Carabao Cup: Spurs knock Man City out; Arsenal make light work of Preston – The Irish Times

Timo Werner’s first goal in 18 matches helped Tottenham knock Manchester City out of the Carabao Cup with a 2-1 win after a pulsating fourth-round tie.

Werner set Spurs on course for victory when he rifled home in the fifth minute, which was followed by a superb curled strike from Pape Sarr midway through the first half.

City responded with a Matheus Nunes goal on the stroke of half-time but after Pep Guardiola decided against bringing on Erling Haaland, Tottenham held on for a crucial win which sent them into the quarter-finals and helped push them a step closer to ending a 16-year trophy drought.

It was not a solely positive night for Ange Postecoglou after he lost Micky van de Ven to injury and City winger Savinho left the pitch on a stretcher as the packed fixture schedule hit home for both managers.

Spurs played out from the back impressively before Archie Gray found Brennan Johnson, who flicked into the path of Dejan Kulusevski and he produced a perfectly-weighted cross for Werner to slam home from 14 yards.

Spurs made it 2-0 through Sarr in the 25th minute when Werner and Kulusevski combined from a short corner before the latter rolled into the path of Sarr, who produced a sublime curled effort from 25 yards that beat Stefan Ortega and nestled into the bottom corner.

City weren’t without opportunity, but it wasn’t until the fourth minute of first-half stoppage time that the deficit was reduced, a Savinho crossing in for Nunes to side-foot home at the back post.

The visitors pushed for a leveller and almost forced penalties in the 89th minute when Guglielmo Vicario failed to claim a corner, but Nico O’Reilly’s shot on the turn was brilliantly booted wide by Bissouma on the line to hand the visitors a first defeat of the season.

Newcastle scored two goals in three first-half minutes to earn revenge over Chelsea with a 2-0 win and reach the quarter-finals.

Three days on from their Premier League defeat to the Blues at Stamford Bridge, the Magpies responded with an impressive first-half display.

Alexander Isak pounced on a mistake at the back to score the opener before Joe Willock’s deflected header was turned in by Axel Disasi.

Chelsea put in an improved second-half performance and had their best chance of the match when Joao Felix fired wide, but last season’s runners-up were unable to find a response.

Following some good spells of pressure around the box, the hosts took the lead in the 23rd minute.

Stemming from a short Chelsea goal-kick, where a loose pass from Benoit Badiashile saw Veiga muscled off the ball by Joelinton and Tonali stabbed a pass through for Isak, who tucked into the bottom corner.

Tonali nearly doubled the lead just moments later when his vicious strike whistled past the upright, but Newcastle wasted no time taking advantage of their momentum when a short free-kick allowed Isak to break down the left and cross, and Willock’s deflected header was bundled in by Disasi.

Ethan Nwaneri grabbed the spotlight with a stunning strike as Arsenal eased into the quarter-finals with a 3-0 win over Preston.

The 17-year-old Nwaneri, who scored his first senior goals with a brace when the Gunners romped to a 5-1 win over Bolton in the previous round, was at the heart of things again and bent in a fine shot to double Arsenal’s lead after Gabriel Jesus opened the scoring with his first goal of the season.

Kai Havertz came off the bench to add a third as Arsenal extended Preston’s unwanted record of having played more games in this competition than any other club, now 185, without making the last eight.

After Liam Lindsay headed over from Sam Greenwood’s free-kick for Preston, Arsenal took the lead in the 24th minute.

Gabriel Martinelli floated in a deep free-kick which was headed back by Jakub Kiwior for Jesus to lash home on the volley.

Having fluffed an earlier chance, Nwaneri scored from a much harder opportunity three minutes later. Played in by Jesus, the England youth international rolled away from his man before bending a shot into the top left corner of the Preston net.

Havertz then got Arsenal’s third within 11 minutes of the restart, arriving on cue to head Kiwior’s cross beyond Freddie Woodman for his seventh of the season.

Crystal Palace’s season continued to go in the right direction after they beat Aston Villa 2-1.

Three days after kick-starting their Premier League campaign by beating Tottenham, Palace followed it up by booking their place in the quarter-finals of the League Cup thanks to Eberechi Eze and Daichi Kamada goals either side of Jhon Duran’s leveller.

The only sour point of the evening was seeing Eze and Adam Wharton limp off with first-half injuries.

Palace went ahead with their first attack of the match in the eighth minute when Daniel Munoz made his way down the right, sent in an inviting cross and Eze planted a header into the bottom corner.

Villa got the leveller in the 23rd minute when Boubacar Kamara did brilliantly to win the ball back and then set Bailey free, with the Jamaican picking out Duran to fire home.

But the hosts shot themselves in the foot by gifting Palace the lead in the 64th minute.

Passing out from the back, Diego Carlos misplaced a pass, allowing Kamada to find the bottom corner from the edge of the area.

Villa had no serious attacking resources to call on from the bench and Palace were able to cruise through.