Wenger: No favourites for Carling Cup

Arsene Wenger has refused to concede that Arsenal are now favourites for the Carling Cup following Manchester United’s shock exit.

Arsenal breezed into the semi-finals with a 2-0 victory over Wigan Athletic on Tuesday, while United were stunned 4-0 at West Ham United.

The Gunners went ahead on the stroke of half-time courtesy of Latics captain Antolin Alcaraz’s own goal, and Nicklas Bendtner sealed the victory with a close-range effort in the 67th minute.

United’s exit means Arsenal will join West Ham and two of Birmingham City, Aston Villa, Ipswich Town and West Bromwich Albion in the semi-finals.

Despite Arsenal being considered the strongest of the remaining sides, Wenger said the Gunners cannot afford to take anything for granted.

“You have seen it in the Premier League, and tonight with West Ham, it can happen to Manchester United, to Chelsea and to us this season,” Wenger said.

“We have to accept there are no guarantees, even if we are in the semi-finals, that we will win the trophy. You have to fight in every single game to win.”

“We want to focus on the quality of our performances, and the rest will be the consequences of those performances.”

“The major trophies are the Champions League and the (domestic) championship, but if we can win this as well, we will take it.”

“We want to win trophies and be at the top, but you can only do as well as you can.”

“At the moment, we are at the end of November and are in quite a good position in all of the competitions.”

Wigan boss Roberto Martinez admitted his side had been outclassed by Arsenal, but felt the Latics had shown character throughout the tournament.

“It has been a great competition for us, but today was probably a game too many,” Martinez said.

“There were a couple of performances from players like James McArthur, Ben Watson and youngster Callum McManaman which were positive, but it was a tough night.”

“Sometimes you need to earn your own luck, and I don’t want us to be a team which feels sorry for ourselves.”

“Now is one of the key moments, we need to regroup and act like men.”

“We are short in numbers, but not in character.”

“It would be very easy to feel sorry for ourselves, but if we carry on working with levels have been showing, luck can change very quickly.”