Arsenal cruise past Newcastle

The night's two other ties between West Ham United and Stoke City and Aston Villa and Burnley went in extra-time, with both West Ham and Villa progressing without the need for penalties.

GEAR:Get 10% off Arsenal home, away and retro shirts here, courtesy of Kitbag

Despite the lure of a Europa League place for the winners of England's "third trophy", most clubs continue to treat it as a chance to try out young players and give run-outs to squad members - as well as those on the comeback trail from injury.

This season the Arsenal manager has actually fielded stronger teams than in recent years but his line-up at St James' Park still showed nine changes from their weekend Premier victory over Manchester City.

Bendtner, making his first start of the season after recovering from a groin problem, thumped a header goalwards and Ryan Taylor's attempt to clear it ended with the ball rebounding off his goalkeeper Tim Krul and over the line.

West Ham briefly lifted some of the gloom surrounding the Premier League's bottom club with their win.

Gregg Davies is the Chief Sub Editor of FourFourTwo magazine, joining the team in January 2008 and spending seven years working on the website. He supports non-league behemoths Hereford and commentates on Bulls matches for Radio Hereford FC. His passions include chocolate hobnobs and attempting to shoehorn Ronnie Radford into any office conversation.