Gunners comeback stuns Reading

Arsenal completed an extraordinary comeback to beat Reading 7-5 in a barely believable Capital One Cup fourth-round tie at the Madjeski Stadium.

A youthful Gunners line-up recovered from 4-0 down inside the opening half to snatch an unlikely win when Marouane Chamakh completed the scoring in the 31st minute of extra-time.

Remarkably there was still more to come as Marouane Chamakh put the seal on a breathless encounter moments later when he lobbed beleaguered Reading goalkeeper Adam Federici for his second.

Arsenal had only forced extra-time with the last kick in normal time when Carl Jenkinson fired home after Chris Gunter had blocked Walcott’s effort.

It was a pulsating end to a contest that had looked over following the home side’s early blitz.

Veteran Jason Roberts got the ball rolling before a Laurent Koscielny own goal and Mikele Liegertwood’s strike, which debutant goalkeeper Damian Martinez helped into the net, fired Reading 3-0 up after just 20 minutes.

The Royals were in dreamland when Noel Hunt then outjumped his marker on 37 minutes but a Walcott goal on the stroke of half-time gave Arsenal the faintest of hope.

Olivier Giroud boosted belief when he headed in moments after coming on before Koscielny made up for his earlier blunder to leave Arsenal with only the six minutes of injury time to level.

They did, in the final minute of added time, although there was some confusion over the goal.

Theo Walcott’s initial strike was blocked by Gunter, Jenkinson ensuring extra-time by smashing in the loose ball.

Arsenal led for the first time when Chamakh scored his first goal in almost a year after 13 minutes of extra-time but Pavel Pogrebnyak continued the drama with a 116th-minute leveller.

But Reading saw the game snatched away again by Walcott and Chamakh in injury-time.

Reading were one of four Premier League side’s to exit the competition tonight with Wigan, Southampton and Sunderland falling to lower-league opposition.

Wigan were beaten 4-2 on penalties by League Two outfit Bradford after the match ended goalless.

Southampton boss Nigel Adkins was left to rue his decision to make 11 changes as they crashed 3-0 at Leeds.

Michael Tonge gave Leeds a 34th minute lead before their progress to the quarter-finals was assured late on through El-Hadji Diouf and Luciano Becchio.

Sunderland were beaten 1-0 by north east rivals Middlesbrough as Australian striker Scott McDonald scored his third goal in two games.

There was also late drama at Swindon as Christian Benteke scored a 90th minute winner for Aston Villa.

Benteke and Gabriel Agbonlahor seemingly had Villa on course for a comfortable night but Miles Storey struck twice in the 78th and 81st minutes.

Villa responded to the danger though as Benteke grabbed his second with time almost over.