Mikel Arteta believes lifting the Carabao Cup could be a springboard for Arsenal to win bigger trophies as they prepare for Wednesday’s quarter-final against Crystal Palace.
Arteta will celebrate his fifth anniversary in office on Friday, but he has yet to achieve anything FA Cup victory in his first season and won two Community Shields after finishing runners-up in the Premier League for the past two seasons. The Arsenal manager is likely to field a strong line-up against Palace despite a lack of defensive options, and in the absence of Riccardo Calafiori and Oleksandr Zinchenko, teenager Myles Lewis-Skelly is expected to start at left-back again.
Arsenal haven’t won the League Cup since 1993 and Arteta hopes to end that barren run in mid-March and use the tournament to gain momentum.
“I think so,” he said. “I fully believe in that: the fact that you win and go to the next round and that creates something different in the team and that’s why these kinds of games are so important.
“It’s really helpful. It’s faith, trust, positive energy, reaching the cup, reaching the semi-finals and beating someone in the final; it is this energy that sets the right path to go and do something different, especially because of the time and when the competition is held in this country, it becomes dynamic.”
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Asked if he would celebrate his anniversary with a glass of wine on Friday, Arteta replied: “I don’t drink wine, but it will be a special day: five years in this job at a club of this size is a big thing, so I’m very grateful.”
