Man United sweep past West Ham, Arsenal ousted by Southampton

Manchester United’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic celebrates scoring their fourth goal Action Images via Reuters/Jason Cairnduff Livepic

Reuters: Anthony Martial and Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice each to help Manchester United ease into the League Cup semi-finals with a 4-1 home victory over West Ham United on Wednesday as Arsenal suffered a 2-0 home defeat by Southampton.

Martial netted twice in the second half to take the tie at Old Trafford away from West Ham, who had levelled through Ashley Fletcher following Ibrahimovic’s opener after two minutes. The Swede added the fourth deep into stoppage-time.

Southampton clinched their first appearance in the last four of the competition since 1987 with powerful first-half efforts from Jordy Clasie and Ryan Bertrand against a weakened Arsenal, who made 10 changes to their side.

United were then drawn to face Hull City in the semi-finals and Southampton will play Liverpool.

United and West Ham met at the same venue in the Premier League on Sunday when United boss Jose Mourinho let his frustrations boil over and earned a second touchline ban of the season for booting a water bottle.

The Portuguese was banned from the dugout on Wednesday, but would have been delighted with the way United carved open their opponents after just two minutes with a fluent break. West Ham opened the scoring on Sunday equally early, but they were caught cold as Wayne Rooney, one goal short of Bobby Charlton’s all-time club scoring record, fed Henrikh Mkhitaryan, whose backheel picked out Ibrahimovic to dink the ball into the net.

The Swede should have doubled the lead when he waltzed through the heart of the West Ham defence before twice being denied by keeper Adrian.

That could have proved a costly miss because for all United’s first-half dominance, they were pegged back 10 minutes before the break by one of their former players.

Having come through the youth ranks at United, Fletcher was allowed to join West Ham in the close season and punished his former employers by scoring from close range after David de Gea had spilled a shot from Dimitri Payet.

Payet, however, was the villain two minutes after halftime as his poor clearance was pounced on and fed to Mkhitaryan, who claimed his second assist by laying the ball off for Martial to blast past Adrian.

With 30 minutes remaining, Martial grabbed his second, tapping home Antonio Valencia’s cross before Ibrahimovic added the fourth from close range.

“Goals plus performance means the real happiness,” Mourinho, who would not divulge where he watched the match, told Sky Sports.

“The performance is something we are used to, we are playing very well at home. Today was more of the same.”

The League Cup has not been kind to Arsenal in recent years with the club having now progressed from just one of their previous six quarter-finals, which was perhaps the reason why manager Arsene Wenger chose to make wholesale changes to his side to face Southampton.

The Saints began the brighter and were ahead after just 12 minutes when Dutchman Clasie fired powerfully into the net for his first goal for the club.

The lead was doubled eight minutes before the break when Carl Jenkinson was outmuscled deep in his own half, allowing Sofiane Boufal to break and tee up Bertrand to drill a low finish into the bottom corner.

Southgate handed task of reviving England’s fortunes

Reuters: Gareth Southgate was handed the onerous task of ending England’s decades of under-achievement at major tournaments when he agreed a four-year deal to become national team manager on Wednesday.

The 46-year-old former international defender had been in temporary charge since Sam Allardyce quit 67 days into his reign in September after becoming embroiled in a newspaper sting.

Southgate, who played for Crystal Palace, Aston Villa and Middlesbrough, impressed the FA during four matches as interim manager and was the overwhelming favourite to secure the job.

“I am extremely proud to be appointed England manager. However, I’m also conscious that getting the job is one thing, now I want to do the job successfully,” Southgate said in a statement issued by the Football Association after a lengthy board meeting at its St George’s Park headquarters.

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with the players over these past four games and I think there’s huge potential.

“For me, the hard work starts now. There are ways of working that we need to establish to give ourselves a better chance of success in the future.”

The mild-mannered Southgate’s first game as permanent manger will be away to Germany in a friendly in March before a home 2018 World Cup qualifier a few days later against Lithuania.

It was against Germany that, as a player, Southgate achieved unwanted notoriety for his penalty shootout miss in the semi-finals of the European Championship in 1996 at Wembley.

He later starred in a pizza company TV commercial alongside Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle wearing a brown paper bag over his head as they teased him over his miss.

Good position

England last won a major trophy when they lifted the World Cup at home under Alf Ramsey in 1966 and have not reached the semif-finals of a top international tournament since Euro ‘96.

Southgate’s mission will be to continue the good work he did at the-under 21s now he is in charge of the senior team.

They are already in a good position to reach the World Cup, topping their group after four games with Southgate overseeing wins over Scotland and Malta and a draw with Slovenia.

Southgate’s appointment is no surprise and FA chief executive Martin Glenn described him as a leader and a winner.

“He performed extremely well during the four games he was in temporary charge and he impressed us during a tough interview process,” Glenn said in a statement.

Southgate is the youngest full-time England manager since Steve McClaren was appointed, aged 54, in 2006.

This is only his third permanent role as a manager, having been at the helm of Middlesbrough from 2006-09 until he was sacked the season after they were relegated from the top flight.

He was in charge of England’s under 21s from 2013-16, working with the likes of Harry Kane, John Stones and Raheem Sterling, all of whom are now part of the senior squad.

As a player Southgate earned 57 caps and he will now be expected to bring the passion he had as a player to the job of manager as England bid to return to the international elite.