Winning is a habit, and winning the Carabao Cup will be habit-forming for Arteta's Arsenal.

Yesterday at 03:00 AM

I don't get annoyed at other supporters' views on the Arsenal thsee days. We are a multi-generational broad church as Gooners, spanning the globe, so different perspectives are to be expected.

However, if I were still the type to get annoyed, I would probably be mildly wound up by those who deem today's semi-final as unimportant. It's the Carabao Cup, the minor, fourth tier competition, which is irrelevant to many, or so it seems.

For me, as a match-goer – and yes, I am aware of the privileged position I have – it is the final stepping stone to a Wembley day out and a shot at our first silverware in 5 years. In the latter Wenger years, we were blessed with multiple trips to the national stadium, many of them successful, but the last visit for us all, thanks to COVID, was a drubbing in the final of this competition in 2018. I personally have a serious seven-year itch that needs scratching. Yes, we all want to win the Premier League, but even the final match of a season at which the league trophy might be presented is not the same as an all-or-nothing Wembley final.

It may well also be to do with my age, which I cannot help, but fans of a certain vintage will remember the League Cup win in 1987 over the nation's – and often Europe's – best team at the time, Liverpool, which proved a springboard to further success for George Graham's young team. That said, we do not need to go back nearly 40 years to see how the Carabao, in its current guise, has provided a platform for Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City. Winning silverware in February or March, can only boost confidence and belief in a squad for what is to come in April and May.

I have seen today's match labelled a distraction, in which Arteta should field a weakened team. Tell that to Newcastle fans who have not won any silverware in 3 generations, who have seen a succession of managers do the same. Some of our fans seem to feel Arsenal should not be concerned with this 'minor' trophy. They believe, for some reason, that we are bigger than this competition and should not waste our energies on it. We are not, and such a sense of entitlement is unjustified.

Arsenal currently has world class players, around whom other clubs – at home and abroad – will be hovering if Arsenal do not begin to win silverware. The likes of Saka and Saliba, particularly the latter, whose connection is not so longstanding, want and deserve to be winning medals, and this match tonight could be the next huge stride toward their first in our famous colours.

For those that say "We are the Arsenal, and we should be thinking bigger…", I say that winning the Carabao is big, and only the first step to bigger and better.

And for those who remain unconvinced by my arguments then I will leave you will the words of the late, great, Green Bay Packer coach Vince Lombardi. Yes, the guy who won so much they named the Super Bowl trophy after him ….

"Winning is not a sometime thing; it is an all-time thing. You don't win once in a while, you don't do things right once in a while, you do them right all the time. Winning is a habit. Unfortunately, so is losing."

I think Pep Guardiola, which won this trophy 4 years in a row, would agree with Vince, and he would love to be one of the 4 teams vying to be at Wembley on the 16^{th of} March.

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