The cost of still competing in all four competitions

Arsenal are still challenging for all four trophies and the fixtures are starting to mount up for the Gunners. We are competing in the Premier League, Champions League, Carling Cup and FA Cup. We haven't been in this situation before and it shows how much better the squad is this year over previous seasons. We should win the Carling Cup on Sunday leaving us with only 3 competitions left, even though it would only be 3 we would still have a large number of fixtures left. We have made a habit of drawing FA Cup matches and have a replay soon along with the Carling Cup Final, Premier League games and the return leg of the Barcelona game.

 We have five games in the next two weeks and every single game is vitally important to our season and how it ends. Realistically we should win the Carling Cup on Sunday and we should be still challenging for the Premier League in a couple of weeks as a win tonight would leave us just one point behind United. In my opinion we are capable of overtaking United as they have to face Chelsea twice and Liverpool as well, we have the easier fixtures and we should win the majority of our matches. We will need to be at our best however and hope that Chelsea rediscover some form also. However I believe the league will be decided when United come to the Emirates, with an Arsenal loss handing United the title and vice versa.

 The Champions League will also be very difficult but we do have the advantage of taking a one goal lead with us to the Nou Camp. If we are at best we should get the result we need especially with Puyol, Pique, Valdes and Xavi all potentially out of the tie. The FA Cup could also be decided with a game against United as a win will leave us as the favourites for the competition but first we need to defeat Leyton Orient in the replay at the Emirates.

 We are facing Stoke in a must win game this evening, however all of games from now on are must win if we want to win 2 or more trophies this season. We have the potential to win all four but I believe 2 trophies is the most likely result for our season.