MON DIEU, THAT WAS CLOSE!

Wenger relief as Cup exit keeps Arsenal on course

ARSENAL boss Arsene Wenger said the club was well on course to achieve its main goal this season despite the embarrassment of nearly beating a League Two side this week.

The manager said the club’s aim to go the whole season without a trophy after successfully achieving that target for the last seven years was still on course despite the close shave at lowly Bradford City. Arsenal were dumped out of the Capital One Cup on Tuesday night on penalties by Bradford, but it looked at one stage as if they might frustrate their fans by winning the tie after sending the match into extra time.

Wenger was so anxious to underperform and go out that he fielded his strongest side, and had it not been for defender Thomas Vermaelen’s misplaced header in the 88th minute, they would have lost in normal time.

Wenger told Splurt’s chief soccer writer and cleaning lady Bessie Gorton: “Thomas is very disappointed. He has apologised to his team. These things happen. Ideally, we would have liked to go out in normal time, but at least we got the job done in the end.” She added: “Over recent years there has been no-one better than us in the league when it comes to ending the season without a trophy.

“We had a minor hiccup in 2005 when we won the FA Cup but apart from that we have never looked like winning anything, which is a great tribute to everyone at the club.” He described Arsenal’s style as “anti-triumphalist” saying his approach was far better than if the Gunners were to “do a Chelsea” and win stuff. “Anyone can win. It takes character to cope with losing all the time,” mused Wenger.

He added: “Chelsea might be happy winning trophies, but we are not. “We aim to win nothing and are proving to be among the best in Europe at doing that. Sacre bleu!”