Sheffield Wednesday produced a memorable performance at Hillsborough on Tuesday evening, booking a place in the Quarter Finals of the Capital One Cup with a resounding 3-0 victory against Arsenal.
Both sides made full use of their squads for this game as Arsenal have an eye on maintaining the pace in the Premier League and progressing in the Champions League while Wednesday are keen to carry on their positive momentum in the Championship.
The Owls rested goalkeeper Keiren Westwood with 19-year-old Joe Wildsmith taking his place and Carlos Carvalhal was also without key attacking man Fernando Forestieri who was cup-tied and Marco Matias, Alex Lopez, Michael Turner and Moudou Sougou were unavailable due to injuries.
Arsenal combined a youthful squad with the likes of Petr Cech, Per Mertesacker, Olivier Giroud, Kieran Gibbs, Mathieu Flamini, Mathieu Debuchy, Alex Oxlade-Chamerlain as well as Theo Walcott from the bench.
The visitors were rocked when Oxlade Chamberlain was forced off with an injury and his replacement Walcott was then subsequently substituted in the opening 20 minutes.
Wednesday took the lead after 27 minutes when a slick passing move resulted in Pudil getting free down the left and the full-back picked out Wallace with a pinpoint low cross and the Scot produced an unerring finish from the edge of the penalty area to the delight of the majority of the 35,000 fans in the stadium.
The Owls doubled their lead 5 minutes before half-time when Bannan’s short corner was delivered into the box by Wallace and Lucas Joao met the cross with a fine header that gave Cech no chance.
Having failed to seriously trouble the Owls backline in the first-half there was an expectancy that the Gunners would come out firing in the second half but within 6 minutes of the restart Wednesday all but put the tie to bed. Bannan took a free-kick that picked out an unmarked Tom Lees at the back post and his well place first time volley across goal was slid over the goal line by Sam Hutchinson.
Another expert cross from Bannan picked out Joao who headed narrowly wide as the home side looked to put the illustrious counterparts to the sword.
The Premier League side finally found a couple of opportunities in the final 15 minutes, Wildsmith showing smart reactions to tip a close range Mertesacker header over the bar and Lees produced a well-timed sliding tackle to see off Giroud in the penalty area.
In the end Arsenal were well beaten and Arsene Wenger had no complaints in conceding that his team were beaten by the better side on the night.
The performance typified the energetic displays that has taken the Owls on a run on 9 games unbeaten, pressing at key times to deny the opposition opportunities and attacking with pace and intent.
Wednesday will eagerly await the League Cup quarter final draw on Wednesday evening and will now look to focus back on progressing in the Championship as they face NottinghamForest at Hillsborough on Saturday.