Palace, like Everton, are focussed on defence which tells us how the League Cup game will go
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This article originally appeared on the Arsenal History Site while this site was having an outage (this time caused entirely by me).
With Untold Arsenal still having technical issues notes about forthcoming and current events are being published on this site. The Untold site is currently still visible and past articles can be read, but we’re having problems posting a new article there.
By Tony Attwood
Arsenal’s history in the league cup has not bee a particularly jolly one in recent years and it is now seven years since Arsenal last made it to the final. In those years Arsenal have been knocked out in the third round once, the fourth round twice, the quarter finals three times, the semi-final once, and lost in the final once.
The teams that have done the damage are all recognisable Premier League names: West Ham, Brighton and Hove Albion, Liverpool (twice), Mancheser City (twice), and Tottenham Hots. One of those defeats was on penalties but all the rest were by at least two goals.
So it is not a particularly superb record. And it is not because we have always used inexperienced and young players in the games. Last season for example the losing team was
Ramsdale
Gabriel Kiwior White Zinchenko
Vieira Jorginho Nelson
Trossard Havertz Nketiah
So what goes wrong? One possibility is that with Arsenal’s focus being on other trophies, even when the club puts out a strong team, no one is going to risk injury or play themselves into the ground for the league cup when there is a league match coming up in a couple of days.
Apart from the 2017/18 final, Arsenal also made it to the final in 2010/11, where there was also a defeat to Birmingham City. Prior to that in 2006/7 there was a final defeat to Chelsea,
Before that, there were the two occasions Arsenal took the League Cup in 1987 and 1993, although even then in between those was another final defeat in 1988 to Luton.
In fac,t Arsenal’s attitude was set fright from the start, as the club refused to enter the competition on the first few occasions, but having joined in 1966/7 (going out in the third round to West Ham) Arsenal then got the final in the next two rounds, losing in 1968 to Leeds and in 1969 to Swindon Town after extra time.
I rather feel that since then Arsenal have lost interest somewhat. although eight goals were scored and one conceded in the two games in the competition this season perhaps shows a return of some level of interest.
But Arsenal does have a history of being knocked out of the competition by Premier League teams of late. It was West Ham last season, Brighton and Hove in 2022/23, Liverpool in 2021/2, Manchester City in 2020/21, Liverpool in 2019/20, Tottenham in 2018/19, Manchester City 2017/18, and Southampton in 2016/17. In fact, the last time Arsenal were knocked out of the league cup by a team not in the top division was in 2015/16 – Sheffield Wednesday.
So on that sort of rather spurious analysis, there is a chance that Arsenal will go out of the trophy tomorrow since we are of course playing a Premier League club.
Crystal Palace are in fact the oldest league club still playing professional football, but they have not used their time as professionals to win much. They have won the second tier twice, and the third tier once. Beyond that they have been runners’ up in the FA Cup twice, the last time being in 2016.
So yes Arsenal have the better history in the League Cup, but neither club tend to take the competition that seriously.
It is in fact mostly a competition that northern clubs get excited about, perhaps because they feel their fans like to have a weekend out in London, something which is a rather regular occurrence for Arsenal fans. Liverpool have won the pot ten times, ManC eight times, and ManU six times.
Maybe even if Arsenal win as expected, we shouldn’t get too excited about the possibilities thereafter, and the truth is, the following match (also as I am sure you know) against Crystal Palace, will be a lot more important in the history of things.
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Palace, like Everton, are focussed on defence which tells us how the League Cup game will go
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