Wenger: 'If I don't play them here where would I play them?'

"I know we have not won a trophy since 2005 but I do not consider that if you win the Carling Cup you will be going on a trophy parade. It is a competition for our younger players. If I don't play them here where would I play them?

"We played in the quarter-final of the Champions League last season against top teams. Playing in those matches is 10 times harder than playing in the Carling Cup."

"We have chosen always to go with our young players and it is a good experience for them. I believe we have many injured players, we have the Champions League and the championship and we have decided always to develop our young players in this competition."

"We lost one or two balls in our half that we paid for. They scored two great goals and I think the last goal was a bit anecdotic but they had more quality in the final third."

"For big parts in the game I didn't feel that but they looked dangerous in the final third, they had power that we did not have. But in fairness I believe as well our young players are not used to playing at that level and got tired slowly after an hour and you could feel that had a bearing in the game. We started to lose some balls that we're not used to."