Why Arsene Wenger needs to take the Capital One Cup seriously

Basically, an article I wrote following the latest COC draw. We need to win the trophy (even if it's not a major cup) for many reasons:

It'll lift off the pressure, remove the trophyless tag, instil a winning habit/mentality, provide the springboard for further success:

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Arsenal are in the quarterfinals of the league cup – now known as the Capital One cup – for the 10th year in a row. This year, it was achieved in dramatic fashion as the Gunners came back from 4-0 down against Reading away from home to record a huge 7-5 win with Theo Walcott contributing with a hattrick of goals and assists. With an away game against Bradford City ahead in the quarterfinals, Arsene Wenger’s men should really take the competition seriously now.

It’s well known that Arsenal are suffering from a trophy drought with their last trophy being the FA Cup win in 2005, however, it is also well known that the league cup is low on Wenger’s priorities as he reiterated in the recent AGM that qualifying for the Champions League is more important than winning any domestic cup. Wenger has used the competition over the years to help his youngsters and fringe players get game time as well as experience and has lead his side to two finals in the last 5 years, however, being on the losing side in both games.

Now, with a relatively easy quarterfinal tie along with the fact that strong teams such as Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham are no longer in the competition, Arsenal have a real chance of finally ending the trophy drought, maybe winning even more in the near future.

Of course, the Capital One Cup isn’t really a major trophy but it still is one regardless and potentially winning the competition could really provide the springboard for greater things at Arsenal – for example, Manchester United went on a barren run, not winning a league title for 3 years as well as finishing trophyless in the 2004-2005 season. However, a 4-0 thrashing over Wigan in the Carling Cup final the next season won them a trophy as Sir Alex Ferguson’s men went on to win three Premier League titles in a row as well as a Champions League the following seasons. As with Jose Mourinho in his time with Chelsea, having won the Carling Cup – his first trophy with the Blues – provided the platform for Chelsea to go on and win two league titles, another Carling Cup and an FA Cup under the Portuguese manager.

As it is, Chelsea remain the only true competitor left in the competition and as long as Arsenal don’t underestimate their competition, there should be no reason why the Gunners can’t lift the trophy. Winning the Capital One Cup would be the springboard for greater success, remove the trophyless tag from the Gunners as well as lift off pressure and give the fans something to cheer about – not to mention, instil a winning mentality and habit which most of the current squad lack.

Taking the competition seriously would immensely benefit Arsenal – beat Bradford City and Wenger is just three games away from winning a trophy.

http://www.ibtimes.com/sportsnet/arsenal-news-capital-one-cup-reach-arsene-wenger-should-take-competition-seriously-857303

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Good article and something i was thinking about as well. Yes COC is like 5th in our priority, but it will still be nice to win it. It's "something" afterall

Will have a read later.

RealGunner wrote:Good article and something i was thinking about as well. Yes COC is like 5th in our priority, but it will still be nice to win it. It's "something" afterall

This. What i dont like about wenger, is when he justifies not winning this (or the fa cup) because we get top 4. If i could choose one, id pick top 4 obviously, but this isnt an "either/or" "one or the other" situation, we should get the champions league place AND one of the trophies, NO EXCUSES for faliure, no "oh but we got champions league place", that is a LOSERS mentality

Wenger is one of those " glass half full people " Obviously he would love to win every cup, but if we don't, he looks at the other positives.

I think we have a squad good enough to do both things and not choose between either one. We did concede 5, but it was the same team bar 2 players who did also score 7. I don't see why we can't win the COC

we played our best team in the cup two seasons ago and we still lost

lmao still can't believe that.

If only cesc had played

I dislike Wenger's rather flippant attitude towards the Carling Cup and FA Cup as well. Yes, in the grand scheme of things they aren't as important as Champions League qualification, but they're there to be won and still count as silverware at the end of the day. The experience of going all the way in a tournament and winning in a final is still invaluable for a squad unaccustomed to doing so.

The chance of winning it this year is high, so I really hope Wenger puts out a good team to play Bradford. There's no point in throwing away this chance now.

GoonerJay29 wrote:I dislike Wenger's rather flippant attitude towards the Carling Cup and FA Cup as well. Yes, in the grand scheme of things they aren't as important as Champions League qualification, but they're there to be won and still count as silverware at the end of the day. The experience of going all the way in a tournament and winning in a final is still invaluable for a squad unaccustomed to doing so.

The chance of winning it this year is high, so I really hope Wenger puts out a good team to play Bradford. There's no point in throwing away this chance now.

Completely agree, his attitude towards breeds the poor performances we have see recently in the cup. He shouldn't come out and say that in front of the players. It just sends the wrong message, the players can go out there completely unmotivated and perform poorly in the cup.

GoonerJay29 wrote:I dislike Wenger's rather flippant attitude towards the Carling Cup and FA Cup as well. Yes, in the grand scheme of things they aren't as important as Champions League qualification, but they're there to be won and still count as silverware at the end of the day. The experience of going all the way in a tournament and winning in a final is still invaluable for a squad unaccustomed to doing so.

The chance of winning it this year is high, so I really hope Wenger puts out a good team to play Bradford. There's no point in throwing away this chance now.

Exactly. Manchester City did win the FA cup a year before they won the league. Maybe if they don't win that cup and have anything to come away from the previous season to feel good about they wouldn't have won the league the next year. You never know

The competition is sadly underrated.. But it is vital considering our situation.. None of our players have won anything.. So it will definitely lift the players morale and also relief some of the pressure.. It can do wonders.. If we bag it we can go on to finish the season without pressure on a high..
I still feel that CC final 2 years back spoiled our season.. If we had won it, i am sure we could have won more that season.. And we would have had better chances of keeping Cashri and others...

We need to secure top 4 more than anything else. Winning this cup means squat if we miss out of the Champs league. We will not attract any foreign talents based on winning the carling cup alone. Look at Liverpool for example. That said, I want us to win the cup just to shut all the twattish critics up (a la Morgan). Also I doubt winning the cup will make our young players into believing that they are "winners".

Now FA cup... that is a whole dif story

Arsenalfaithfull wrote:We need to secure top 4 more than anything else. Winning this cup means squat if we miss out of the Champs league. We will not attract any foreign talents based on winning the carling cup alone. Look at Liverpool for example. That said, I want us to win the cup just to shut all the twattish critics up (a la Morgan). Also I doubt winning the cup will make our young players into believing that they are "winners".

No one he is telling him to take seriously but his attitude towards it is not good. You just can't come out in front of the players and say a trophy or a competition isn't worth winning. He said it at the AGM, guess what ?? we played worse in the cup against Reading few days later. Now compare our performance against Reading to that of Yanited who played a weakened team ?? Whiskey nose knows is not important but he would not tolerate any poor peformance out there whereas Wenger would have said it's alright 4th is much more important. How are you meant to build a team of winner when you don't take competitions seriously, first string or second string the team should be out there giving everything to win it.

Also I doubt winning the cup will make our young players into believing that they are "winners".

Why wouldn't it? The Capital One Cup isn't a big or important cup, but you can't say that winning it would not be an invaluable experience to our players. It's a big final played in an iconic stadium in front of 90,000 people, and still receives the media attention and build up of a major final.

Being a "winner" means actually having the experience of playing in big finals and winning. How many in this Arsenal side have that sort of experience? Not many.

In any case, there's absolutely no reason why Arsenal can't achieve a top four finish and win a domestic trophy along the way. The fans would be a lot happier if we managed that than if we just finished in the top four again.

mickey mouse or not, winning a trophy can do us well

This year we have a good chance of winning the CO Cup as chelsea and arsenal are the only two big teams left.

Great article man, hope Wenger listens to common sense for once and takes this competition seriously.

I don't think I've ever seen or heard a top manager saying that a certain cup or competition isn't worth the fuss, or that it's inferior to others.

If you're a manager with any ambition you reply with something like this:

-We're Arsenal Football Club, our aim is to not only compete but win every competition we're participating in thus making our fans feel proud of their club they support and love so much.

^that would've been my answer of course.