Arsenal encouraged to make drastic League Cup decision to help them compete for multiple honours in the 2026/27 season
I am in danger of coming across rather snobby with this potential hot take, so I encourage you, reader, to take the time to hear me out if indeed there is the temptation to brush this off. Arsenal should chuck the League Cup next season.
Now, to clarify, by ‘chuck’ I effectively mean, play the second string with many of the young stars in the side, like Max Dowman, Ethan Nwaneri (who I would keep), Marli Salmon, Jaden Dixon, Tommy Setford, and some of the players likely not to be regular starters such as Cristhian Mosquera, Noni Madueke, Mikel Merino, Leandro Trossard, a new defensive midfield signing hoped to replace Christian Norgaard among others.
Admittedly, this is what Arsenal did do on the whole. But Bukayo Saka, William Saliba and Eberechi Eze starting at Port Vale, for example… no.
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Mikel Arteta went effectively full-strength in both semi-final legs against Chelsea. Again, no.
What he did against Brighton, with Dowman, Andre Harriman-Annous, Nwaneri, etc., all starting, was the best example of what should have been the norm.
For me, the League Cup has become something of a non-starter. Let me put it to you like this, if Arsenal had failed to win the Premier League or “bottled it” as the critics and trolls like to say, and not won the Champions League and Southampton knocked them out the FA Cup as they did, would winning the League Cup changed how anyone felt about the season, compared to if they still lost that final as they did?
For me, it wouldn’t have changed anything. It would have still been a failure of a season; there certainly would not have been hundreds of thousands of fans coming out for a parade, if there even would have been one, which I assume there almost certainly would not have been, and the sentiment around Arteta would have still been very tough with calls for ‘difficult conversations’ to be had.
The League Cup would have changed nothing. Therefore, it changes nothing next season, and if Arsenal go from league champions to only winning the League Cup, you can be sure comparisons to Arne Slot’s title defence disaster will be made, which, in the end, cost him his job.
Furthermore, the double-legged semi-finals, how early in the season the rounds start, the fact that victory in the final earns you a reported £100,000, which is negligible for the sides most capable of winning the tournament and a place in the UEFA Conference League, which the likes of Arsenal should never be in anyway.
Arsenal want to reinforce, and they have one of the best squads, maybe now the best squad in the league. But are the Gunners more likely to win the league again, the Champions League and/or the FA Cup if they fight across a fourth front in the League Cup, or if they go out in the third round? I think we all know the answer.
So no, it isn’t snobby or dismissive of a cup competition in this context to say Arsenal should deprioritise the League Cup, and not feel any disappointment of an early exit by playing a heavily rotated side (which, by the way, still has a great chance of reaching later rounds, ironically depending on the draw). Doing so increases their chances of taking even bigger steps toward greater success in more competitions next season, which definitely should be a priority, and no one should begrudge an early exit in the League Cup if they finish as title winners again, or European champions for the very first time.
