Man United 1 Arsenal 0: Be careful what you wish for. Everyone who called for a meeting between Manchester United and Arsenal that was not full of violence and spite nearly got their way, but they might well have regretted it.

Apart from a nasty clash between Robin van Persie and Kieran Richardson, this was a meekly trivial tie.

David Bellion's goal within seconds of the kick-off put United into the semi-finals. They were never at much risk of being overhauled.

The depth of a club's squad is not always to be measured by head count. These were the fringe players of United and Arsenal, but there was no marked resemblance between them.

The visitors had a line-up with half-a-dozen teenagers and 10 players aged 21 or under. If there were to be any more food fights, jelly and ice cream might have been on the menu of missiles.

Alex Ferguson's team were far more mature. They were, to sum it up, captained by a man who collected his 50th cap for England at Euro 2004. Phil Neville could look around and see a World Cup-winner in Kleberson ready to assist.

This, however, was no underhand trick by the Old Trafford manager.

It was a natural selection at a club so stacked with experience that one of the recurring problems is how best to blend a first XI.

Arsenal appreciated that very well, but foreknowledge is no help and precocity was absent when they lost the opener in 20 seconds.

It was a goal that dripped with nervousness. The Highbury side could not hold possession as the 17-year-old Ivory Coast centre-half Johan Djourou slipped, Gael Clichy, back after a dozen matches missed through injury, could not cover effectively because he too lost his balance.

Bellion was clear. Even he looked to be short of full readiness but Manuel Alumnia could not keep out a drive hit almost directly at him.

There the reasonable excuses run out.

The Spanish goalkeeper, at 27, was by far the oldest figure in the line-up and he ought to have been baling out gauche Arsenal instead of sinking them.

That error was almost unforced, but United still deserved credit. In previous rounds, Manchester City and Everton could offer scant resistance to the verve of Highbury youngsters who then seemed possessed of icy calm. The first half may have been mediocre but United were busy hampering Arsenal's efforts to recover their poise.

Richardson could well have settled the quarter-final in the 34th minute, but Almunia reacted well on this occasion at least to get down to his right and parry. Any encounter between the clubs these days is full of sub-texts, however, and any meekness that hung around Arsenal could not last indefinitely.

A berth in the semi-finals of the League Cup was fairly attractive but bragging rights are a gleaming prize when the sides face one another at present.

Arsenal were not without hope that they could finish the evening crowing. Shortly before the interval, Jermaine Pennant, one of the more hardened members of the team, had the cool technique, shortly before the interval, to pilot a free-kick over the wall. Tim Howard impressed by diving to push it away for a corner.

A certain degree of hostility would not entirely have been rued by spectators in search of a grievance to keep them warm. They got it with the second-half barely a minute old. Van Persie's attempted tackle on Richardson, with the elbow in evidence, was extremely crude and the midfielder reacted by taking a swipe at him.

Only yellow cards were administered. The referee Mark Halsey likes to listen to Billy Joel's Just The Way You Are before games and perhaps the song reminds him to be tolerant of human imperfections. More probably, he chose clemency after weighing the odds of anarchy descending if two men were sent off.

Order was soon restored and the game got back to its basic dullness. Arturo Lupoli, so sharp earlier in this competition, could not pare down the resistance of a knowledgeable United back four. Ferguson's team, in fact, were barely under pressure at all.

Storms were not crashing down on the visitor's penalty area either, but United held the lead and could attack out of curiosity instead of necessity. Arsene Wenger made the first substitutions of the night, illustrating that Arsenal needed to change a game whose character appeared to have been set by its opening seconds.

Guardian Service

MAN UTD: Howard, Phil Neville, Brown, O'Shea, Fortune, Eagles (Rossi 79), Djemba-Djemba, Miller, Richardson, Kleberson (Jones 79), Bellion. Subs Not Used: Ricardo, Pique, Ebanks-Blake. Booked: Richardson. Goals: Bellion 1.

ARSENAL: Almunia, Hoyte, Senderos, Djourou, Clichy (Karbassiyoon 81), Pennant, Flamini, Larsson (Cregg 72), Owusu-Abeyie, Lupoli (Smith 68), Van Persie. Subs Not Used: Simek, Wright. Booked: Van Persie.

Referee: M Halsey (Lancashire).