Wednesday 28 October 2015 11:08, UK
Arsene Wenger rued a "below-par" Arsenal performance in the Capital One Cup defeat to Sheffield Wednesday - and declared his youngsters not yet up to it.
The Gunners were left stunned as they suffered their biggest defeat to a lower league side in 56 years as goals Ross Wallace, Lucas Joao and Sam Hutchinson booked Sheffield Wednesday a place in the quarter-finals.
Wenger was quick to praise the Championship side - but delivered a scathing assessment of his young players.
"We were not at the level that is requested to play a team of the quality of Sheffield Wednesday," he told Sky Sports.
"In the end we have to congratulate them. They were sharper quicker and more decisive than us.
"We had a lot of the ball but we didn't create anything, especially in the middle of the park."
Wenger made eight changes to his side, but still named the likes of Petr Cech, Mathieu Debuchy, Oxlade-Chamberlain and Olivier Giroud in his starting XI.
Arsenal handed debuts to Alex Iwobi, Glen Kamara, Krystian Bielik, and Ismael Bennacer but Wenger admitted the first-team opportunity came too soon for his young charges.
He told Sky Sports: "[The level] was too high for them. They are not ready to play at this level. None of them [are ready]."
