Carling Cup: Arsene Wenger sets sights on trophy after Tottenham victory
He may have chosen to serve his one-match touchline ban at White Hart Lane last night, but Arsène Wenger still cut an anxious figure from the stands.
The reason? Well, the Arsenal manager hasn’t won a trophy for nearly five and a half years now – the Gunners longest run without winning any silverware since 1987 - and his starting XI against bitter rivals Tottenham in the Carling Cup third round was a statement of intent.
The message was clear: Wenger and Arsenal are in the Carling Cup to win it this year.
Over the past decade, Wenger has used the third round of the competition to field a team of teenagers. In the earlier rounds it’s tended to pay off in emphatic fashion, but his inexperienced group of players would inevitably be found out on an annual basis, leaving the Arsenal faithful frustrated after wasting another glorious chance to win a trophy.
Last night was different, though. With just two teenagers in the starting line-up – one of them being the hugely talented Jack Wilshere – Wenger sent out a far more experienced team against Spurs than he would usually do at this stage of the competition.
Against lesser opposition it’s possible that the Arsenal manager would have been confident in his youngsters’ ability to get the job done, particularly if they were playing at the Emirates Stadium. However, the likes of Tomas Rosicky, Samir Nasri and Emmanuel Eboue all started last night, while Andrey Arshavin and Marouane Chamakh were sent on in the second half to get the job done.
It had the desired effect. Wenger’s side dominated extra-time, scoring three goals in the added 30 minutes, to make the final score 4-1 to the Gunners.
The Arsenal manager hailed the “outstanding” efforts of his players, who will now believe that they can go on and win their first trophy since May 2005.
With competition so fierce in the Champions League and Premier League in particular, Arsenal’s best bet for silverware would appear to be either the Carling Cup or the FA Cup. However, the north-London club possess a squad capable of challenging for major honours both domestically and in Europe. The crucial thing is avoiding injuries to key players – something they’ve been unable to do in recent seasons.
And already this season Arsenal have been the most injury-hit club in the top flight. A total of eight players are currently nursing various injuries, making Wenger’s summer acquisitions suddenly appear extremely shrewd indeed.
The signing of Chamakh has proven crucial after both Robin van Persie and Nicklas Bendtner picked up injuries, while Laurent Koscielny and Sebastien Squillaci have provided essential defensive cover at the start of the season with Thomas Vermaelen out with an Achilles injury.
The big blow from last weekend was the hamstring injury to captain Cesc Fàbregas, but Wenger will be looking towards the youthful Wilshere to provide the creativity and spark from midfield in his absence.
Questions still persist over the goalkeeper, though. Lukasz Fabianski was at fault for Robbie Keane’s equaliser last night, but Manuel Almunia has started the season surprisingly well.
Wenger’s reluctance to splash the cash on a new ‘keeper could still backfire on the Frenchman later this season. The Arsenal fans made it clear over the summer months that they were unhappy with the current group of goalkeepers at the Emirates and demanded a new number one.
But when it became clear that Mark Schwarzer would be staying at Fulham, Wenger put the chequebook back into his pocket.
Whether or not this will hamper Arsenal’s bid for silverware for yet another year remains to be seen.
In the meantime, it seems that the Arsenal manager has put the emphasis on blooding youth temporarily to one side, in favour of doing the one thing which satisfies supporters, chairman and owners more than anything else: winning trophies.
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