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FIZZING WITH ANTICIPATION
There has long been a notion that the League Cup, in its many sponsorship guises, can be a “springboard” for future success. No other trophy has ever achieved springboard status, not even the Emirates Cup. It seems the idea was born around the time José Mourinho’s Chelsea were on the rise, fuelled by Roman Abramovich’s totally legitimate takeover, winning the Carling Cup in 2005 and then rocketing to back-to-back Premier League titles. Many of that Blues squad have since spoken about the three-handled Georgian silver cup as if it were some gateway drug to glory. And that Chelsea team went on some trips. You wouldn’t understand, man. We saw five trophies in two years, man.
If we were to continue the analogy, then Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal team are sitting alone in the bar, still stone-cold sober, having not had a whiff of success since the FA Cup six years ago when their starting lineup included Rob Holding, Kieran Tierney and Nicolas Pépé. None of the players who featured in that 2020 final are still at the club, with Bukayo Saka – an 18-year-old unused substitute on the day – the only survivor from the matchday squad. It feels rather apt Arsenal are now staring at the Fizzy Cup as their potential trophy-drought quencher, given the Gunners have lost more finals in the competition than anyone else, last tasting victory in 1993, before any of their players were even born. It seems distinctly weird that Arsène Wenger won seven FA Cups but never a League Cup. No springboards there.
In the present day, it has taken four seasons for Arteta’s brave boys to finally ascend to Premier League title favourites, so anyone thinking Manchester City will give them an easy ride at Wembley on Sunday has probably had too many frothy Worthingtons. Pep Guardiola may be shuffling closer to the exit door, with his team a pale imitation of the trophy juggernauts that stormed to four successive Capital One Cups (how’s that for a springboard?), but City know how to win these pots. With those rumours swirling regarding a possible summer departure, this may be Guardiola’s last chance for a trophy in English football! The Catalan appeared irritable in midweek, sighing that “everyone wants to fire me” when a reporter dared to broach the topic of his City future. Maybe it’s the thought of only winning the League Cup in his final season at City that is getting Pep down. But what’s worse than only winning the League Cup?
Whoever triumphs, the outcome of Sunday’s final is unlikely to have much sway in the outcome of the title race, despite numerous momentum-based claims to the contrary. In reality, the cups stand alone. Just look at Arteta and that six-year wait for a second pot. The sad truth is that, while a nice springtime spectacle, this cup for most football fans is little more than a distraction from the real quiz of trying to cope without any Arsenal or Manchester City players in our Fantasy Football teams for an entire weekend.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“These tough decisions come with the job. It is a sporting decision to stick with Jarell Quansah, Tino Livramento and with Djed Spence, who can all play for us in the right full-back position. I know it’s a big name. I think he’s a huge talent and has a big career but I feel that I know what [he] can give us and decided to stick to the players who were in camp with us” – Trent Alexander-Arnold looks like he will have a summer in front of the TV watching the Geopolitics World Cup after Thomas Tuchel left him out of his 35-man (subs, please check!) England squad.
Am I alone or are there 1,056 others who see the irony in Xavi Simons declaring that, for Spurs, ‘every game is a cup final for us’ having just exited their third and final cup competition of the season?” – Glyn Berrington.
The way Barry deadpanned ‘Of the six teams that advanced to this season’s Round of Arsenal, only two (including Arsenal) made it into the quarter-finals’ puts me in mind of the old joke about 2010-11 Manchester City having ‘all the best players in the league (and Craig Bellamy)’. Fabulous stuff” – Rowan Sweeney.
If you have any, please send letters to [email protected]. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day is … Rowan Sweeney. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here.
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