Leeds United’s Jermaine Beckford scored the only goal of the game as Old Trafford witnessed an unbelievable upset of Manchester United on Sunday.
Forty-two league places separated the two teams in the English Leagues standings following the fall of Leeds from the top tier of English soccer in the last decade.
Manchester United had never lost at this stage of the competition or been knocked out by a lower League team in Sir Alex Ferguson’s 23-year reign. But Leeds demonstrated why they are at the top of Division One (two tiers below the Premier League) with an historic victory.
Leeds earned the win by playing attacking soccer and also valiantly defending against the sustained pressure from Manchester United.
Leeds came into the match on a 15-match unbeaten run but probably thought that it was going to come to an end. But Beckford got away from defender Wes Brown to get on the end of Jonathan “Jonny” Howson’s lofted pass. He then tucked the ball in at the far post in the 19th minute.
Wayne Rooney, who got past Leeds keeper Casper Ankergren, was denied by an excellent goal-line clearance from Jason Crowe as he ran back to the goal at full speed.
Leeds had chances to increase the lead as Robert Snodgrass rattled the woodwork with a free kick.
Pundits named the clash the “War of the Roses” (English Civil War) as the fixture has had much prominence in history with many memorable encounters, and this was certainly one of them.
Leeds boss Simon Grayson told BBC Radio Leeds, “Obviously I am very proud of my team and what they’ve done today.”
West Ham 1, Arsenal 2
Arsenal came back from being a goal down for most of the match to score two goals in five minutes to squeeze past West Ham in their third-round battle on Sunday.
Alessandro Diamanti beat the offside trap in first half injury time and deservedly scored to put the home side up, as they had run the show up to that point.
The second half was a different story, with West Ham starting brightly, but Arsenal dictating the play as the game progressed.
Aaron Ramsey got the leveler in the 78th minute when he shot on the turn-in at the near post.
The winner came when Eduardo managed to get above the Hammers defense to head in a high floater past a hesitant goalkeeper Robert Green. Green had done well to keep his team in the match by keeping out efforts from Fran Merida, Carlos Vela, and Eduardo previously.
Arsenal’s Wenger told the BBC, “We needed to be patient today because West Ham were very committed and in the first half we did find our fluency.”
“West Ham did fight very hard I must say.”
Hammers boss Gianfranco Zola told the BBC, “If we play with this kind of attitude and maintain it we will do better.”
West Ham can now focus their efforts on avoiding relegation from the Premier League.
Arsenal will now focus on Wednesday’s home match Premier League against Bolton to try to get to within one point of Chelsea.
