Top four clubs at the beginning of the season have four competitions to try to win. Except Arsenal. We only try in two. How have we as fans allowed this to happen? Over the years we have somehow got into the habit of thinking that the League Cup is not a trophy worth winning. A competition to give our youngsters some practice in. Try telling Moan Utd or Citeh fans that it’s not worth winning! We won it in 87 and 93 and I don’t remember walking away from Wembley thinking “Oh well, it was only the League cup!” We have for several years not taken the FA Cup seriously. To me re-reading that last sentence is astounding. The FA Cup FFS!

Last Sunday was a new low even for us. For Wenger to say we don’t need to strengthen the squad is just getting ridiculous. Cesc was the only member of the team that deserves a place in any important match. Cesc is good but he can’t beat Stoke on his own! (Sol played well considering his age and lack of games).

I’m still of the old school where I think we should play our strongest available team for each game whatever the competition. If you enter a competition you should be there to win it. If you have a decent enough squad they should be able to fill in if there are any injuries. Let’s face it, it’s very unlikely we are going to win the Premier League or Champions League. It’s crazy to put all our eggs in two baskets. The FA Cup was a much more likely way to win some silverware this year (or most years). Every year I try and get excited about the FA Cup but know eventually Wenger is going to let us down in one of the rounds.

Reading the teamsheet before the Stoke match was one of the most depressing times I have ever had supporting Arsenal (and after 40 years I’ve had plenty!). Wenger said that he had no other choice because of all the injuries, but it is his decision not to strengthen the squad despite obvious weaknesses (a quality keeper for starters). Miraculously all the “injured” players were fit for the Villa game.

Let’s suppose we had put out a full team on Sunday. No guarantee but we would have probably beaten Stoke. Even if we had got, say, three new injuries before the Villa game, we should still have a squad strong enough to get at least a draw (which is what we got anyway!).

Arsenal are supposed to be a big club. Gooners should expect to have a squad of players capable of fighting to win all the competitions we enter.