Mikel Arteta makes Arsenal trophies admission and has put the past to bed

Mikel Arteta has said he will be judged on what he wins with Arsenal today and is not thinking what has happened in the past

Trophies are vital for Arsenal to enjoy a successful season despite concerns of tournament distractions ahead of the FA Cup clash with Portsmouth.

This was the first and, so far, only major trophy that Mikel Arteta has won since being appointed in December 2019.

At the time, football was feeling the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the Gunners were unable to celebrate lifting the cup for the fourteenth time with any fans in attendance at Wembley.

“We want that one for sure - and the big ones,” Arteta said, alluding to both the Premier League and the UEFA Champions League. “And that's what we are chasing, that’s the purpose of this team.”

There can be no suggestion that Arsenal should consider throwing away either of the domestic cup competitions. In the days following their tussle with Pompey, the Gunners will face Chelsea in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final.

While it might be closing in on six years since Arsenal won a major trophy, there are just three games away from finally lifting another and in the case of the League Cup it is a competition they have not won since 1993.

When you invest upwards of £250million as Arsenal did in the summer last year in eight new players to a side that has finished second in the table three seasons running, there is no explanation for dropping out of any competition in a game you are expected to win, and win well.

The last time Arsenal went to Portsmouth, rather poetically, occurred during the FA Cup run of 2019/20 when the Gunners won it.

Goals from Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Eddie Nketiah saw the Gunners through with a squad that, nearly six years on, contains just two players who could be involved this afternoon.

Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli both started, but the former was still operating in his breakthrough role as a left-back.

Fast-forward, and it is unlikely Saka will start this match thanks to the newfound depth available to Arteta. Wholesale changes are expected with the likes of Noni Madueke, Eberechi Eze and Ben White among those in line for a rare start.

“Well, let’s see who is available and if some players can be back for that game,” Arteta said when asked about the potential for significant rotation from the side held to a draw by Liverpool.

“But we have to manage [it], obviously, because what is coming again in the next few weeks.

“I think we have four away games in different competitions, and we have to make sure that everybody is participating, we continue to perform and win games, and we’re going to have to manage that one.”

Arteta is correct, in fact, the trip to Fratton Park is the first of those four trips which are contained to just a ten-day period – a first for an English top-flight side to endure such a run of games on the road in this confined timeframe.

It is also a chance, perhaps, for Gabriel Jesus to get a first start since the League Cup quarter-final victory over Crystal Palace.

Arsenal produced their highest expected goals tally of the season in that game, with 3.63.

Should Arsenal replicate this level of goal threat while switching centre-forwards, it could spark yet further discussion over the short-to-medium-term decision on who starts in the role.

While talk of multiple trophies at this stage of the season is certainly fanciful, despite being laced with real potential, for Arteta, the mission will be focusing on the here and now and worrying not about what may come at the end of the season.