Part One covering 1966 to 1979 can be found here. Part Two covering 1980 to 1993 can be found here, while Part Three covering 1993 to 2007 can be found here.

As mentioned in the closing paragraph of yesterday's flashback edition, the League Cup was often a showcase for the more hopeful side of supporting Arsenal over the past decade and the start of Arsenal's League Cup run in 2007/08 was one such period of very brief hope. When Arsenal faced Newcastle United at the end of September, it preceded a run of eight wins and one draw from nine games in all competitions. Arsenal's side was again another second string eleven and took eighty three minutes to break down a Newcastle United side it pretty much dominated throughout the game.

The scoring had been opened by Nicklas Bendtner and followed by a second from Denilson on ninety minutes as Arsenal won 2-0. The Gooner's editorial of the night's events was titled: 'Arsenal don’t need to buy another player for ten years'. It then goes on to state in mitigation: 'Maybe a slight exaggeration there. But it captured the mood of the night. Newcastle were not significantly understrength and yet Arsenal not only matched them but often dominated for 80 minutes and kept going until the end as the visitors faded'. By the time of Arsenal's fourth round tie away to Sheffield United, the run in all competitions had now extended to fifteen wins and two draws from seventeen games. Arsenal also topped the Premiership table over Man United on goal difference with a game in hand and Alex Ferguson's side in waiting the following Saturday.

Despite Arsenal being the hottest ticket in town, a crowd of just 16,971 turned out at Bramall Lane for the game. New signing over the summer to replace the Nou Camp bound Thierry Henry - Eduardo Da Silva – had been kept out of the side by the form of Emmanuel Adebayor and Robin Van Persie in the early part of the season. Eddie however clearly seized his chance and opened the scoring with a cracking strike for the Gunners after eight minutes. A second goal five minutes into the second half, as well as Denilson adding another on sixty nine minutes meant that the Gunners ran out 3-0 winners. Also also went on to hold Man United to a 2-2 draw at the Grove the following Saturday.

By the time of Arsenal's Quarter Final tie with Blackburn Rovers exactly one week before Christmas, Arsenal had lost their first Premiership game of the season after fifteen games unbeaten. Forty eight hours ahead of the tie however, Arsenal earned a morale boosting 1-0 victory over Chelsea at home with William Gallas on target. This left Arsenal one point clear of Man United at the top of the table. The tie again brought a miniscule crowd of just 16,207 to Ewood Park. Arsenal opened the scoring on eight minutes with a goal from Abu Diaby and Eduardo doubling the lead just ahead of the half hour. Three minutes before half time however, Roque Santa Cruz pulled one back for Blackburn. By the hour mark, Santa Cruz pulled Rovers level.

The game went into extra time, though Denilson found himself red carded on ninety minutes. In the last minute of the first period, Eduardo added a second to put Arsenal back in the lead again. With no further scoring, Arsenal earned a second Semi Final tie with Spurs in two seasons with a 3-2 victory. It was around this period when Eduardo was beginning to come into his own, with further goals that earned Arsenal victories against Everton in the interim between Christmas and New Year and Burnley in the FA Cup just after Christmas. Three days on from this victory, Spurs came to N5 for the first leg of the Semi. Spurs's failure to agree to the usual price concessions for the Semi meant that attendance for this tie was reduced to 53,136. Seven minutes before half time, Jermaine Jenas gave Spurs the lead, before Theo Walcott equalised with eleven minutes to go and Spurs going back to White Hart Lane with a 1-1 draw.

Two weeks later came the second leg at the Lane. By now, Spurs's failure to beat Arsenal had stretched back eight and a half years. Three days prior, Arsenal enjoyed a comprehensive 3-0 away victory over Fulham at Craven Cottage and were only kept off of the top of the Premiership table by goal difference. What followed however gave an early warning that not all was well within the Arsenal camp. Jermaine Jenas put Spurs ahead on three minutes. By twenty seven minutes, Niklas Bendtner (a hero a month prior after heading the winning goal against Spurs in the Premiership fixture) put the ball through his own net. There was also a well noted altercation between him and Emmanuel Adebayor.

Three minutes into the second half, Robbie Keane stretched Spurs's lead to three goals and a fourth added by Aaron Lennon on the hour mark. With twenty minutes to go, Emmanuel Adebayor pulled one back for the Gunners, however in the final minute a Steed Malbranque goal sealed a 1-5 defeat for the Gunners (2-6 on aggregate), to bring to an end eight and a half years of Arsenal dominance in the North London Derby. Spurs went on to win the 2007/08 League Cup Final (despite their rise to prominence in recent years, this is their last silverware to date. Spurs are actually in the midst of their longest trophy drought since the gap between winning their first and second League titles between 1951 and 1961!).

More notably from an Arsenal point of view, that same weekend Arsenal blew a chance to go eight points clear at the top of the Premiership in a 2-2 draw at Birmingham City, which saw Eduardo's season ended after an horrific leg and ankle break. The Gunners' promising season went into a tailspin thereafter and despite finishing third and losing just two further League games, that term ended trophy-less. That said, optimism for the future still abounded when Arsenal faced Sheffield United in the third round of the League Cup in late September 2008. That same month saw a Sheikh ride into Man City ready to bankroll the club with billions and the world on the verge of financial collapse, with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers just eleven days prior.

It was however easy to believe at this point that Arsenal might have shrewdly invested its money in upcoming youth, the Gunners also sitting atop of the Premiership table with four wins and one defeat from the first five games. By half time, goals for Carlos Vela and two for Niklas Bendtner meant Arsenal were three goals to the good. In the second half, Vela secured his hat-trick, as well as a sixteen year old Jack Wilshere becoming Arsenal's youngest ever goalscorer as the Gunners thumped Sheffield United 6-0 – a result worthy of praise as the Blades were a top half side in the Championship and included the seventeen years' worth of top flight experience of the late Gary Speed, former Aston Villa star Lee Hendrie and ex-Southampton and Everton forward James Beattie.

Seven weeks later, Arsenal's Young Guns were rewarded with a fourth round tie against Wigan Athletic. Arsenal were now six points off of the pace in the race for the League title, as well as defeats to Hull City and Stoke City. However, as well as a 2-1 victory over Man United three days prior in the Premiership, Arsenal's young guns were still cause for optimism as another for Carlos Vela and two for Jay Simpson meant a 3-0 victory over a full strength Premiership side. The optimism wouldn't last for long however, as Arsenal would lose to Aston Villa the following Saturday and then suffer a 0-3 thumping away to Man City. Arsenal beat Chelsea away three days before the League Cup Quarter Final tie away at second tier Burnley. However, an Arsenal side which included Nik Bendtner and his pink boots suffered a 0-2 defeat at Turf Moor.

In the interim between that defeat and Arsenal's third round League Cup tie against West Brom in late September 2008, Arsenal's exciting crop of youngsters won the FA Youth Cup (the only competitive trophy won by Arsenal during the late noughties). From the first eleven, Francis Coquelin, Jack Wilshere and Sanchez Watt had been a part of that winning side. The Sub's bench also included James Shea, Kyle Bartley, Craig Eastmond, Emmanuel Frimpong and Mark Randall. From that crop, Arsenal debutant Sanchez Watt opened the scoring on sixty eight minutes, while Carlos Vela entered the fray as a sub to add a second with fourteen minutes to go, as Arsenal ran out 2-0 winners.

Next up would be a home tie against Liverpool in the fourth round. the core of the Arsenal youth theme continued with a 2-1 victory over Liverpool in the League Cup with a tremendous goal from Fran Merida and the winner from Nicklas Bendtner, while Emiliano Insúa would be on target for Liverpool. The League Cup run however lasted just one further round. In the Quarter Final, Arsenal would be drawn away to Man City. With manager Mark Hughes under pressure for his position, goals for Carlos Tevez, Shaun Wright Phillips and Vladimir Weiss inflicted a 0-3 defeat on Arsenal, in what was the Gunners' last League Cup tie of the noughties. Arsenal's first League Cup tie of the 2010s meanwhile came the following September with a trip to White Hart Lane to face Spurs.

Arsenal opened the scoring with a goal from Henri Lansbury after a quarter of an hour. Four minutes into the second half, Robbie Keane equalised for Spurs. With no further scoring in the ninety minutes, two penalties from Samir Nasri and another goal from Andrei Arshavin earned Arsenal a thumping 4-1 victory. In the fourth round, Arsenal faced another Premiership tie away with a trip to St. James's Park to face Newcastle United. That night, Woijcech Szczesny was selected ahead of his countryman Lukas Fabianski and on the back of his performance kept the first choice goalkeeping position until being caught smoking in the showers nearly four years later.

All of the goals came in the second half, with goals from Niklas Bendtner, an own goal from Tim Krul and two goals for Theo Walcott as Arsenal run out 4-0 winners (a few months later, Arsenal would build up a four goal lead again at Newcastle, but somehow contrived to blow it!). On the last day of November 2010, Arsenal would be drawn at home, though again the opposition would be from the Premiership with Wigan Athletic visiting N5. An own goal from Wigan's Antolin Alcaraz as well as Niklas Bendtner on target again meant a 2-0 victory as Arsenal progressed to the Semi Finals. The two legged semi would for the first time this season bring non-Premiership opposition in the form of second tier Ipswich Town.

The first leg took place at Portman Road. Arsenal however left Suffolk with a 0-1 defeat courtesy of a goal from Hungarian forward Tamas Priskin. In the replay, it took Arsenal over an hour to break down the Suffolk side's resistance, before a well taken Niklas Bendtner goal pulled Arsenal level. Further goals from Laurent Kosielny and Cesc Fabregas eased the Gunners' path to Wembley with a https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLX2za5kkzY 3-0 victory and high hopes of ending the six year trophy drought which had built up since moving from Highbury. Awaiting Arsenal at Wembley were Birmingham City, who were relegation candidates and long since plagued with a gypsy's curse placed on St. Andrew's seemingly preventing them from picking up silverware over the years. Even with this on Arsenal's side however, Wenger's team still somehow contrived to lose the final.

Brum took the lead with a goal from Nikola Zigic midway through the first half. Arsenal's captain for the day - Robin Van Persie – pulled the Gunners level six minutes before the break. In the last minute of the game however, a mix up between Laurent Kosielny and Woijcech Szczesny allowed in Obafemi Martins to wrap up victory for Birmingham City in the last minute and inflict a 1-2 defeat on Arsenal and the continuance of the long trophy drought. Things got from bad to worse for Arsenal after the exits of Cesc Fabregas and Sami Nasri over the summer, as well as an 2-8 hammering by Man United. On top of another defeat, this time to Blackburn Rovers away on the previous Saturday, such was the apathy for a home tie with Shrewsbury Town that an officially quoted attendance of just 46,539 turned out for the game.

To make matters worse, Shrewsbury even took the lead on sixteen minutes. However goals for Kieran Gibbs and first Arsenal goals for transfer window signings Alex Oxlaide-Chamberlain and Yossi Benayoun (on loan from Chelsea) meant a 3-1 win for Arsenal. Into the fourth round, the Gunners now met Bolton Wanderers in late October. Former Arsenal youth product Fabrice Muamba gave Bolton the lead (just months before his near death experience at White Hart Lane effectively ended his career). However, second half goals for Andrei Arshavin and South Korean star Chu-Jong Park meant a 2-1 win for Arsenal to set up a home Quarter Final tie with top of the table Man City on the penultimate day of November 2011.

Returning to Arsenal that night would be Samir Nasri who defected to City the previous August under a cloud, even criticising the ‘quiet’ Arsenal fans in comparison to that of his new club. Unfortunately for him he would return to Arsenal on League Cup Quarter Final night, where the ‘tenner-a-ticket’ crowd made far more noise than the usual Saturday Premiership spectators and primarily aimed it in his direction. Such was the level of abuse and chants of ‘you’re just a f***ing reserve’ that it obviously effected his game and when City made a substitution midway through the second half, Nasri went to walk off the pitch before realising it wasn’t he who was being substituted and he had to endure more of the same. In the event, a second string Arsenal side would give a good account of themselves, but conceded a Sergio Aguero goal late on and went on to lose 0-1. Arsenal would also lose by the same score line a few weeks later at Eastlands

In 2012/13, the competition would now be sponsored by the banking corporation Capital One. Arsenal's League Cup run that season would only last three matches. Despite this, it would be a case of goals galore as the Gunners bagged as many as fourteen. In the third round would be Coventry City at home. The scoring would be opened by a first ever goal for Olivier Giroud in the red and white, after signing to replace Robin Van Persie over the summer. From thereafter, on target for the Gunners would be Alex Oxlaide Chamberlain, Andrei Arshavin, Ignasi Miguel and two for Theo Walcott as the Gunners run out 6-1 winners. In the fourth round on the penultimate day of October 2012, Arsenal would head to Berkshire to face Reading. It would be no under estimate to say that Arsenal didn't get off to a good start.