Big FA Cup and Champions League matches in a short space of time against Man Utd and Chelsea. Difficult opponents at the best of times, so best to give everything, (as we are told the players constantly do), so why not go guns a-blazing in the FA Cup semi, and so build some momentum and confidence for the Champions League match if successful? To do this it would help if we played our strongest team and not leave out our best player.

We all know what happened this season, but I'm talking about leaving out Henry for the 2004 FA Cup semi final against Man Utd, a decision that at the time I couldn't believe, and which arguably resulted in us losing the game (Utd left out Van Nistelroy and were there for the taking). This seemingly also appeared to have affected our confidence, and we were duly outplayed by Chelsea in the Champions League a few days later.

In the shareholders Q&A meeting Arsene admitted to making mistakes, which is fair enough, but to make the same ones again, and such a calamitous one at that, I find hard to take. Of course we don’t know if playing Arshavin would have made the difference against Chelsea, nor if it would have had a bearing on the Man Utd game, but logic would dictate that unless you have scant regard for the FA cup, this is a course of action you would not follow. When I last wrote on this site over a year ago, Are we in danger of becoming the new West Ham, I mentioned Arsene has little interest in the domestic cups, having been unfortunate enough, along with 9000 others, to travel to Old Trafford last season to witness our FA Cup humiliation, and reading between the lines Wenger admitted as much at the Q&A, when explaining his reasoning to leave out Arshavin.

You can justify the Champions League taking priority to an extent, and you could argue that last season there was the excuse of a league challenge which of course would take priority over the FA Cup, but as the editor has already pointed out elsewhere, if you are serious about winning a game you play your strongest team, not try to win with one arm tied behind your back, and quite clearly Arsene is not serious about winning the FA Cup despite a number of trophy-less seasons, and fans are being short changed as a result.

I don’t enjoy writing an article criticising Arsene Wenger, baring in mind what he has done over the years, but I increasingly see him as more of a politician than a football manager these days, relying on spin and sometimes talking a lot of nonsense. I wonder if he believes half of what he says anymore? Surely he doesn't really think that offensively there was nothing between us and Man Utd this year. Our creativity has been non-existent for a large portion of this season. Evra may not have been right to say what he said but what he said was right.

If I'm honest, I wish we would take the Carling Cup more seriously, like Chelsea do, and not act like it's a competition beneath us. This is a probably a minority view, but again, it's a trophy we have practically given away over the years. Can we afford to be so choosy? Maybe in the greater scheme of things, but as far as the FA Cup goes I would say definitely not. But with our current manager's obsession for Champions League glory (have you ever seen him do a little jig in the FA Cup like he did against Villarreal?) I can’t see this changing, and we may have to endure more trophy-less seasons in the near future.