There was a story on a Manchester United website that suggested Arsène Wenger threw the game on Saturday.

I cannot for a moment get into my head the idea that Le Boss blatantly told his team to go out and lose the FA Cup fifth round tie, but I’d be interested to know if he heard the Liverpool result before his team took the field against United. I have little doubt he was fully aware that Arsenal were due to play Rafa Benitez’ team on semi-final weekend.

It could be that the manager told his players not to use a excessive amount of energy should they be in a position chasing the game, that they should not risk injury making the kind of tackles that we certainly didn’t see many of. He may well have sent them out without a positive attitude to the encounter – a kind of ‘let’s see what happens’ approach. If so, the players certainly got that message.

Looking at the fixture list now, the quarter final weekend sees Arsenal visit Wigan, who had been eliminated in an earlier round, whilst the semi-final weekend now has the scheduled visit of Liverpool to Ashburton going ahead.

So Arsenal’s only possible midweek fixtures from this moment on are potential Champions League dates, should they manage to eliminate Milan. With an injury-ravaged squad, which evidently does not seem to have the depth for an assault on more than two fronts, Wenger seems to have prioritised even more than usual.

Remember that after the 5-1 Spurs defeat, asked if he wish he’d done anything different, he expressed that he would have preferred to have fielded an even weaker side, claiming this was not possible due to the injury list and the players away on African Cup of Nations duty. He played some first choice players at the Lane that he would have preferred to have given the night off.

The bench against Blackburn last week featured three full backs. There is an element of truth in the idea that the manager is down to the bare bones, although the trio of African returnees will hopefully go some way to rectifying that.

There seems little question that sacrificing the FA Cup is more likely to enhance Arsenal’s chances of success in the other two competitions. I haven’t had a close look at the matches of United and Chelsea, but I imagine both should make the FA Cup semi-finals, so if they also progress to the last four in Europe, they will be playing twice a week without a break from the end of March.

It’s certainly a manageable schedule, but critically, if Arsenal continue picking up the points they would expect to in the Premier League matches, a gap could develop that puts tremendous pressure on the chasers to win every match they play, with no margin for error. Wenger’s players, meanwhile, will be able to enjoy greater rest, recharge the batteries and get over any injury niggles.

It’s almost as if Arsène planned it…