Arsenal welcomed back Patrick Vieira but it was the young guns who stole the show as they trounced Wolves 5-1 to make it through to the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup.
Arsene Wenger gave a host of youngsters their debuts, but from the opening minute they took control of the match against a full-strength Wolves side.
The visitors' manager Dave Jones made his intentions clear by choosing his best eleven, but they were no match for a well organised, energetic and ambitious Arsenal.
Kanu had five efforts on goal inside the opening 20 minutes, one of which he somehow passed wide with the goal completely vacant.
The Gunners took the lead after 24 minutes through Jeremie Aliadiere who latched onto a poor back pass by Lee Naylor, who was being pressurised by Kanu.
The 20-year-old attacker darted into the right side of the Wolves penalty area to shoot across Andy Marshall and into the bottom left corner of the net.
Arsenal continued to dominate particularly after the interval, when Marshall was called into action to pull off a string of fine saves within the first few minutes of the restart.
Kanu deservedly doubled Arsenal's lead after 68 minutes when he met a cross from Sylvain Wiltord, which he scooped up with his left leg to take the ball away from the defender and goalkeeper before stabbing it home with his right from close range.
Aliadiere was again on target three minutes later to score the best goal of the evening when the ball was played out of Arsenal's defence to Kanu, who cleverly knocked the ball forward into the path of the breaking young striker, who ran at the back-peddling Wolves defence before unleashing a pin point shot into the bottom right corner of the goal.
Wiltord, himself back after injury, was not having the best of games but got on the scoresheet in the 79th minute when Vieira slipped through a defence-splitting pass for his French team-mate to fire home through the legs of the on-rushing Marshall.
The hardworking Alex Rae grabbed a consolation after 81 minutes for Wolves when he caught Arsenal napping to fire a rocket of a shot into the roof of the net, giving Graham Stack no chance.
Arsenal's youngest ever player, became their youngest ever scorer in the 88th minute when Cesc Fabregas burst forward from midfield to meet a cross from Wiltord and rolled the ball into the net from close range.