Time to take the Carling Cup seriously?

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
29 Nov	4:00 PM	P	Chelsea (H)	0	3	Lost

Arsenal 0 - 3 Chelsea. Anyone that surprised?

Can't say that I am. Chelsea have had a transitional few years, with some surprisingly frequent changes in management, but they look settled now, and look the team to beat this year.

Us Arsenal fans are used to making fun of 'Chel$ki' for unlimited spending power, but credit to them, they've hardly made a major signing in years. If you look at the team out there today, there were a lot of very familiar faces. They've kept good players together and now it seems they've found the right manager.

Arsenal, on the other hand, have made all sorts of changes to their team in recent years, mostly bringing in a few sub-par replacements to their best and experienced players who seem to leave every summer.

Chelsea have succeeded mostly in getting rid of the deadwood, rather than bringing in big names. The likes of Shevchenko, Pizarro, Robben have all been shipped off, allowing the likes of Drogba, Malouda and Anelka to improve.

Meanwhile, we're still pinning our hopes onto injury-prone and ineffective Rosicky, Eduardo and Walcott, while Henry, Flamini, Hleb, Gilberto, Touré and Adebayor are elsewhere.

van Persie, whilst a vastly improved player last year and this, is another that cannot be depended on to stay fit. The backup just isn't good enough.

The Emirates wasn't built to watch the likes of Bendtner, Walcott, Vela, Eboue and Diaby running around in circles, or into crowds of players and falling over. We might get some false optimisim from the better moments against weak teams this season, but they won't ever beat a team like the one Chelsea put out today.

Man City in the Carling Cup next, and I'm tempted to say Wenger's old policy in this competition might go out the window now. He needs a trophy this year, and I really don't think the Premier League title will be it.

Playing the youth team in this competition was fun when we had bigger things to aim for, but we don't anymore, and ironically our strongest lineup available for Wednesday night might not be far off the usual Carling Cup side anyway.

But players like Fabregas should play. City are not in great form at the moment and we can definitely go there and win. Sadly, even if we do, you can't help but feel we'll meet Chelsea or United eventually and be reminded of our inferority to them.

Hopefully Wenger will sign a striker in January, and hopefully we can keep van Persie fit and in-form for the rest of the season. These are big ifs, however. I hope we raise some money by selling Walcott, who could be up there with Wenger's worst signings.

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