Crapchester United

Carling Cup quarter-final, Crystal Palace at home, nice. Looking at the other fixtures, Arsenal vs. Man City and Liverpool vs. Chelsea, I was like, "Ha! Gutted". It seems I scoffed too soon. Palace eventually forced a winner in extra time to seal a 2-1 upset at Old Trafford and book their semi-final place. Sir Alex rarely gets his team selection wrong, and to an extent you could argue it wasn't the selection that was the problem on this occasion either. Valencia, Berbatov (on paper anyway), Smalling, Park, Fabio & Rafael all started the game, but taking nothing away from Palace, something was missing. There seemed to be a lack of urgency and desire, especially seeing as a few of the fringe players needed to make a big impact to have any chance of being selected for League games. Previous to kick-off, Ferguson had stated how "...the League Cup has turned into quite a good tournament," "Clubs like United are able to introduce young players and ones who have not been playing regularly in the first team, and it's been good to us over the years". Just not this year, apparently.

You look extra silly when beaten by a bunch of daffodil look-alikes

I also believe the Carling Cup provides a good chance for the younger players at bigger clubs to make a name for themselves as they need competitive, senior games in order to improve and to be fair, this particular cup has always been regarded as the 'B' competition after the FA Cup (and I'm not at all bitter by the way...maybe a bit, damn Crystal Palace). A good example of this was during Arsenal's unlucky defeat to City with former Southampton youngster Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain put on a classy performance, announcing himself by terrorising Zabaleta for large chunks of the game. But that's enough about Arsenal.

I'm sure Fergie had more than one eye on the coming fixtures against Basel in the Champions League (which is a must win to ensure the best chance of qualifying top of the group) and Aston Villa this weekend. Ah well, you win some, you lose some...just in future, make sure its not at home to someone 1 division and 30 places below you, please.