In an era when football matches are a constant part of life, cup fixtures still bring that little extra sparkle to the minds of players and fans alike. In the Capital One Cup this season, that sparkle has often translated into goal-scoring frenzies, and on the odd, special occasions, it produces a memorable solo performance from a player who may not always be the centre of attention. In this series, FFC takes a look at some stellar one-man displays…

Jermaine Jenas will be watching the Capital One Cup quarter-finals from the sofa as both his current club, Nottingham Forest, and his parent club, Tottenham, are out of the competition. Perhaps, as he sits and watches the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Aston Villa in action, the box-to-box midfielder will have time to reflect on the road his career has taken in recent seasons – and think back to the year he made the League Cup his personal showcase event.

When Tottenham reached the semi-finals of the 2007-08 League Cup, seeing off Middlesbrough, Blackpool and Manchester City in identical 2-0 wins to set up a semi-final against arch-rivals Arsenal, the occasion represented a prime opportunity for Spurs to get their hands on what would be their first silverware since their last League Cup triumph, in 1999.

Spurs’ squad that year was one of their strongest in recent memory, following heavy investment the previous summer which resulted in the additions of Gareth Bale, Darren Bent, Younes Kaboul, Kevin-Prince Boateng and Jonathan Woodgate among others. With the likes of Jenas, Dimitar Berbatov, Robbie Keane, Ledley King and Aaron Lennon already at the club, and Paul Robinson at the height of his powers between the sticks, the stage seemed set for a successful campaign.

The reality, though, could hardly have been more different. A dismally inconsistent Spurs suffered a turbulent season, including the firing of Martin Jol in October and the arrival of Juande Ramos, and finished 11th in the Premier League. Maybe this doesn’t sound that disastrous, but it represents Spurs’ worst final position of any season since the 2003-4 campaign, when David Pleat’s comparatively short-handed squad had bumbled to 14th.

The League Cup, however, was to be a different story. That two-legged tie with Arsenal in the semi-finals began inauspiciously, with a 1-1 draw at the Emirates Stadium setting up a tense second leg. Jenas scored Tottenham’s goal in the first half, and was tireless in creating chances for the likes of Steed Malbranque and Berbatov which went unfulfilled. But even after Theo Walcott’s fortuitous equaliser, more was to come from Jenas in the return leg.

The midfielder once again opened the scoring back at White Hart Lane, this time inside three minutes, surging forward into the box and lashing a shot beyond Lukasz Fabianski. He remained a force throughout the game, forcing an own-goal from Nicklas Bendtner with a sublime free-kick and setting up Berbatov only to see the Bulgarian’s finish clatter back off the post. The entire Tottenham side put in a class display, destroying Arsenal 5-1 to advance to the finals.

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Jenas’ personal hot streak in the competition would continue when Spurs met Chelsea in the final. It was another of his free-kicks from which Woodgate would score the winner early in the extra-time period, and although the defender was named man of the match, Jenas’ impact had been profound.

In the years since that trophy, Jenas’ fortunes at White Hart Lane have changed and he no longer appears to have a future at the club where he was once made vice-captain. Last season’s injury-ruined loan spell at Aston Villa got him nowhere, and thus far back at childhood club Nottingham Forest he has been limited to substitute appearances as he works back towards full match fitness following a torn Achilles’ tendon. But who knows? Maybe watching the latter stages of the Capital One Cup will give the former England international something to aim for. Still only 29, he has a few years in him yet.

For a manager who is on the cusp of a supposed legacy-ending season, Arsene Wenger will probably be able to afford himself a wry smile at the headlines Fleet Street’s finest conjured up for his Arsenal side this morning.

After a week in which the world and his wife were seemingly putting the finishing touches upon the Frenchman’s managerial obituary, following the now infamous League Cup defeat to Bradford, last night’s stirring 5-2 victory over Reading proved a fitting retort.

The old story that begins with Arsene Wenger under almost unscrupulous pressure from all angles following a torrid run of form, has an ending that we’re all too familiar with. Whether or not the Gunners do eventually attain a fourth placed finish remains to be seen, but more often or not, Wenger always seems to overcome the odds in North London.

Yet of course, while one humiliating cup upset doesn’t spell the doomsday scenario for Wenger, neither does a convincing win over serious relegation candidates, right all of the side’s wrongs. The fickle finger of the English football will ensure that despite many of real issues that continue to reside at the Emirates, both club and manager will be afforded a relative amount of reprieve. All of which can just as quickly change, with an unfavourable result away to Wigan this Saturday.

But even within the reactivity of some of this morning’s press, you can sense a common theme in the emotiveness that one notion in particular, continues to evoke more than any other.

Such are the emotions stirred within the Arsenal support upon a hypothetical discussion upon an Arsene Wenger departure from the club, it’s become one of the most toxically divisive subjects within the Premier League. And it’s a topic that appears to have become increasingly partisan in that divisiveness.

In recent weeks, it’s seemed very much you’re either ‘Wenger Out’, armed with seven years of trophy-less frustration and counting, or you’re ‘Wenger In’, preferring to focus your current disdain towards boardroom level. There are many of course, who focus a more collective blame towards the club’s regression away from anything resembling a title challenge. And then you have the realists bemoaning the shifting plateau of ambition that petromillion fuelled foreign owners have cultivated.

Although the most fervent flashpoint amongst the club’s current plight, has undoubtedly surrounded Wenger and the perceived direction that the Frenchman is seeking to carve out for his side. And after 16 years in North London, during which time he’s become the club’s longest serving and most successful manager, a touted departure is never going to catalyze anything less than a surge of contention amongst the Emirates support.

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Yet between the polarizing opinions of those who sit either side of the Wenger debate, there is perhaps a less fervent and consequently less contemplated middle ground. Is the Frenchman simply just coming to the end of his cycle?

Barcelona’s Dani Alves is hardly going to do gown as the Friedrich Nietzsche of his time, but there was something wonderfully fitting in his sentiments during the penultimate year of Pep Guardiola’s reign at the Camp Nou.

Alves, like the rest of the Barca team, were desperate for Guardiola to stay ahead of the 2011 Champions League final, amidst rumours that the Spaniard was growing increasingly weary in the managerial hotsteat. Yet while the full-back was hopeful of a stay, he wasn’t detached from reality:

“Everyone has their cycle and one day his will come to an end,” he said, before suggesting that he couldn’t imagine a Barca without Guardiola.

And one year later, that cycle did end for Guaridola at Barcelona. Yes, his four years comes some way short of the longetivity that Wenger’s remarkable reign has encapsulated over a decade and a half. But be it two years, four years or 16 years – every cycle must eventually come to its conclusion.

Be it the need for a new direction, a change of circumstance or extrinsic forces that one simply cannot control, no managerial reign lasts forever – but that doesn’t mean the potential end of Wenger’s needs to be portrayed so negatively.

Like Guaridola, Arrigo Sacchi and Vicente Del Bosque cultivated two of the most successful club sides in the last 25 years at Milan and Real Madrid respectively. Their cycles combined don’t even touch Wenger’s reign at Arsenal. And some will point to the mixed fortunes of those two European superpowers when they let go of their managers. But would they necessarily have enjoyed sustained success had they stayed for 16 years a la Wenger? History suggests perhaps that might not be the case.

Wenger, alongside Sir Alex Ferguson, are anomalies. Managerial cycles either on these shores or abroad, simply do not last as long as what we’ve seen at Manchester United and Arsenal. Yet even then, it’s only been Ferguson who’s managed to really repeat the trick of winning trophies over that timespan. Has Wenger had the sort of resources available to Fergie? No, and the economic difficulties the Frenchman has had to endure shouldn’t be underestimated.

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But equally, do the successes of over seven years ago, leave Arsene Wenger bulletproof and immune from a potential remit for change?

Wenger’s time isn’t up just yet. They’ve advanced in the Champions League, they’re still on course to finish fourth and besides, who would replace him? Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp might improve the club but seem unlikely to arrive, in which case, why would the club settle for a downgrade?

Yet either way, sometimes in football, a club does just simply need a change of direction, a fresh way of looking at things and ultimately, the beginning of a new cycle. Whether we are or aren’t looking at the end of Arsene Wenger’s at Arsenal, his time will eventually come to an end. Because for all the issue affecting the Frenchman’s quest to push the club on, as in all walks of life, sometimes things simply run their natural course. Wenger’s Arsenal career isn’t any different.

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Kolo Toure has urged Manchester City to offer him a new contract, by insisting that he wants to stay at the club.

The Ivorian defender joined the Sky Blues from Premier League rivals Arsenal as one of the first stars to arrive under the reign of Sheikh Mansour three-and-a-half years ago.

After captaining the club in his first season, Toure has struggled for game time of late, with Vincent Kompany and Matija Nastasic appearing to be Roberto Mancini’s first choice centre-back pairing.

Despite this, the 31-year-old hinted that he wants to stay, and extend his contract which expires at the end of the season:

“I like it in England. I have been here for all my career and it’s great to play in England.” He told SkySports.

“I really enjoy it, that is why I brought my brother (Yaya) here!

“There are challenges coming and there are changes in life, and I will deal with that if it happened. I wish to stay, but you never know.”

Toure received a six-month ban for doping last season, and believes that he owes City for their decision to stick by him:

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“The club has been here for me. Even through my tough time, everyone was behind me – the people and the staff at the club, everybody, the chairman, everybody.

“To have this support is great and that is why it would be much more difficult to leave.”

Arsenal have been offered the chance to sign Lyon midfielder Yoann Gourcuff on loan and are also mulling over an approach for Celtic enforcer Victor Wanyama, according to the Daily Mail.

The French playmaker has struggled for fitness and form during his two-and-a-half year spell at the Stade Gerland and hasn’t featured for Remi Garde’s side this season.

And the cash strapped Ligue 1 club are now keen to shift his £80,000-per-week wages in order to ease their dire financial situation.

Despite seeing his career blighted by injuries, the 26-year-old is still highly thought of in his native land and Arsene Wenger is reportedly preparing to take Les Gones up on their proposal to bring him to the Premier League on a temporary deal this month.

The Gunners boss is also pondering whether to reignite his interest in Wanyama this month with Chelsea and Manchester United thought to be monitoring the 21-year-old.

Since moving to Parkhead from Antwerp-based outfit Beerschott in July 2011 the Kenyan anchor man has come to the attention of the Premier League’s leading clubs after his dynamic performances in this season’s Champions League.

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Wenger has been linked with a number of midfielders in January, namely Marouane Fellaini, Yann M’Vila and Mohamed Diame, but reportedly sees Wanyama as the natural replacement for Alex Song.

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It might seem bizarre, but perhaps the bulk of the pain that stemmed from Arsenal’s 3-1 Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich on Tuesday night, wasn’t necessarily from the the result itself.

Because on the face of it, as brutal as it may seem, seeing Jupp Heynckes’ side dismantle the Gunners shouldn’t and didn’t come as any real surprise. The nature of the performance and the way Arsenal went down naturally hurt supporters, but the fact was we simply saw a far superior team beating an inferior opponent. Had the game been replayed, nine times out of ten, the result would have been the same.

It’s in what the game stood for and to a greater extent, their entire season so far, that has really invoked the dejection. Arsenal are a club that should be challenging for Premier League titles and at the very least, giving the likes of Bayern Munich and the cream of Europe’s elite a genuine, competitive examination over the course of two ties.

Today, the club still harbors those sort of champagne dreams. The problem is, they’re backing it up with lemonade ambition. And until they change the psyche of settling for second best, no matter who is at the managerial helm, be it Arsene Wenger, Jose Mourinho or Martin Allen, the outcome is going to be the same.

The thorn in the narrative here is that Wenger has possessed a defining influence over the degradation of a mindset that has seen the club go from winning to Premier League titles to hoping to scrape a fourth placed finish. Has the competition been bloated by those on a vastly inflated financial footing? Yes. Has Wenger had to work behind a veiled set of financial constraints? Most probably, yes.

But have either of those factors made the Gunners’ slide from the top inexorable? Most certainly not.

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Much has been made of the correlation between wage expenditure and on-field success, but while it isn’t quite a direct marker of where a club should be heading, the servicing of a £154million wage bill at the Emirates Stadium, hardly marks the resources of a pauper. It might not be quite that of a Manchester City, but they should be doing a hell of a lot better for the sort of money they’re dishing out.

And it’s where that money is being dished out that lies some of the greatest faults in the current mindset of the club. On the wider scale of the Premier League, it seems somewhat difficult to justify the £100,000-a-week wages that Theo Walcott’s new contract has now afforded him. Within the club’s flawed wage ideology however, there’s no way they couldn’t justifiably not offer him the terms he demanded.

Until the deadwood has been shifted from the ranks, that wage bill is going to continue to saddle the club on its current direction. But it’s where you draw the line of the cull that needs to take place at Arsenal, that you realise quite the job the club have on their hands to start challenging for titles again.

Because if that’s where they truly feel they belong, then some radical changes are going to have to be made this summer. Let’s be under no illusions here, the core group of players that Arsenal have at their disposal are as good as any in this country. The likes of Jack Wilshere, Santi Cazorla and Lukas Podolski are a set of extremely fine footballers indeed and in Carl Jenkinson and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain amongst others, the club boast some exquisite young talent, too.

It’s hardly as if this is headline news here, but the fact is there simply isn’t enough of the aforementioned talent around at the club needed to reach the levels of expectations the fans rightly demand. And to get back to the top, both Wenger and the board need to rediscover the mindset of a winner, most notable, the cold streak of ruthlessness.

Who in this Arsenal squad isn’t good enough to even consider the thought of a Premier League title? Gervinho? Andrey Arshavin? Marouane Chamakh? If so, they’ve all got to go.

New contract or not, are the likes of Aaron Ramsey and Wojciech Szczesny realistically good enough to propel their side to the top of the Premier League table? If not, then they don’t belong in the first team. Simple as that.

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Throwing money at a problem isn’t necessarily going to solve all their issues, but for as much as investment may or may not be an issue at the Emirates, they’ve wasted enough money for far too long now. If resources are tight, than you have to make sure that every single penny invested or funds raised from transfer sales, is invested wisely back into the club. Now would be a good time to start doing it.

Arsene Wenger isn’t going to haul his club back up to the Premier League’s summit by sticking to the same set of principles that he has done for the last eight years. He has spent enough time harbouring untold levels of patience towards members of this squad, only to be mercilessly let down time and time again.

Call it a new sense of direction, a Eureka moment or simply a last roll of the dice in last chance saloon. Both Wenger and the hierarchy at Arsenal are going to have to learn to be ruthless if they want to get back to where they belong. Should they fail to regain that winning mentality, then maybe a change at the helm wouldn’t be such a bad thing after all.

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Arsenal have finally discovered the key to success, according to Steve Bould.

The Gunners defensive home record has been a cause for concern throughout the campaign, with the North London side conceding a whopping 20 goals at the Emirates in the Premier League. Although their overall total number of goals conceded is just one less than table-toppers Manchester United (32).

To Arsenal’s credit their defensive record has started to improve having conceded just the one goal since their disappointing 2-1 defeat against rivals Tottenham last month.

And Arsenal No2 Steve Bould has had a big part to play in the shoring up of the defence.

“Everybody has realised that clean sheets win games a lot of the time.” Bould told the Sun.

“I’m hoping that the Tottenham defeat is the big turning point. We played really well on the day and I think we absolutely deserved more than we got.”

“Two defensive errors and we got punished by good players and that’s what happens.” he added.

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Arsenal’s improved form  however may just be too little too late as they face a major challenge to qualify for the Champions League, and have also made it an 8th year without winning any silverware.

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Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny this week was forced into both an awkward and deeply embarrassing position of having to choose his club over his own father after he attributed his son’s slump in form to manager Arsene Wenger’s handling of him. With this in mind, is the Polish international simply proving more hard work than should be necessary and will they now consider alternatives to him in the summer as a result?

The 22-year-old was prematurely hailed as the long-term solution to the club’s recent goalkeeping problem after cementing his place in the starting eleven last term and keeping 18 clean sheets in 48 games across all competitions, with 13 of those coming in the Premier League. Seen as a confident, somewhat flamboyant shot-stopper, the odd mistake and game-changing clanger has always been present in his locker and his father’s recent rebuttal of Wenger’s treatment of him has merely acted as the touch paper to a bigger, more underlying issue about his quality and whether he’s actually good enough to play regularly for a club like Arsenal.

Of course, Wenger has always had something of a blind spot when it comes to judging goalkeepers, having been fortunate to inherit David Seaman, the likes of Jens Lehmann, Manuel Almunia and Lukasz Fabianski have all caused just as many headaches as problems they have solved and even when the club was challenging for honours on a consistent basis five years ago, they represented an error-prone house of cards, liable to self-destruct at any given moment.

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The decline in goalkeeping standards across Europe the past couple of years has given credence to the thought that there is a real dearth in talent out there, so choosing to nurture your own academy product from scratch is a cheap way of combating a paucity of options. When you consider that the likes of Michel Vorm, Tim Krul, Tim Howard, Ali Al-Habsi, Pepe Reina and Joe Hart have all contributed to at least three errors directly leading to goals this term, it’s clear that even the stand-out performers by and large from last season have let their standards slip this year. Szczesny is not alone in that regard, and he must be judged against his peers as much as anything else.

Szczesny was recently left out of the Gunners squad for their UEFA Champions League trip to Bayern Munich and remained on the sidelines for a 2-0 Premier League victory over Swansea City last weekend, so his future is clearly under serious consideration at the club and he sounded somewhat desperate when questioned on his future this week.

“Physically, I can imagine myself at a different club, yes, but mentally, absolutely no,” admitted the Polish stopper.

“I’m too happy here. What guarantee do I have that I will win trophies somewhere else? Arsenal will win things again, I trust the club’s philosophy, I have a debt here.

“I don’t want to be anywhere else. My contract runs out in 2015. I have played my 100th game for Arsenal and I hope to play hundreds more.”

There’s always been something of the Emperor’s New Clothes about Szczesny, just as there has been to a lesser extent with Joe Hart’s England career – seemingly thankful that they are not Almunia or Scott Carson, we have rated them above their ability, applauded them for mediocrity and lauded them to be long-term solutions to troublesome problems, but how we’ve evaluated their performances has been flawed, leading to expectations simply not being met once the honeymoon period faded.

When it comes to his own individual form, Szczesny has largely been the same – he’s parried 22% of the shots he’s faced this year compared to 19% last year. He has punched away just 10% compared to 15% last term and caught 57% as opposed to 61% last campaign. The perception of a player struggling with his form has filtered through, while he won’t have been helped by the near constant injury troubles and the even more fragile nature of the back four in front of him.

Arsenal have developed a worrying trend in the past five years of conceding more goals in the league than the year before. In 2007-8 it was 31 goals, in 2008-9 it was 37 goals, 2009-10 it was 41 goals, in 2010-11 it was 43 goals and last term it was 49. They sit on 32 goals with nine games left to play and they could be about to finally buck that bad habit.

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This season represented a huge year in terms of his development, but suffice to say he’s missed his opening to make his mark through a combination of misfortune and poor performances. He can be a match-winner on his day – agile, commanding and authoritative, but will that be enough to save him at the end of the season? As with plenty of Arsenal players, the ability to occasionally perform to the maximum of their ability is what is symptomatic of the club’s decline.

When all is said and done, whether his father doesn’t like his manager all that much won’t factor into Wenger’s decision to sell him or not, but the pursuit of a new goalkeeper, as a means of serious competition just as much as a replacement, should be right at the top of the Frenchman’s transfer agenda come the summer.

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Mikel Arteta is a ‘major doubt’ for Sunday’s final game of the season at Newcastle, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has revealed.

The Gunners are firmly in the driving seat as they look to qualify for the Champions League after they beat Wigan 4-1 last night, but the victory came at a cost.

Arteta picked up a calf injury late on in the game at the Emirates Stadium and Wenger admitted afterwards he is unlikely to make the crucial showdown at St James’ Park.

“Arteta is not right,” said Wenger. “Arteta pulled his calf, so that could be a problem for Sunday. We don’t know, we have to wait 24 hours. He will be a massive doubt for Sunday.”

Arsenal go into the game with their destiny in their own hands as they bid to secure a place in the top four but it looks as though they will have to do it without Arteta.

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Arsenal are clearly looking to make the most of their trip to Vietnam through a positive PR campaign. After allowing a fan to step on board their team bus (albeit after he chased after them for a good few miles) they have become the people’s choice of team from the Premier League. The bus incident just couldn’t be topped as a way of winning Vietnamese hearts and minds – that is until one Gunners defender decided to go one better (or worse depending on your view.)

Step forward Per Mertesacker – probably not a favourite among Arsenal fans in the UK after more than a few calamitous performances from the big German at the heart of Arsenal’s defence. But apparently the things Per will do to win back the support of the fans knows no end – Per, we salute you.

While Mertesacker may have found the last two years tough in his day job, he seems to have found a talent that will keep him well within the spotlight of the entertainment business for years to come. Or has he? You be the judge. The effort was there Per, just don’t put us through that agony and embarrassment again, please…

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During the summer, amid the uncertainty over the futures of Gareth Bale, Luis Suarez and Wayne Rooney, and wholesale management changes at all of the Premier League’s top three clubs, many a-pundit insisted that the English top flight would be a six horse race this year, with Spurs, Liverpool and Arsenal joining the title hunt.

And if you looked at the Premier League table today, you’d assume the collective hypothesis is on the verge of becoming a reality as Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool fill up the top three positions in respective order, all with nine points and separated on goal difference alone. The Reds even have the chance of claiming pole position tonight if they can clinch a single point or more when they take on Swansea at the Liberty Stadium.

The hysteria regarding the six-horse race at the summit of the English top flight has also begun to reach epic proportions in the media. Andre Villas-Boas was quizzed over whether he thought the Lilywhites could claim the Premier League title last week, Arsenal’s Theo Walcott tipped the Gunners as prevailing dark horses in the title race  earlier in the summer, and from the moment Brendan Rodgers took the Anfield helm, he’s insisted that re-asserting Liverpool’s position from the 1980s as English champions is the ultimate aim of his tenure.

But let’s not get carried away here – the Premier League title racket is a three club affair, and come the end of the season, none of the Premier League’s current top three will be involved in it.

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Everyone’s very excited about the potential blow-back from Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United changing managers in significant ways – Jose Mourinho, Manuel Pellegrini and David Moyes can hardly be considered stop-gap solutions by any means – whilst Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs have all been incredibly proactive in the transfer market; the former splashing out £42million on Mesut Ozil, and the latter importing a new cast of exotic, young talents to compensate for Gareth Bale’s record-breaking departure to Real Madrid. Liverpool too have made astute additions over the summer, whilst perhaps most importantly they’ve somehow kept a hold of the wantaway Luis Suarez.

Indeed, we are in a very different world from last season, but not one so strange that anything ranging from Howard Webb becoming Southampton’s new goalkeeper to West Ham qualifying for the Champions League has become a possibility. It takes more than a single summer to bring down bona fide Premier League institutions like United and Chelsea, and a £100million summer investment on new players is hardly going to hinder Manchester City to the extent that the title is out of their grasp, despite a lukewarm start to their campaign that’s been riddled with minor teething pains.

To win the Premier League title you need to be the whole package – world class players, experience, a talented manager and great strength in depth – which is exactly what the Gunners, Tottenham and Liverpool are not.

Tottenham sold their single world-class entity in Gareth Bale in the summer, and although they have certainly re-built well by acquiring some of Europe’s (and one of South America’s) hottest properties in Paulinho, Christian Eriksen, Erik Lamela and Roberto Soldado, they’ll have a hard enough time compensating for the Welshman’s former influence at White Hart Lane, let alone overcoming the 17 point and 20 goal gap between Spurs and Manchester United at the end of last season.

Similarly, Andre Villas-Boas silenced many of his Chelsea critics last term by getting the Lilywhites to claim significant wins off Chelsea, United and City, but to suggest he’s now ready to lead Spurs to their first Premier League title, which would also be his first piece of silverware at White Hart Lane, is a tad absurd.

And if record-breaking signing Soldado suffers a serious injury bout, the entirety of Tottenham’s hopes up front will depend on Jermain Defoe and youngster Harry Kane – it’s a strong deviation from the squads at Chelsea or the two Manchester clubs, all of whom possess three or more strikers capable of starting on a regular basis.

Liverpool are in a similar situation. Unlike the Lilywhites, they managed to stop Real Madrid poaching their only world-class talent in Luis Suarez over the summer, and the Uruguayan certainly possesses the calibre of quality to be part of a title-winning team. Steven Gerrard too can claim to belong to such an elite category, and Daniel Sturridge could also in the near future, but that is where the list of top level stars ends for the Reds.

At the same time, Brendan Rodgers is yet to lift any silverware in his  management career from spells at Reading and Swansea, and although David Moyes can be accused of the same problem when challenging his title credentials, the Scot is at a club where the roster, the backroom and every mechanism in between have been geared towards claiming the Premier League title for the last twenty years. The likes of Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Wayne Rooney, Ryan Giggs and Michael Carrick have all won the English top flight five times or more, whereas none of Liverpool’s current cast excluding veteran signing Kolo Toure can argue to have played a significant hand in securing the domestic accolade before.

Arsenal on the other hand have Arsene Wenger’s rare experience in their favour, being the one of two Premier League managers currently serving today that have won the Premier League title before along with Jose Mourinho, whilst he’s also the division’s longest serving gaffer. The acquisition of Mesut Ozil has also put them in a stronger position than last term, but even so, they are still a long way shy in terms of squad depth in comparison to last season’s top three.

Currently, the Gunners have only three natural central defenders in Thomas Vermaelen, Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny, one defensive midfielder in Mathieu Flamini – unless you include the injury-stricken Abou Diaby – and one senior striker in Olivier Giroud. If the Frenchman is sidelined at any point in the season, Wenger will have to experiment between giving Theo Walcott and Lukas Podolski a striking role, or offer a first start for over two years to Danish bad-boy Nicklas Bendtner.

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It’s by no means the end of the world; all four, as well as free signing Yaya Sanogo, are capable of scoring goals. But does Arsenal’s strike force, or for that matter Tottenham or Arsenal’s, rival Robin Van Persie, Wayne Rooney, Javier Hernandez and Danny Welbeck at Manchester United, or Stevan Jovetic, Sergio Aguero, Edin Dzeko and Alvaro Negredo at Manchester City, or Samuel Eto’o, Fernando Torres and Demba Ba at Chelsea?

Yes, the Premier League is an exciting place all of a sudden now that Sir Alex Ferguson has retired, Arsene Wenger has finally spent some money and Daniel Sturridge has begun leading the scoring charts. This season promises to be the most unpredictable yet for many reasons, and the top of the Premier League table will most likely finish up with less points separating the top six clubs than ever before. But is it so exciting and unpredictable that the title race is now a six club affair?

I’m afraid not. But despite all the talk of the Premier League title race, it could be Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool in their pursuit of Champions League football that goes on to steal the show this season.

Will Arsenal, Tottenham or Liverpool win the title?

Join the debate below!