Arsenal avoid shock exit, United rout Leeds - Hindustan Times

Arsenal avoided a humiliating League Cup third round exit against Shrewsbury as the troubled Gunners came from behind to win 3-1, while Manchester United cruised to a 3-0 victory over old rivals Leeds. After Saturday's 4-3 defeat at Blackburn condemned Arsenal to their worst start to a season for 58 years, chief executive Ivan Gazidis chose to publicly express the club's support for boss Arsene Wenger.

But even Arsenal's loyal board may have started to doubt Wenger when League Two Shrewsbury took a shock lead through James Collins at the Emirates Stadium yesterday.

Wenger has never hidden his distaste for the League Cup, yet he could hardly afford such a shocking defeat so soon after that incredible 8-2 loss at Manchester United.

So the Frenchman breathed a sigh of relief as goals from Kieran Gibbs, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Yossi Benayoun sent Arsenal, beaten by Birmingham in last year's final, into the fourth round.

"We took a gamble and played a young team," Wenger said. "It worked because you could see some players, like Oxlade-Chamberlain, have done extremely well and that is positive for the future.

"Shrewsbury were direct, but not without technique and had some dangerous situations. One-all at half-time was not too bad for us. In the second half, we took over and then it was all us."

Arsenal were in chaos early on as Mark Wright fired against a post and Shrewsbury went ahead when Collins powered home a header from Marvin Morgan's cross in the 16th minute.

The turning point came when Reuben Hazel missed a golden opportunity to increase Shrewsbury's advantage.