Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has confirmed Theo Walcott sprained his ankle in the 1-0 win over Stoke and will miss Sunday’s Carling Cup final against Birmingham.

Walcott was bundled over by Dean Whitehead on the edge of the box in the 68th minute, but referee Peter Walton waved play on. The 21-year-old stayed on the ground, clearly in pain, before being carried off on a stretcher to be replaced by Denilson.

“He has an ankle sprain and he is out for how long I cannot tell you, for Sunday he is definitely out,” Wenger said.

The Frenchman also said Cesc Fabregas suffered a hamstring injury and will be assessed by the club on Thursday, having lasted just 14 minutes before being replaced by Andrey Arshavin.

”Fabregas is a hamstring problem, we will assess tomorrow, tonight it is impossible to say how serious,” he added. ”It is of course a concern that he [Fabregas] is injured but it happens unfortunately. He was very upset. I am as well. But it is not his fault or mine. It is part of sport. ‘It’s strange when it happens early in the game but we have to face it. We did the job after that in a very professional way.”

Fabregas took to Twitter to vow he would do his utmost to be fit for the final.

He wrote: “I dont know if I’ll make Sunday or not, but all I know is that from this moment to Sunday 16:30 I won’t sleep if it’s necessary. I’ve waited too long to captain a final for Arsenal and I won’t give up till the last second.”

Wenger also believes that his side showed a maturity tonight that has been lacking since he last won a league championship in 2004.

”I think we have matured, certainly, because we won a game tonight when we were less creative and fluent, with intelligence and calm and that is what has changed,” he said. ”One or two years ago we would have dropped points. Tonight they said they couldn’t make mistakes. We must take a lot of credit because of that.”

The result came as a relief after Sunday’s 1-1 draw against Leyton Orient and Wenger urged his team to now kick on in the league.

”This kind of wins shows that your team is really hungry for success,” he added. ”We were less sharp on the creative side but you could tell that my side didn’t want to make a mistake and that was a very positive sign for me.”

Potters boss Tony Pulis was proud of the way his 10th-placed team held their own and was upset not to have grabbed a point.

”For the first 10 minutes we looked like rabbits in headlights,” Pulis said. ”They looked like scoring from any phase of play and it looked as though it was going to be a long night. Gradually we got into the game and we were desperately disappointed not to get something from it in the end.”

The home crowd booed Stoke captain Ryan Shawcross every time he touched the ball because of the leg-breaking tackle he made on Gunners midfielder Aaron Ramsey at the Britannia Stadium this time last year.

This was the first time the two clubs had met since the game and Pulis was delighted with the way that the defender performed.

”He did smashing. I was really pleased with Ryan tonight,” Pulis said. ”He didn’t do anything wrong tonight. The incident with Ramsey was very unfortunate for two young players, for Ramsey because of the injury, and for Ryan too because of the tag he will have against him because of the tackle but he has just got on with his job.”

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All square in disappointing contest

Manchester United will have no safety net at Old Trafford in three weeks’ time after they ground out a goalless draw in their Champions League last-16 first leg meeting with Marseille at the Stade Velodrome.

United have failed to clinch victory from similar positions before.

However, they will still be favourites to progress against a limited Marseille outfit, even if life would have been so much better for the visitors had a Darren Fletcher snap-shot been able to break the deadlock in a drab contest.

Ferguson sprang a pre-match surprise when he opted to select Darron Gibson ahead of Paul Scholes. Presumably, the United boss was looking to utilise Gibson’s extra energy in midfield, where he had already been deprived of Anderson and Park Ji-sung, two of seven first-team stars to miss the trip.

To that end, the Irishman did his job during a pretty poor first half.

However, given that shooting from long-range is such a significant part of Gibson’s game, it was strange that he should elect to pass rather than go for goal after an intricate move had set him up on the angle of the penalty area.

It was one of the few moments of invention as United treated what appeared to be limited opponents with caution.

Brandao went for goal with an overhead kick after taking Gabriel Heinze’s cross down on his chest. However, not only was the Brazilian’s effort nothing like Wayne Rooney’s wonder strike, it didn’t even match that of Crawley’s Matt Tubbs at Old Trafford on Saturday.

After making his peace with Ferguson and United yesterday with his contrite admission of regret, Heinze engaged in a running battle with in-form Nani that he just about emerged on top from.

The Portugal winger did blaze one early effort over and he was involved in United’s best chance of the half.

It was not in the way he would have wanted though as his woeful corner was only half-cleared to Fletcher.

The Scot had little time to pick his spot. But the shot was clean enough and as it left his boot, keeper Steve Mandanda initially appeared wrong-footed. Mandanda is clearly blessed with quick feet though, and was able to get back in position to make the save before the ball crossed his goal-line.

Marseille offered little evidence of how they won the French title last season.

It eventually came at the start of the second period, when Lucho Gonzalez seized on Berbatov’s failure to control deep inside the United half and whipped over a curling cross for Brandao, whose firm header was directed straight at Edwin Van der Sar.

Marseille drew confidence from that effort though and pressed forward, with Andre Ayew in the thick of the action.

The Ghana international started with an attempted volley that he smashed high in the air.

Ayew then had a shot blocked before a kind bounce from Lucho’s deflected effort provided a clear sight at goal.

The angle was not great though and with Brandao charging in at the far-post, Ayew seemed caught in two minds and in the end neither threatened United’s goal or to pick out his team-mate.

Through all this, Scholes remained on the bench, a passive spectator, the debate in his mind about whether he could make a meaningful contribution next season doubtless continuing.

He was eventually introduced for Gibson with just 18 minutes remaining.

Scholes’ willingness to get hold of the ball instantly brought some direction to United’s attacks.

Berbatov fed Patrice Evra, then continued his run to collect a return pass from the full-back before firing a long-range effort over.

Berbatov almost managed to thread a pass through to Nani but Mandanda pounced.

What appeared to be a golf ball was thrown into the United area as they set themselves up to defend a Marseille corner three minutes from the end.

UEFA might take a dim view of that, although if nothing else it provided a talking point as a desperately disappointing contest petered out.

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