middle into the box. Although he didn’t do anything with them.

Arsenal’s first change came in the 69th minute as Maitland-Niles came off for Chuba Akpom.

The Canaries continued to attack and, despite Arsenal’s best efforts, fail to score.

Arsenal’s unlikely equaliser came in the 86th minute.

Youth striker Eddie Nketiah came on for Reiss Nelson and found the back of the net straight away!

And to extra time we went.

Eddie made it two within minutes. This lad really is something special.

https://twitter.com/TheGoonerette/status/922927586648264704

Norwich should have been given a penalty late on in extra time.

The whole game stank from an Arsenal perspective but no one was actually surprised. Gooners have seen this kind of clueless performance before. In fact, it often feels as if we’ve seen our men play like this more often than we’ve seen them play well.

To be fair, it’s the League Cup and there were 11 changes from our Premier League side. So there’s that. Plus, Eddie saved us. He’s some player.

Onto the next round I guess…