The FA Cup third round draw will bring back painful memories of January 2018 when we were humiliated 4-2 by Nottingham Forest.
Mr Wenger made the decision that evening to rotate his squad, prioritising the Semi Final of the League Cup days later.
Nearly every player who started at the City Ground didn’t start in the 1st leg at Stamford Bridge.
Arsenal are beating Sunderland away from being in the final 4 of this year’s Carabao Cup.
With winning a domestic trophy our most realistic route into Europe the fear is Arteta will feel compelled to prioritize the League Cup.
That fear exists based on what our manager did last season.
Playing Southampton twice within a few days, the Spaniard felt his team couldn’t handle the schedule so essentially sacrificed the FA Cup, our most likely route to silverware.
I vividly recall debating with some Gooners who thought it was good management to play a weak side in the Cup to give us an advantage for the Prem fixture.
The reality was victory in the League still meant we were five points off 4th and 8th in the table.
It was arrogant to suggest that this group of players were even in the conversation for the race for top 4.
Naive to even pretend that could be our reality.
A failure to address where we were at the time.
Within a few weeks, shock horror, we regretted not leaving the FA Cup as a fall-back option when it became obvious that we had nothing to play for in th League.
My first thought on Monday’s draw is a sense of de ja vu.
So let’s save ourselves some time.
By January 2022, I expect us to be in the last 4 of the League Cup and between 6-8 th in the table.
We have a section of a fan base who will then debate that we can put this magic run together which contradicts anything we have seen in years, hence not needing the FA Cup.
The likes of myself will then be called negative for not wanting the Cups to be discarded, and then told we are right when it’s too late.
Semi Finals of the League Cup, 6-8th in the table, neither are reasons to not take the FA Cup serious. In fact it would be a sackable offense not to do so.
The domestic cups are our only route to putting smiles on people’s faces.
Quite simply, we are not good enough to be travelling to even a Championship team without 100 percent focus.
Without European football for the first time in 25 years there is zero reason not to take the Cups serious.
One of the signs of a top boss is learning from their mistakes.
Arteta got burnt in the FA Cup last season while Mr Wenger paid the price for underestimating Forest the last time we played them in the competition.
If history repeats itself, it could cost Arteta his job.
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Dan