Steve Lambert,

Editor (Sport)

 

READING – The Madejski Stadium played host to a 12 goal thriller Tuesday after Arsenal came back from 4-0 down to beat home side Reading 7-5 after extra time in sensational events in Capital One Cup. A Theo Walcott hat trick marked a spectacular result for the Gunners after being embarrassingly humbled in the first half.

The home team Reading started strong, despite only gaining 4 points out of 8 games in the Premier League so far. In the first 20 minutes they were 3-0 up, with a nice finish by Jason Roberts followed up by two bad mistakes by Arsenal – Laurent Koscielny’s own goal and a poor save from Arsenal goalkeeper Damien Martinez, leaving Arsenal seemingly out of contest after less than a quarter of the game. A well executed header by Noel Hunt compounded Arsenal’s misery just before the 40 minute mark, and the first of Walcott’s three goals just before half time seemed like little more than consolation against the rampant Reading.

However, the turnaround began after the break, with Walcott providing a perfect cross to substitute Olivier Giroud, who made an immediate impact with a header into the top left corner to give Arsenal a glimmer of hope in the 64thminute. Reading managed to hold off Arsenal until the 88thminute, with Koscielny redeeming himself for his prior mistake with a simple header after some poor marking by the Reading defense In the last minute of injury time, Walcott fired a shot just crept over the line after being cleared, with Carl Jenkinson firing in after to clear any doubt that it crossed the line, but the goal was given to Walcott.

But there were still 4 more goals to come in extra time, with Marouane Chamakh’s low drive, which put Arsenal in the lead for the first time, being cancelled out by a Pavel Pogrebnyak header with only 4 minutes of extra time remaining and penalties looking likely.

However, a frantic end to a frantic game saw Walcott seal his hat trick in the 120th minute, and a lob by Chamakh a minute later removed any doubt of who was going to win this historic bout.