In May 2013, Everton FC and their fans were at a crossroads. Their former manager, David Moyes, had just moved on to supposedly greener pastures in Manchester, and most fans wondered what direction their beloved club would go in. Enter Roberto Martinez, the suave Spaniard who in the previous year had simultaneously guided Wigan to the FA Cup and relegation at the same time.

In his time as manager at Swansea and Wigan he had developed a reputation as a soft-spoken yet passionate and positive man, one who set up his teams to play with an attacking verve that reflected his natural optimism. Indeed passing out of defense to retain possession is a key part of his philosophy. This often led to football that was easy on the eye, but the approach also supplied more than the occasional fatal defensive error by defenders that weren’t used to being ball players.

Supporters understandably wondered what they were getting. He had achieved mixed results, so the reaction from the fans was understandably mixed, as well. They were not sure if he would lead them to a trophy (something that had eluded David Moyes for 10 years at Everton) or to relegation (something that had also eluded Mr. Moyes).

Martinez was seen as a dreamer, positive but firm in his views. An extoller of the virtues of the passing game with attacking intent, he would literally follow his football principles all the way to relegation if necessary. According to Everton chairman Bill Kenright, Martinez had promised to deliver the Holy Grail: “Almost Roberto’s first words to me were ‘I’ll get you in the Champions League.’”

In his first season in charge, Martinez’s Everton impressed, coming a more than respectable fifth in the Premier League, above teams such as Tottenham Hotspur and his predecessor’s struggling Manchester United. They showed a strong attacking appetite that was a hallmark of Martinez teams, but they also had the steel that some people say David Moyes instilled in them. It was the almost perfect harmony of organization and flair.

Fast forward two seasons and Everton are sitting in 12th after 23 games, a year after they finished a dismal 11th in the league. So far there has been no Champions League spot; no trophies, FA Cup or otherwise; not even the pretense of one.

That is not to say there are no positives. His side are playing football with an attacking flair that is easy on the eye; the product of inventive, incisive attacking intent, involving slick, quick passing and accurate crosses into the box. However, there is also a defensive frailty, and dare I say a naiveté that is all too reminiscent of Martinez’s relegated Wigan side.

As an example, look at Everton’s dismal home record. They’ve conceded the most goals at home currently, dropping 23 points at home in the process, a feat bested only by 20th place Aston Villa and 19th place Sunderland.

They also have a poor habit of conceding late goals at the end of both halves. Indeed, Everton lead the league in goals conceded in the last 15 minutes of each half (tied at 17 with Chelsea) and have dropped 11 points in games where they had taken the lead. As well as other high scoring games, they’ve been involved in two near identical 3-3 draws, where their over-exuberant celebrations and poor game management have cost them valuable points.

At home, it almost seems as though they feel like they have a duty to entertain, to create a spectacle. Ironically, in his attempt to please the crowd, Martinez has instead unwittingly ensured that sometimes the only pleasure Everton fans can get at home games is masochistic.

Even though he was a very good defensive midfielder in his time, when it comes to defending, his Wigan and Everton teams have been poor at the basics. The intensity they have in attack is missing defensively, which inevitably means they are often caught flat-footed in defense. If Martinez is to be successful at Everton, he needs to teach his teams to earn the right to play by placing a higher emphasis on team shape without the ball, defensive solidity and set piece defending.

The mistakes don’t help either. Martinez has made 21-year-old John Stones his primary ball playing defender, especially while Phil Jageilka was unfit. While Stones is a player of huge potential, a defender at that age is still very raw and sometimes error prone. Stones has made multiple mistakes that have led to goals, partly because he is still learning when to try to pass the ball out of defense and when to treat it like an astronaut and send it out of his team’s defensive stratosphere. In their last match against Swansea, his sideways pass to goalkeeper Tim Howard led to the penalty Everton conceded, a decision that is more commonplace than unique in this team. Such choices are another unwanted throwback to Martinez’s Wigan days.

SEE MORE: Martinez seems to be taking Everton backward.

It would be premature to see Martinez’s as a failure at Everton, but so far he has certainly underachieved. He needs to address these pressing concerns if he is to win a trophy or at least move up the table and eventually realize his much touted desire to bring Champions League football to Goodison Park. Pyrrhic FA Cup victory aside, Roberto Martinez still has a lot to prove as a manager. He seems unwilling to compromise his principles, even slightly, for something as presumably banal as accumulating points.

Winning a trophy would be a good way to boost the confidence of his squad and to renew the fans’ faith in him as a manager. He has shown strength in keeping Stones away from the clutches of Chelsea and decisive courage in spending as much as he did on Romelu Lukaku. He will need both characteristics now more than ever. He has a lot of work ahead of him, and the Capital One Cup semifinal second leg game against Manchester City would be as good a place to start as any.

The acquisition of Bastian Schweinsteiger from Bayern Munich is a signal of intent from a club that is trying to claw it’s way back to the perch it famously knocked Liverpool off of. 

Manchester United are used to being at or near the top of the Premier League pyramid, but the last two seasons have seen them endure the ignominy of finishing seventh and fourth respectively – positions that were previously seen as unthinkable for Manchester United in the Premier League era. Understandable then, that their first instinct was panic. They swiftly sacked David Moyes, who went from being hailed as the successor to the great Sir Alex Ferguson to the man that seemed to be attempting to drive Manchester United, a  Rolls Royce like club, off a cliff at 80 miles an hour. They then started throwing money at whoever would take it from them. Ander Herrera, Juan Mata, Angel Di Maria, Marcos Rojo, Daley Blind, Marouane Fellaini and Radamel Falcao were all brought in in a hurry – most for more than they were worth. Some, like Herrera, Mata and arguably Fellaini seem to be working out, others like Falcao and Di Maria less so. All were brought in without a clear sense of direction, just disparate islands that the manager was expected to mold together and turn into a functioning, title-winning team.

However, if the transfer windows of the last two seasons have been fuelled by panic, this season’s so far has been fuelled by common sense. United have bought and sold quickly and sensibly in positions where they have so far been wanting.  The promising Memphis Depay at right wing was wrapped up before the end of last season, Matteo Darmian at right back, Morgan Schneiderlin and Bastian Schweinsteiger in midfield have all been wrapped up before the beginning of the pre-season tour. Manchester United have so far gone about their business with the quiet arrogance of a skilled assassin, and if the rumors are to be believed, they aren’t done yet.

Of the acquisitions so far, it has to be said that Schweinsteiger is the one that stands out. A German World Cup winning legend that could have stayed at the club he has been with since he was 14 years old, instead decided to trade the red of Munich for the red of Manchester. At 31 (in August), he is arriving at the age where central midfielders are said to be at the peak of their powers. He will be expected to bring experience and a winning mentality to a young United dressing room that could do with a bit of both right now. His presence will also be a boost to the United fans, a sensible, relatively cheap, world-class purchase in a problem position. The fact that he has worked with Van Gaal before can only be an added benefit.

How much of a loss is he to Bayern? As an icon he is a massive loss, but on the pitch arguably less so. Under Pep Guardiola Bayern signed a host of midfield players including Mario Goetze, Thiago and Xabi Alonso to add to their already talented ensemble, making the recently often injured Schweinsteiger almost surplus to requirements. 

How much of a gain is he to Manchester United? It seems that he has been bought to play the deep lying playmaker role at United, and there is no doubt that he will be an improvement to the players that occupied that role for United last season. Carrick was effective in the games that he played, but was too often injured. Blind worked hard but seemed to be slightly out of his depth when shunted from left back to midfield. Phil Jones huffed and puffed like a steam engine that only blew hot air, and Fellaini seemed to briefly thrive only when thrust further forward.

Though his younger swashbuckling days are probably behind him, Schweinsteiger still has strong ball winning and retention skills, an eye for goal, and a calmness under pressure that will be invaluable to a team that is expected to compete on multiple fronts. His injury record over the last two seasons should be a cause for concern, but rotation with the capable Carrick should mean it is a minor one. The utilitarian Blind will go back to being the jack of all trades, the stop gap to plug leaks wherever is deemed necessary. Jones should now be allowed to focus on developing as a central defender, while Fellaini will see less playing time as a starter at least, as he competes with Mata, Di Maria and Herrera for starting positions further up the pitch. The tactic of using him as pinball always seemed to be more of a short term plan than a long term strategy. United should now be able to play a patient possession game with the ‘long ball to Fellaini’ approach a useful Plan B.

It is generally accepted that United will need a few more signings to really compete with the elite in Europe and even at home. They need a quality center-back, a striker to replace the departed Robin van Persie, and possibly another goalkeeper if David De Gea leaves. However, with the signings so far, and with the acquisition of Schweinsteiger in particular, there is a growing sense that they are now headed in the right direction. That question of how much a gain he is for the club will soon be answered, and United will hope it will be in emphatic fashion.

We all wait eagerly as the Champions League cleans out the cobwebs, wipes off the dust from its boots and prepares to restart after a short break. As any soccer fan will tell you, the yardstick by which we rank Europe’s elite is fast becoming the world’s premier soccer competition. The search for Champions League glory is one of the main reasons why teams spend incomprehensible amounts of money on players. However, as we huddle around our television sets to drink in the next round, there’s one thing that seems worth a minor mention. For the first time in 19 years, Manchester United does not feature in this year’s competition.

Now, to the casual observer this might just be one of those things. Clubs go in and out of the Champions League with a surprising regularity, like planes flying in and out of a busy airport. However, some clubs are staples – ever present pillars of the seemingly never ending narrative. With three Champions League trophies, countless appearances in the latter rounds and allegedly the largest fan support in the soccer world, Manchester United would certainly fall under that category. Their absence is especially poignant for United fans like myself, so used to seeing their team compete at this stage. Like food otherwise well prepared but missing salt, the flavor of the Champions League just doesn’t taste the same without them.

A whole generation of fans have grown up watching Sir Alex Ferguson’s swashbuckling, marauding Manchester United storm through the group stages and battle through the latter rounds. For decades they have been an exciting team, throwing caution to the wind with an almost reckless abandon that has endeared them to every soccer connoisseur – inspiring love and hate in equal measure. The media and fans of other teams love to hate them it seems, and Mancunians embrace that hate as a sign of envy and respect. Their illogical triumph in 1999 is a time marker – a victory for the underdog – with a script that Hollywood would have been proud of. Their numerous battles with Bayern Munich, AC Milan, Real Madrid and Barcelona have been part of the Champions League rhetoric for years. In that context it seems almost a shame that they are not in it.

An argument could even be made that we will never get Manchester United back, at least not as we knew them. After Sir Alex’s departure and with the arrival of David Moyes and then Louis van Gaal, the team have experienced a sharp decline. Their absence from the competition this year should give them a chance to regroup, and judging by their performances this season, they need the time off. In most games they have been poor, epileptic at the back, ponderous in midfield and immobile in attack. If anything it might be a blessing that they are missing out. Seeing them get torn apart by teams that are supposed to be their peers like Real Madrid, Bayern or Barcelona, would be too much for United fans to bear.

However, amidst the despair, there are faint signs of a pulse. For all their ineptitude in this campaign, Manchester United have shown an uncanny ability to win games. After 25 games they sit third on the Premier League table and are through to the sixth round of the FA Cup. In David de Gea, Wayne Rooney, Angel Di Maria and others, they have some very good individuals that they can build a decent team around. In van Gaal they also have a manager that has proven himself with various clubs in the long-term, even if he is yet to do so this season.

In the end Manchester United fans, so used to seeing their team compete in this stage of the competition, will have to be content with observing from the sidelines. We will watch jealously but with a somewhat amused interest, without the pressure of hoping everyone else loses so that our team can win. The hope is that the team’s absence will be more of a temporary holiday than a Liverpool style exile. Let the games begin.

Manchester United officially announced the signing of Angel di Maria amid the backdrop of a 4-0 insult at the hands of impudent league one side MK Dons. So abject was their display that if you were watching both teams for the first time you would struggle to believe United was the team purchasing the £60 million player. Yet they have, and in doing so may have indelibly changed the course of their season and the course of the career of di Maria. Or at least the course of the conversation for the next few weeks.

There has been a lot of debate about where di Maria will fit into Louis van Gaal’s system. It seems that the Dutch manager has decided that the 3-5-2 formation he used with the Netherlands at the World Cup – that more often than not turns into a 5-3-2 formation – is now the way forward for the Red Devils. If that is the case, it is hard to see where he would slot into the team, and easy to see why some people have greeted the purchase with slight skepticism. He is a good player they say, but bought in a position that is not United’s pressing need. Some would brand him a panic purchase by a desperate team, a cosmetic distraction from the real issue. Like a man grabbing his gun from his holster out of fear in a pitch black room. It’ll make you feel better about the situation, but ultimately it won’t solve the problem. Obviously that would be a line of thinking which would be possibly underestimating the player, but then playing beside the belle of the ball Cristiano at Real Madrid and the messianic Messi at Argentina will do that to you. All that dogged determination and frantic acceleration seen as background noise to football’s version of Ali vs Frazier.

However, as his price tag loudly proclaims, di Maria is not just any random player, and the necessity of the purchase wasn’t just about tactics. It was about making a statement and showing the world, the media, their fans, their opponents and indeed their corporate sponsors that, despite results on the pitch and a lack of Champions League football, the Manchester United name still had the power to attract a member of the elite. A truly world-class player, his presence will provide a sharp injection of pace into the heartbeat of United on and off the pitch, and could even serve as a magnet for other top level players. In a way they had to break the British transfer record, to try to show that United was still the same fabled team, like Real Madrid did in 2009 when they brought Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo to the Bernabéu. They have bought a player filled with ambition and self-belief, traits that used to be synonymous with the great United squads under Sir Alex Ferguson in the last two decades. He is determined, sometimes unpredictable, scarily quick and imaginative on the ball – all qualities that the new United have sorely lacked. He has also been standing in the shadow of two great heavyweights, and now is his chance to step into the light at Old Trafford, the commercial juggernaut that needs a hero.

Madrid meanwhile, have made an unquantifiable mistake. It is easy to underrate a player when he is playing beside Cristiano Ronaldo and Gareth Bale, but di Maria was instrumental to that Champions League winning Real Madrid side of 2013/2014. His departure is a by-product of their insatiable desire for the new and shiny, a Galactico business model that they have stuck to for better or worse. His industry, flair, pace and work ethic will be missed. Initially at Real Madrid he was an enigma, sometimes brilliant, sometimes flattering to deceive, almost like Nani was for Manchester United. The last two years however, has seen a marked rise in di Maria’s stature. He was priceless for the Madridistas, initiating countless counter attacks from deep in his own territory, a key feature of Carlo Ancelotti’s swashbuckling side. He had 17 assists last season, the most by any player in Spain, England or Italy. Even Diego Simeone, manager of arch rivals Atletico Madrid, recently called di Maria “the best player they (Real Madrid) have”. A slight exaggeration considering the presence of the World Player of the Year, but still indicative of the esteem with which di Maria is now held. Madrid will hope that new arrivals James Rodriguez and Toni Kroos bed in quickly. Kroos in particular will aim to bring control and balance to a side that sometimes seemed overloaded with pacey forward players when Madrid had Bale, Ronaldo, di Maria and Benzema in full flight. Di Maria’s departure seems to have come from a falling out with the Madrid hierarchy, who – if his open letter in Marca is any indication – he feels ultimately forced him out of the club.

However, with his divorce from Madrid now concluded, di Maria, like a scorned lover, will have a point to prove. He is going to a team that is shorn of confidence. Tuesday’s loss to MK Dons, a team formulated as recently as 2004, is the latest nadir in a series of nadirs for the Red Devils. The fact that United fans all over the world were only mildly surprised as opposed to visibly shocked at the result is indicative of how far and how fast United are falling. Di Maria’s big money purchase is the latest in a long line of attempts to reanimate a zombie-like United. As a team they seem cautious at best, and at worst uninterested in the drudgery of everyday football. First they called on David Moyes and Marouane Fellaini, then the trickery of Juan Mata, then the nostalgia of Ryan Giggs and most recently the eccentricity of van Gaal. Now they have called out to di Maria from the recesses of the deep. He will help pull them up out of the abyss and propel his career to dizzying heights, or they will fall together into the unfortunate pile of past glories and might-have-beens. Either way, it’ll be fascinating to watch.

Although expectations were tempered due to poor results in the last two World Cup tournaments they qualified for, The Super Eagles of Nigeria came into this year’s World Cup full of confidence. They won the African Cup of Nations last year with a unified team that had fewer off field problems than previous Nigerian squads. However, aside from having a goal disallowed in the first 20 minutes, they failed to impress in their opening game against a determined Iranian side who were widely considered underdogs.

Their midfield was particularly unimpressive. Even though they had most of the possession, they rarely did anything useful with it. Peter Odemwingie will need to start instead of the hapless Ramon Azeez who woefully misplaced almost every pass he attempted. Lazio’s Ogenyi Onazi was also spuriously energetic, constantly passing the ball to the opposition and spurning what was arguably the best chance of the game. He will need to be much better, and so will John Obi Mikel. The Chelsea midfielder will need to be involved further forward, as he was ineffective in the Pirlo-like quarterback role he played against Iran. Usually a midfield stopper for Chelsea, he looks to dictate the tempo for his countrymen and is much better at shorter passes – a skill the Nigerians will need to exploit if they are to have any chance of defeating Bosnia & Herzegovina.

Nigeria like to play a fluid 4-3-3 counter attacking style. They should be allowed to do this more against the Bosnians than they were against the Iranians, who if they could, would’ve parked the plane they came to Brazil on in front of the goal. In order to do that they will need get the ball to their three forward players Victor Moses, Emmanuel Emenike and Ahmed Musa quicker and with better accuracy if they are to stand any chance at all.

Bosnia & Herzegovina on the other hand are a technically sound team, with AS Roma playmaker Miralem Pjanić as their chief instigator. They have already proven they can beat strong African opposition, defeating Ivory Coast 2-1 in a friendly last month. In Manchester City’s Edin Džeko they have a proven goalscorer for a Premier League winning side and will look to him for inspiration. The battle between him and Vincent Enyeama will be really fun to watch. Nigeria’s goalkeeper and Vice Captain is a player of real quality. He repelled Lionel Messi in the 2010 world cup and will look to do the same to Edin Džeko in this one. The Nigerian defence do not provide him with much cover but even on his own Enyeama will be a formidable opponent for Džeko and his teammates.

A win for either side will be a massive boost to their chances of progressing, and both sides will believe they can win. Expect an open game from two even sides who will be fighting for their lives in the competition.

At Noon ET/9am PT today, the eyes of the world will be fixated on the Estadio Mineirao at Belo Horizonte. They will be watching Argentina vs Iran, but one man in particular will be the focus of almost all the attention. A few days ago, Lionel Messi scored his first World Cup goal in 8 years against Bosnia-Herzegovina at the Maracana. He will look to add to his tally, and his already spectacular legacy, with a strong performance against an Iranian side that on paper seem to be the weakest side in the group.

His goal aside, Argentina and Messi in particular seemed very subdued in the first game, especially in the first half. The four time Ballon d’Or winner led the team in giving the ball away frequently with lethargic and purposeless runs, and Argentina as a team will need to be quicker out of the blocks against Iran, who tend to grow into games. That could mean ditching the 5-3-2 they started with initially and going straight to the 4-3-3 they applied in the second half of their tournament opener that seemed to free up space for Messi and his cohorts to work their magic. Unsung hero Angel Di Maria will be key in this game, as he was the only attacking player in the first game that played with verve and imagination for the whole 90 minutes.

That being said, the only potential weakness for Argentina would be if they went into the match with any sort of complacency. According to the FIFA World Cup betting odds, Iran has shown that they do not have any intention of being the whipping boys of Group F that everyone predicted they would be. After a somewhat shaky start, they were resilient against an uninventive Nigeria, showing a certain amount of shrewdness in their pragmatic approach to the first game. They did not lose, and now have the psychological power of a point that cannot be underestimated. Iran qualified for the tournament with a solid defensive record, albeit against admittedly weaker opposition. They have already kept a clean sheet against the African champions Nigeria, and will look to do the same against group favorites Argentina. Iran will look to be organized in defense and efficient on the counter attack, something they showed flashes of in the game against the West Africans. Properly utilizing key forward Ashkan Dejegah who was very influential in that game could be vital, as scoring first will be crucial to their chances of springing a surprise.

A win would be euphoric, but they will be satisfied with an unlikely draw, as that would mean that victory against Bosnia-Herzegovina could see them through to the second round for the first time in their history. But first they will have to survive the onslaught from an all-star Argentinian side led by Messi, arguably the greatest goalscorer of all time. As their coach Carlos Queiroz said, they will need to play beyond their limits – but even that might not be enough.

SEE MORE — Read our Argentina World Cup Preview and Iran World Cup Preview.

Even though they were missing players such as Franck Ribery, Clement Grenier and Samir Nasri for varying reasons, the French team were still a formidable opponent for the Central American side, and it showed as the game went on.

Honduras started the game determined to win the midfield battle, and a battle it was, with crunching tackles and strong fouls threatening to halt the French flow. You could be forgiven for thinking the Honduras players had been shown footage of the now infamous Battle of Santiago match in the 1962 World Cup between Chile and Italy. Indeed Wilson Palacios and Paul Pogba each got booked in the 25th minute for a stamp and a retaliatory kick out respectively. Palacios — who plays for English Premiership side Stoke City —would come to rue that yellow card, as he got a second yellow and a subsequent red for a blatant foul again on Paul Pogba in the box. Karim Benzema dispatched the penalty with almost the last kick of the half, giving his side a one goal lead at halftime.

Honduras made two changes at halftime hoping to stifle the French attack, but Karim Benzema had other ideas. In the 48th minute he latched onto a pass from Yohan Cabaye and thundered a shot onto the post and off the hapless Noel Valladares into the net. With the game now practically over as a contest, the game settled into a rhythmic waltz of fluid French passing and forceful Honduran tackling, interrupted briefly by another Benzema thunderbolt into the roof of the net in the 72nd minute.

Honduras will be justifiably ashamed of their overly physical performance at Porto Alegre, and will have to show something different against Ecaudor in their next game if they are to have any hope of coming out of this group. They started the game with a 4-4-2 formation, hoping they could exploit their pace up front and on the wings, but their lack of quality relative to the French meant they rarely threatened. They got nothing in midfield, and what little threat they posed was quickly stifled by the young defensive pair of Mamadou Sakho and Raphael Varane.

The French midfield trio of Pogba, Matuidi and Cabaye were solid and controlled, with Mathieu Valbuena and Antoine Griezmann looking impressive alongside a rejuvenated Karim Benzema. Valbuena in particular dictated the tempo, making pin point passes, intelligent runs and delivering accurate crosses from almost every set piece. Indeed the first major chance of the game came from a Valbuena free kick on the right hand side, the ball falling kindly off the back of a Honduras player to Blaise Matuidi, whose shot was tipped onto the bar by Valladares.

The 3-0 win over Honduras albeit expected, is encouraging. The French national side came into this World Cup after the farce that was 2010 with relatively low expectations, and will want to continue to show the unity and confidence they displayed in this game as the tournament progresses. Their next game against the Swiss will provide the first true test of their credentials in this World Cup and on the evidence of tonight’s performance, they will be no pushovers.

The plight of a modern Arsenal fan is an amusing one. In Arsene Wenger they are saddled with a stubborn and previously successful manager, who showed them what greatness looked like, only to take it away. In just his second season, Arsenal did the double, winning the league and the FA Cup. Between 1997–2005 Arsenal won 3 Premier League titles, 4 FA Cups and 4 FA Community Shield trophies under Wenger. Now, almost a decade after that last FA Cup triumph against Manchester United, Arsenal are enduring the type of trophy drought the Sahara Desert would be proud of. Once in a while Arsene’s Arsenal teases its fans with a cup final, like the 2006 Champions League final against Barcelona and the 2011 League Cup final against Birmingham; giving their fans glimpses of trophies they were ultimately destined not to win.

On the one hand Arsenal fans are grateful to a man that brought unprecedented success to Arsenal. A man that revolutionized not only Arsenal as a club, but English soccer as a whole. He changed preconceived notions about diet and exercise, while at the same time exhorting an ethos of attractive, attacking football never before seen by the Arsenal faithful. In the process he, albeit briefly, disrupted the stranglehold that Manchester United had on the Premier League, discombobulating all previously held beliefs about the status quo. In 2003-2004, his Arsenal team went an entire season unbeaten in the league – a unique feat that had never before been achieved in the Premier League, and hasn’t been replicated since.

The problem with winning though is that it’s like an addictive substance. You can go your whole life without it, but once you’ve tasted it, you want more. Almost a decade on from their last major trophy, Arsenal fans are still going through silverware withdrawal symptoms. They are itchy and impatient, showing a heightened level of frustration with a manager that changed the culture of the club. Now being pretty is no longer enough. They want a taste of some of the success that Wenger’s early swashbuckling teams provided. They want to win again, instead of pretending to challenge for honors every year, only to drop out of the running in every competition by February.

To do that, Arsenal and their manager might need to take a step back in order to ultimately move forward. Lowly Wigan and possibly Hull or Sheffield United is all that stands between Arsenal and a FA Cup triumph this year. The path to glory seems relatively clear, although as they showed against Birmingham in that now infamous cup final, they are more than capable of tripping themselves up.

However focusing primarily on the FA Cup has its own perils. Arsenal will be nervously looking over their shoulders in their perennial race for fourth place. A determined Everton side are 4 points behind them with a game in hand, and Arsenal still have to visit Goodison Park before the end of the season. Focus on the league, and it might be to the detriment of the FA Cup. Focus on the FA Cup, and Arsenal might miss out on fourth place; something that Arsene Wenger has described as comparative to winning a trophy.

In reality though, the only thing that compares to winning a trophy is actually winning a trophy. Missing out on fourth place for one year might not be such a bad thing, especially if they end the season with a trophy parade. Since that narrow FA Cup win in 2005, Arsenal have finished in the top four every year. Missing out on the top four might increase their urgency to acquire and retain top talent that will have them not only back in the top four, but genuinely chasing major honors. So far they have been content with acquiring mediocre talents like Andre Santos and most recently Kim Kallstrom – talent that is willing, but ultimately incapable of producing the sort of trophy winning fairy dust that Arsenal need. It might also help them focus more on the league, as Liverpool this season have shown.

Winning something will instill the players with a belief in themselves and a hunger that coming fourth every year can never do. Unlike their fans, the current crop of Arsenal players do not have that addiction to success; that itch that only winning trophies can scratch. None of the 16 players from that FA Cup final winning squad of 2004-2005 are left in the Arsenal dressing room. Winning the FA Cup this year can be the boost they need. It might also help with the timidity that Arsenal players have shown against the other big teams in the league in recent years. This season alone they have been battered by the 3 sides above them in the league, losing 6-3 to Manchester City, 5-1 to Liverpool and 6-0 to Chelsea.

So in the end, to win or not to win is the question for Arsene Wenger. Settle for fourth place mediocrity and a place in a competition that they have so far shown no desire or ability to win, or go all guns blazing for the FA Cup and possibly miss out on his coveted fourth place. The decision is his and his alone, but Arsenal fans will be hoping that he chooses to give them a fix of their favorite drug.

Arsenal fans, if you can only choose between winning the FA Cup or qualifying for the UEFA Champions League, which do you want? And no, if you can’t have both! Share your opinion in the comments section below, and tell us why you want FA Cup success or Champions League qualification for the Gunners.