[Barclays Asia Trophy] It's Toffees vs The Gunners in Final...

The Barclays Asia Trophy will be a battle between Arsenal and Everton on this coming Saturday after cleared their hurdles along the way.

The Gunners booked their ticket after shutout the Singapore Selection four goals to none. The Toffees, on the other hand, defeated Stoke City on penalties to confirm theirs after a goal-less outing.

Lakaku's (right) effort was ruled offside 

Peter Crouch (25) utilised his advantage to the fullest

Belgian striker Romelu Lakaku would have put the Goodison Park tenants on the pole position before the interval if not for his attempt to be ruled offside.

With several close exchanges that failed to yield any dividend forced the opener to head into penalties and resulted Everton proceed to the final on a scoreline of five to four with 'keeper Tim Howard made a crucial save during shoot-out.

Arsenal did not field their strongest lineup against the Singapore Selection with less than half of those started by manager Arsene Wenger are their regular starters.

Close attention on Stoke City's Joselu (11)

Still it didn't deter the enthusiastic support showered on them by their faithfuls whom some of them flew in from nearby countries like the Philippines, China, etc. While the Singapore Selection drawn some of their backers from both Everton and Stoke City supporters who stayed behind for the eight-thirty kickoff.

It was resilience first half performance by the home side to keep things checked before teenager Chuba Akpom opened the account at the half-hour mark which stayed that way till the half time.

Selection's Baihakki Khaizan's attempt to foil an attack

England international Jack Wilshere put his name on the scoreboard at the top of the hour when he converted from the spot to double the lead for the Londoners that wasn't until another penalty in the 75th saw Akpom netted his second of the night.

The 19-year-old England youth international completed his hat-trick four minutes after that penalty with a clinical finishing off a header to wrap things up at Kallang in front of a crowd of 29,867.

Selection trying to contain Gunners' threat in box 

(L-R) Arsenal's hat-trick hero Chuba Akpom with Madhu Mohana

"Performance-wise, it was good for Arsenal for showcasing their youth talents," said Mr Abdul Razak who saw the match."The first goal was well-taken by Akpom but I thought it was a lucky effort that deflected off Izwan (Mahbud),

"It was good outing for both (Sirina) Camara and (Nicholas) Velez with Madhu (Mohana) did a decent job at the backline. However, I think the Singapore (Selection) need to buck up their performance by being more adventurous up front than staying back to defend which zonal defending would be an ideal option than the one-on-one marking we saw today." added the trainer who spoke to this blogger after the game.