Closer Look At Arsenal's Youngsters That Thrashed Sheff Utd

What does it say about Arsenal when their reserve team last night beat Sheffield United 6-0 in the Carling Cup? Maybe the tournament should be renamed the Arsenal Youngsters Cup?

Here are some of the impressive young starlets who played last night:

• Kieran Gibbs. Midfielder, 18 years old, only made his second appearance for Arsenal last night. His debut was one year ago in the Carling Cup when he came on as a substitute against, coincidentally, Sheffield United.
• Mark Randall. Midfielder, 18 years old, made his fifth appearance for Arsenal yesterday — but only his second start for the club. His debut was August 2007 against West Brom in, you guessed it, the Carling Cup.
• Francis Coquelin. Midfielder. The 17 year old made his debut last night for Arsenal although the Frenchman did make a couple of friendly appearances this summer after joining the Gunners from French side Laval.
• Henri Lansbury. Midfielder, 17 years old, made his debut one year ago against Sheffield United and played again last night, coming on as a second half substitute.
• Jay Simpson. Striker. 19 years old. This is another player who made his official debut last night for Arsenal against Sheffield United. Last season he played on loan at Millwall scoring six goals for the London club.

The teammates who played alongside those youngsters were:

Lukasz Fabianski, Gavin Hoyte, Alexandre Song, Johan Djourou, Fran Merida, Aaron Ramsey, Jack Wilshere, Carlos Vela and Niklas Bendtner.

The amount of talent that Arsenal possesses is staggering. Many of the players fielded last night were essentially C Team players with little or no first team experience. Yet the team still clobbers Sheffield United six nil. Unbelievable.