Arsene Wenger must have been desperate to see his Arsenal team lift the League Cup to save his job, but it looked like the players had little interest in fighting for the manager and succumbed weakly to Man City with an uninterested outlook to defeat despite the hope of saving a little bit of glory from our dire season.
So now the only chance of Wenger retrieving anything from this season is by qualifying for the Champions League, either through finishing in the Top Four, which was always Le Prof’s speciality, or by winning the Europa League. After this weekend’s games, which saw Liverpool, Tottenham and Man United all win, we are now ten points of the Top Four and our game in hand will be against today’s victors Man City on Thursday, which nobody can seriously believe we have any chance of even getting our pride back by beating the side that has only lost one League game all season.
So that just leaves the Europa League. And does anyone really believe that Wenger can pull a rabbit out of the hat and persuade his players to perform to the top of their ability to even get past AC Milan in the next round? I very much doubt that either…
Milan started the season badly but have regrouped and since Christmas the Italians have gone 10 matches unbeaten in all competitions home and away, winning 7 of them. Even if Arsenal prioritise the Europa League could we really believe that even our very best team can progress from the tie? And even if we did there are even tougher teams to face in the following rounds.
So could this be Wenger’s last chance saloon to salvage something from our season? And could he actually be asked to step down if we lose to AC Milan in an as embarrassing manner as we did today?
Darren N