Once facetiously dubbed the Mickey Mouse Cup,
the Capital One Cup is not the nuisance that it
used to be.
Last season the tournament was
infected with a fantastical glee, an abundance of
goals drawing pleasant surprise and affection, but
an age of increased competition means that the
'bit of fun' may have to be taken rather more
seriously.
Six teams are likely to challenge for the Premier
League; at most, three will win domestic
silverware.
Only one of those sides, Arsenal, have a
boss who has been at the club for more than 18
months, with several new managerial reigns and
revamped squads looking for a first title win – so
often the hardest to achieve – to validate and
affirm the new regime.
In short, the Capital One
Cup can no longer be overlooked.
After the fourth round, the Gunners have joined
Liverpool in prematurely exiting the competition.
Arsene Wenger, noting the need to end a trophy
drought that extends eight seasons, shed his usual
disregard for the tournament; the side whom he
put out against Chelsea had an average age of
25.5, while every outfield player had made at least
one Premier League appearance this season.
Yet they crashed out at the hands of Jose
Mourinho's men, a psychological blow for the
north Londoners.
The Blues, after collecting the
scalp of Manchester City on Sunday, have
momentum once more, while Wenger – now
having overseen back-to-back home defeats in the
club's two greatest tests of the season so far –
must preoccupy himself with lifting spirits and
raising morale ahead of another crucial clash, this
time against Liverpool.
If Tuesday's game bred
confidence for Chelsea, it created only doubt for
Arsenal.
Mourinho, of course, knows only too well the value
of a cup win, even one that is held in such little
regard as the Capital One Cup.
The Portuguese's
first, highly successful stint in west London started
with victory in the Carling Cup, as it was then
known. The Special One played his strongest side,
winning at Old Trafford in the semi-final second
leg for only the second time in eight seasons,
before a 3-2 victory over Liverpool in the final.
"It's important," he said after the Millennium
Stadium triumph, three months before Chelsea
would lift the Premier League for the first time in
50 years.
"Especially for the players. It's very
difficult to win for the first time and, for these
players, it is the first time, so it is important."
There are few stalwarts of that successful era left,
while nine recent acquisitions who make up the
current first-team squad have not tasted domestic
success in west London, despite their European
exploits.
Chelsea, like all England's elite clubs, are in need
of, to borrow a phrase from Andre Villas-Boas, a
reference point to rally around; a sign of growth, a
tangible signal that the club are moving in the right
direction, validation of the ideas and philosophy
being installed.
Emirates-era Arsenal have suffered
without such a trigger, the closest being that
stunning and, crucially, affirming win over Bayern
Munich at the Allianz Arena.
It is worth
remembering that the Gunners' first title triumph
under Wenger was accompanied by FA Cup
success.
Many would argue that victory over the indomitable
Bavarians is worth more than the Capital One Cup,
others disagree. When Patrice Evra joined
Manchester United in January 2006, the club had
not won the league title since 2002-03, with many
of the glorious golden generation having left.
Barely a month after he signed, United had secured
their first trophy in 18 months and would win the
league the following season.
"That first trophy is always so important for you as
a player," said Evra.
"It doesn't matter if it's the
Community Shield, the League Cup or something
else.
From that day you start to be a winner. You
want to win more. You are hungry for more. That
was a very important trophy for us.
We went on to
win many more after that one."
That principle applies to so many sports and so
many eras. Witness Andy Murray using Olympic
gold as a springboard for Grand Slam success in
tennis. Witness, in 1977, Brian Clough's
Nottingham Forest winning the Anglo-Scottish
Cup, beating Leyton Orient 5-1.
Though a minor and short-lived tournament,
Clough explained: "It was like we'd been given a
shot of something positive that only a trophy,
whatever it is, can bring. You could see the lot of
'em, chests out, backs straight that night. We'd
won something and it made all the difference.
You'd think we'd won the European Cup that
night." Two years later, they did.
A trophy, then, of any nature, can only be a
positive thing.
A cup run provides a constant,
round-after-round injection of momentum and
confidence.
The Capital One Cup may not be the whole war but
it is certainly a battle that can hold far greater
significance, playing both a big role in deciding the
destination of the Premier League title and in
shaping the attitude and mentality of the many
fledging squads still in a state of transition. Come
March 2, one side's title push will be galvanised
while the rest play catch-up.
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