On Wednesday morning ten days back, in the light of the 5-1 defeat at Spurs, you might have thought there had been a seismic shift in the balance of footballing power in London. Spurs, having beaten Arsenal for the first time in the best part of nine years, were on the up, Arsenal were in decline, or so some of the less objective press might have had us believe. Allied to this were the many depressed Gooners on the radio and the blogs. My own immediate reaction was ambivalent – sure, I didn’t like losing, especially to Spurs, but – I said to myself – it’s “only” the Carling Cup. But then again, I wondered, surely we should have put out the first team and tried to win it.

Today, two 3-0 wins over the Geordie nation behind us, without being stretched to any great extent in either, what do I think now, with the benefit of hindsight – especially in the light of ManU’s unfortunate (for us) continued excellence?

First, Wenger should have stuck to his guns and resisted the temptation to have played as many first choice players as he did. Of course his hand was forced and he felt obliged to play Hleb, Sagna and Gallas and to have experienced players on the bench. With injuries and the Africa Cup of Nations, the squad was stretched. It didn’t have to have been: more could and should be made of the younger players who are said to be the future of the club and with better planning the loan system could have been made to work in our favour.

Gilbert, a good player, with first team experience could have played vs. Spurs had his loan deal at Southend stated that he couldn’t play in the Carling Cup. Connolly, a good player who I would have kept, could also have played or been in the squad and Merida’s loan could have waited until after the Spurs games. The same applies to the striker, Jay Simpson, who is at Millwall. Diarra should have been made to stay and play and gone off to the Arsenal retirement home that passes for the Portsmouth first team afterwards. Randall and Gibbs could or may be should have had been involved with the first team on occasions in the Premiership to give them more feeling for the big games. A couple of substitute appearances in the Premiership could have been factored in at some point – Derby, Fulham, Reading would have been ideal.

The point is, unless we had put out our first team, we were unlikely to have won at Spurs, who have (we have to recognise) improved immeasurably under Ramos; would a big defeat for a true second team have been any worse than a 5-1 defeat with a team containing, by the end, six of the first team? I doubt it. And if it were, the younger players would have benefited from the experience and we would not have had to endure the Adebayor spat nor risked Hleb, Fabregas or Gallas getting unnecessarily injured; they didn’t but they could have been.

Second, losing to Spurs has a definite advantage in not complicating the fixture schedule. We shouldn’t underestimate the disruption of delaying the Birmingham game on the same day as the Carling Cup final – it would have meant another midweek game and if we want to progress in the Champions League adding another weekday game would have been a major challenge for the fixture schedulers. Moreover, had we won, with the FA Cup draw pairing us with ManU, we would have had a run of ManU, Milan and Chelsea within nine days. Wenger would have felt compelled to play the strongest team he could in all those games and I doubt any first team could perform at their best with that schedule. I wouldn’t be surprised if the FA Cup game at ManU was a draw which would only further complicate our schedule.

Third, we can’t win every game and sometimes the team will have a collective off-day. Last season we had a couple of particularly poor away games, at Sheffield United and Liverpool especially. Far better to have an off-day in the Carling Cup than in the Premiership. And my final bit of wonderful hindsight or maybe foresight for the Carling Cup – in December 2008, if we are in the 5th round of the Carling Cup, ask whether we really want to win the game? Because if we are still in there and we win that game, we will have the same problem as this year (and last).

Which brings me onto to the real issue – the Premiership. Listening to the Radio5 commentary from ManU vs. Portsmouth, it is clear that it is now a three horse race. It is too soon to say it will be a two-horse race as Chelsea are still there and once their players come back from Africa they will be much stronger offensively. We may be defensively stronger, but offensively, the return of the African trio won’t make much difference. Liverpool are now out of it and may even lose the battle with Everton and Villa for fourth. Fortunately for us, I think Man City’s bubble has burst and I feel confident we will be back on top, temporarily at least, on Saturday. Unfortunately the way they are playing just now, I can’t see ManU dropping many points in the next few games, so we have to maintain our focus on the Premiership – and the Carling Cup simply gets in the way if any of the top 13-14 players are involved to any extent.

Chelsea’s failure to score more than one against Reading is good news indeed for us; they were always going to win, but they failed to press home their advantage in goal scoring terms. 4 points and a better goal difference ahead at this stage compared to Chelsea is, let us be honest, better than we would have hoped for at the start the season.

We are very much better off than I had hoped for – and I am an eternal optimist. Keep the faith. Arsene knows.