The League Cup is probably the lowest on Arsenal’s priority list this season. The Gunners currently sit top of the Premier League, while they have already finished the UEFA Champions League initial league phase in first place, securing safe passage through to the Round of 16. As well as that, Mikel Arteta’s side is also safely through to the fifth round of the FA Cup.
League Cup Final Beckons
But while the League Cup may well be some way down the pecking order in terms of importance, the tournament also represents the club’s first chance at silverware this season. While each of the three aforementioned tournaments concludes in May, the League Cup final will take place in just a few short weeks, and the Gunners, for the first time since 2018, are through to the final. Arteta’s men dispatched rivals Chelsea across two legs to secure their spot in the final, setting up a mouth-watering clash with Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City at Wembley, the team that is also their biggest rivals in the Premier League title race as well.
Online betting sites can’t split the two teams ahead of the upcoming Wembley showpiece. The latest odds from https://www.luckyrebel.la/sportsbook currently price Arsenal as the narrow 3/4 favourite, with City positioned as the even money underdog. But truth be told, there is nothing to pick between the two title protagonists.
While the upcoming Wembley showdown may well be the Gunners’ first League Cup final appearance since 2018, you have to go back much further than that for the last time they lifted the trophy. All the way back to 1993, in fact. Since then, they have reached the showpiece game of English football’s secondary cup competition several times, losing them all. So, what has gone wrong in those games? Let’s take a look.
Young Gunners Downed in Cardiff
The 2006/07 season ushered in a new era at Arsenal. The club left its long-term home of Highbury for the brand spanking new 60,000 capacity Emirates Stadium. However, they also had to start repaying the loans that they had taken out to finance the new ground, and as such, marquee transfers were about to become a thing of the past. Manager Arsene Wenger knew that, and he started looking to the club’s youth academy in a bid to create diamonds of his own, rather than importing them.
The competition he used to do that was the League Cup. Youngsters such as Theo Walcott, Alex Song, Denilson, Jeremie Aliadiere, and Justin Hoyte were all given their opportunities, and the young stars wouldn’t let their manager down. The young Gunners managed to lead Arsenal all the way to the final, picking up thrilling victories along the way, including a 6-3 quarterfinal triumph against Liverpool at Anfield, and a two-legged semifinal victory against archrivals Spurs.
In the Millennium Stadium final, Arsenal met Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea, the dominant force in English football at the time. But rather than pivoting and playing his senior players in the final, Wenger opted to remain with the youngsters who had led the team that far. And it looked as though that decision would also be vindicated when Walcott opened the scoring after just 12 minutes. But ultimately, the big game experience of the Blues would come to the fore.
Didier Drogba equalised just eight minutes later, and the game would remain 1-1 until deep into the second half. Then, ten minutes from full-time, the ultimate big game striker Drogba would strike again, securing a 2-1 victory and taking the trophy to Stamford Bridge.
Birmingham City Pulls off the Upset
By the time the 2010/11 season rolled around, Wenger was continuing to use the League Cup as his own personal developmental territory. And, perhaps most importantly, he was reaping the rewards from placing his faith in youth. The likes of Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey, and Walcott had all become first-team stars, and the final against Birmingham City was supposed to be the Gunners’ first step on the road to becoming a powerhouse in English football once again.
Unfortunately, a different set of Blues had other ideas.
Towering Serbian striker Nikola Žigić gave Brum the lead early in the first half, firing a warning shot that Arsenal would initially recover from. That recovery came in the form of Robin van Persie’s equaliser seven minutes before half-time. But the Gunners were unable to convert all of their possession into further goals, and that would ultimately come to sting them late on. Defender Laurent Koscielny and goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny had a disastrous mix-up in the penalty area, and Blues striker Obafemi Martins would pounce, poking home to take the trophy back to the second city.
Manchester City Prove Their Class
Ultimately, that era of prodigious young talent amounted to very little, with just a pair of FA Cups being all Arsene Wenger had to show for his patient rebuild. By the time 2017/18 rolled around, the Gunners had repaid the vast majority of the Emirates loans, and big-money signings had returned, with the likes of Mesut Ozil, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and Alexandre Lacazette all arriving.
Those signings would yield a League Cup final appearance. The only problem is that the game came against Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering Manchester City. And the Blues – yes, a third set would ultimately prove their class under the arch. Goals from Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany, and David Silva secured a resounding 3-0 win for Guardiola’s side, ensuring that Arsenal once again left the League Cup final empty-handed.
