Guardian:
‘United's 2-0 fourth-round victory against Crystal Palace last night courtesy of goals from Louis Saha and Kieran Richardson was as low-key as you are likely to get at Old Trafford, but the end result of the victory is United's last- eight pairing with the Gunners.
‘Strained relations between the Premiership's most successful clubs took a further battering as United tried to land Arsenal in hot water with a damning dossier of the affair. Those attempts failed as the FA snubbed United's evidence.
‘Last night, Ferguson continued to stick with his policy of fielding a mixture of reserves and young prospects, tried and tested against Crewe in the last round. Having frustrated their fans with a paltry 11 goals in 12 Premiership games this season, the dam cracked a little last night as goals from Saha and Richardson saw off Palace.
‘Judging by United's performances in the Premiership this season, the Carling Cup may yet, embarrassingly, turn out to be their best hope of silverware this campaign.
‘Of the side that failed to score against City at the weekend, only Saha remained to face Palace. His presence in the starting side summed up the difficult 10 months he has spent at Old Trafford since his £12.85m arrival from Fulham in January.
‘Bought as the man to ease the goalscoring burden on Van Nistelrooy, he has now fallen to fourth in the pecking order behind the summer signings Alan Smith and Wayne Rooney because of a series of injury problems.
‘However, Saha highlighted his class with a sublime opening goal which ended his seven-month goal drought. Chesting the ball down from Quinton Fortune's cross, he beat two defenders before threading a left-foot shot past the goalkeeper Julian Speroni at the near post.’
Indie:
‘Manchester United's reserves answered Alex Ferguson's call for the goals that had been missing from his first-choice side's Premiership performances of late to take their place in the last eight of the League Cup.
‘Louis Saha and Kieran Richardson were the scorers against an equally understrength Crystal Palace, who kept nagging away in the second half without suggesting they could snatch back the tie.
‘Having done what their manager had asked of them by showing their senior colleagues the way to goal, United visibly relaxed after that, to the point of indulging in a spot of showboating.
‘As Palace threatened to get back into the game in the second half when Howard saved well with his feet from Dougie Freedman and Brown cleared the follow-up effort from the half-time substitute, Vassilis Lakis, off the line. The visitors had a couple of other glimmers of opportunity but could not find the strike that would have put pressure on United.’
Times:
‘The League Cup got interesting after everyone stopped playing last night. Arsenal must return to Old Trafford in three weeks’ time for the next saga of their on-going feud with Manchester United. “The FA will be delighted with that,” Sir Alex Ferguson, the United manager, chuckled. “Oh dearie me. At least we’ve got them at home.”
‘Pizza delivery companies in the Old Trafford area will also be thrilled at the prospect of the heavyweights going head to head again after their Premiership duel last month disintegrated into a food-throwing contest in the players’ tunnel after the final whistle and descended into verbal warfare thereafter. The FA is sure to accelerate the meeting that Geoff Thompson, its chairman, has called for between the clubs in a bid to preclude the ferocious rivalry spilling over again.
‘United fielded a second-string team last night as they beat Crystal Palace 2-0, with Louis Saha, the one survivor from the goalless draw with Manchester City on Sunday, scoring his first goal for seven months. Van Nistelrooy was unsurprisingly left out of the team, having completed his three-match domestic suspension for the foul he committed on Ashley Cole in the 2-0 victory over the Premiership champions on October 24.
‘Both managers must this morning be weighing up what kind of team they will put out for the meeting. The prospect of Ferguson seeing his strongest team being beaten by Arsenal’s reserves might just be too much for the United manager to countenance.
‘Even if reports of United’s decline have been exaggerated, Saha’s relief after his superb finish midway through the first half spoke volumes. “He’d not scored since April,” Ferguson said, “and strikers are always thinking that way. When they’re scoring all the time, they’re thinking they’ll never stop. I’m really pleased for him.”
‘Only in this competition could selection feel like demotion. Saha, in need of shooting practice after a litany of injuries and missed opportunities in recent times, was the only player on the field at kick-off who had started in the Premiership last weekend. His need to hone his skills was obvious; of all United’s misfiring strikers, the Frenchman required a goal.
‘Saha showed wonderful skill to chest down Quinton Fortune’s flighted cross beyond the far post, check back inside and drill home his shot left-footed. Kieran Richardson scored the clinching goal, his second for the club. If this was a routine fourth-round victory for United, the quarter-final is bound to be rather more dramatic.’
Telegraph:
‘It was hardly one of those overwhelming nights of absorbing football and high drama at Old Trafford, but after six months without a Manchester United goal that fact will matter little to Louis Saha. That he broke his duck at last to usher his side into the Carling Cup quarter-finals will matter a great deal more to the £12.25 million striker.
‘Sir Alex Ferguson has not yet started fielding his best sides for the Carling Cup but it hardly escaped the attention last night that this team was a long way from being an outing for the club's promising youngsters. The teenagers were on the bench - Chris Eagles and Jonathan Spector among them - but many of the team that the United manager started with have a very different status at the club.
‘They varied from the out-of-favour, like Phil Neville, to the out-of-form, Tim Howard. There were those who have lost their way - step forward John O'Shea - and then there were those, like Kleberson, who never seem to have found it in the first place. What was surprising was just how many of them there were: easily good enough for a Carling Cup team but only one good enough for the Premiership.
‘That was Saha, the only representative from the 22 players who began last night's game who started in a Premiership match at the weekend. Iain Dowie simply cannot afford any injuries to a first team who had suffered just one defeat in eight games before last night. Ferguson's problem is different, he just has too many squad players who occupy that strange hinterland of mediocrity just beyond the first team.
‘It will be hard for United to ignore the fact that Arsenal's increasingly potent-looking collection of academy players have beaten two much better Premiership sides than Palace to reach the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup. For United, the Carling Cup has become the last chance saloon for the very weakest in the squad.
‘On last night's evidence it looked like Kleberson was first in the queue for the swing doors. The game slowed to barely a walking pace and neither the Brazilian nor Eric Djemba-Djemba took this precious opportunity, in front of their manager, to awaken it.’