Arsenal Mania

Wenger: Why I prefer top three finish to a trophy

Written by Jonathan Chong on Sunday, February 7, 2010

Whilst the fans are yearning for an end to the club's five year trophy drought, manager Arsène Wenger is adamant that finishing in the top three of the league is a bigger accomplishment.

With the likes of Tottenham, Liverpool and Portsmouth winning the League and FA Cup in recent history, but not being consistent enough in terms of finishing in the top three of the league, you have to argue that perhaps the manager has a point.

His argument is perhaps made even stronger when you consider that the cup competitions are usually used to blood players who would not get the chance to play in the league, in some ways diluting the challenge.

Wenger said: "It's very important that we win something, we're here to win trophies, but it depends on what you call trophies," he explained.

"Is it the Champions League, the Premier League, the League Cup? If you win the League Cup you cannot say you win trophies for me.

"Of course [finishing third is better than winning a domestic cup]. It's much more difficult.

"I want to win trophies and, like the fans, I'm frustrated if I don't. But a season does not go from fantastic to zero. A season in the English league, when you fight with Manchester City, Liverpool, Tottenham and Aston Villa, to finish in the top three is still not a disaster.

"It's not enough because you want to win trophies. But it doesn't say: 'oh what a terrible season that was.' We've just qualified from the group stage in the Champions League for the tenth consecutive season.

"That is, for me, three times as difficult as winning the League Cup five times. I know what's difficult and what's not difficult.

"But I know people want to parade with a trophy and if you don't win a trophy you can't do that. But it doesn't mean the rest of the season has been completely useless."

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