06/02/2026

SPORTS FRIDAY | FEB 6, 2026

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Arsenal ‘can win the quadruple’

ARSENAL have been told they can win the quadru ple but only if they learn one key lesson that has plagued them under Mikel Arteta. The Gunners booked their spot in the Carabao Cup final after Kai Havertz scored the only goal of the second leg with the final kick of the game against his old club to seal a 4-2 aggregate victory over Chelsea. It will be Arsenal’s first final since they won the FA Cup in 2020, finally getting over the semifinal hurdle that had become somewhat of a curse under Arteta.

for you, and you can have a lot of quality, especially when you go far in a competition, but there’s a lot of quality in the other teams. “It’s in those moments when you have to be able to suffer. Arsenal must be able to suffer the moments or stages in a game where they don’t con trol the game. “They have to make it nice and tight. Close the spaces. Keep it compact. Then you start to play again to be as positive as possible.” – Express Newspapers Arteta defends Gunners style of play MIKEL ARTETA has launched a passionate defence of Arsenal’s style of play by revealing he has a “massive book of people” who feel his side are the “most exciting in Europe”. Arsenal are six points clear at the top of the Premier League, and through to the knockout stages of the Champions League as group winners after tasting victory in all eight of their matches. Arteta’s men are in next month’s Carabao Cup final after beating Chelsea 1 0 in the second leg of their semifinal at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday after holding a 3-2 advantage from the opening rubber. However, in some quarters, Arsenal have attracted criticism for their perceived reliance on goals from corners and set pieces. Fourteen of their 46 goals in the League this season have arrived from corners. But when put to Arteta that some critics have taken aim at his brand of football, the Spaniard replied: “I hear completely the opposite, all around Europe that we are the most exciting team in Europe. “The most goals, the most clean sheets, the most this. Maybe I have different resources? “I don’t know which people (have said that). You send me the names, the addresses, and the emails and maybe we can talk, but I can give you a massive book of all the people (who don’t think that).” The 2020 FA Cup remains the sole silverware of Arteta’s six-year reign, but it would appear unimaginable at this stage that his side would end another season empty-handed. The Carabao Cup may be significant with a meeting in the showpiece on March 15 against title rivals Manchester City. And Arteta knows winning the competition could prove a catalyst in his side’s trophy ambitions. He added: “You work to win many trophies, and the enjoyment that that brings; the confidence, the trust, the belief, and unlock something in you, and then you want more. “And it’s a cycle that you want to repeat constantly, and we still have to do that, and some of them, they’ve never done it, so it’s always a first time. “But the group is really convinced that we have the ability to do it. We’re also very conscious that that’s nothing, and we have to work every single day, and that’s all we focus on. “I expect the crowd (tomorrow) to be like it’s been all season, and the last few seasons, which is with us. We have had some incredible moments together, and we’ll be at Wembley together.” – The Independent Ű BY PHILIP DUNCAN

that we can do it. No, we will do it. It’s not just that they can do it. “They need everyone to say we can do it. Be as positive as possible. It’s not easy but you have to have that mindset. “You need to always be positive about these things while being realistic as well, and it is realistic. It’s possible. Yes, Arsenal can do it. They will do, I think. “But there’s a lot of competition. You will always have an opponent who wants to make life difficult

The Gunners are also top of the Champions League and still in the Champions League and FA Cup. With four trophies still firmly in the mix before the end of the season, Arsenal could become the first English club to win the quadruple. Speaking to BOYLE Sports , former Arsenal mid fielder Stefan Schwarz insisted that Arsenal can do exactly that: “Can Arsenal win the quadruple? Everything is possible, and if you have the chance to do it you have to be very positive. “I think the players have to say to themselves

Almost irreplaceable Casemiro

How Brazilian exposes Man United’s new vulnerability and will leave a sizeable gap in midfield T HE Stretford End songbook was focused on two defensive midfielders. The song celebrating Michael Carrick was, like the man himself, brought back from the past. Yet after the final whistle, after an injury-time winner, the name sung longest and loudest was that of Casemiro. He has started his long goodbye at Old Trafford. He has been talisman and transforma tive presence, laughing stock and fading force. Now it seems the Brazilian will go as a cult hero, and a man who will leave a sizeable gap in the midfield. Sunday’s 3-2 victory over Fulham offered two reasons why. There was already evidence this season of why United had become over reliant on a player who turns 34 this month. And if part of it lies in the drop-off between him and Manuel Ugarte, and the club’s decision not to strengthen the midfield last year is a con tributory factor, his importance is such that United can seem a Casemiro injury away from seeing their stirring bid for Champions League football disappear. Benjamin Sesko salvaged victory over Marco Silva’s side; it looked a formality when Casemiro, who rarely plays 90 minutes, went off. But Fulham pulled it back to 2-2. It was the third time this season that United have conceded twice after Casemiro’s second half substitution, against Brighton, Tottenham and now Fulham; that is made worse by the reality he played at least 70 minutes in each of those games. He is less mobile than he was but they can lose control when he goes off: maybe it is the aura or the experience of a serial Champions League winner. Or maybe it is simply Ugarte’s shortcomings. But United’s 2-0 lead had stemmed from Casemiro, too. He scored the first goal and, with a disguised pass, made the second. For a defen sive midfielder, he is a remarkably effective attacking midfielder. And, while United’s summer quest for mid field reinforcements will focus on other charac teristics, in that respect Casemiro is almost irre placeable. If he was signed to excel just outside his own 18-yard box, he has proved a potent penalty box presence at the other end: a fine finisher who can seem to have a striker’s ability to sniff out an opening and a magnetism that the ball gravitates to him. Ű BY RICHARD JOLLY

Casemiro’s goal was his 22nd in 148 games for United. By way of comparison, it is the num ber Marouane Fellaini, often used as a No. 10, got in 29 more games. Among holding midfielders, Casemiro is only two behind Carrick: but the current head coach played 316 more matches for United. Darren Fletcher, the previous interim, also struck 24 times, but made 194 more appear ances. Casemiro averages a goal ever 6.72 matches for United. It is significantly better than Paul Ince (one every 9.68) and Roy Keane (9.41), though each began his time at Old Trafford as more of a box-to-box midfielder. And if it reflects the way Casemiro can score from set-pieces – as he did against Fulham, heading in Bruno Fernandes’ freekick – there is the sense that he can deliver crucial contribu tions. The most significant of Casemiro’s 22 goals came in the 2023 Carabao Cup final, in a man of-the-match performance against Newcastle. The first of them was a 94th-minute equal iser against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. He does not often finish games now: when he did in 2023, he delivered a late double against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena. His last great European performance for United came in one of their most remark able ever, the 5-4 win over Lyon. Casemiro won Bruno Fernandes’ 114th-minute pen alty and assisted both Kobbie Mainoo’s 120th-minute equaliser and Harry

Maguire’s 121st-minute winner. It came in a third act to his United career that seems to ensure that he will get a fond farewell from fans. A £63 million (RM340m) signing who will leave on a free transfer, after costing the club in excess of £300,000 (RM1.62m) a week in wages, following a four-season stint with, so far, only one decent year may represent poor busi ness. But Casemiro was a catalyst in his debut campaign, a player who gave United confi dence and charisma. Then came an 18-month spell that bordered on the humiliating: when Erik ten Hag’s tactics seemed to leave a slower figure as a one-man midfield, exposed and embarrassed by oppo nents, when he was substituted at half-time against Liverpool after gifting them two goals, when he and Christian Eriksen were chosen as a double act against Newcastle’s faster, stronger midfield, when Jamie Carragher told him to “leave the football before the football leaves you”, when Ruben Amorim initially relegated him below Toby Collyer in the pecking order. Yet the last year has been restorative; proof of Casemiro’s character and fighting spirit as he has restored himself to the status of an auto matic choice. He is not the player he was at Real Madrid but, as the chants at Old Trafford show, he will leave quite a hole. The task is to find someone who can excel in midfield. The chances are that, whoever it is, they won’t be as much of a threat going forward as Casemiro. – The Independent