Arsenal’s hopes of a unique quadruple of trophies were dashed by defeat in last Sunday’s Carling (League) Cup final at Wembley against EPL strugglers Birmingham City, a match which also proved costly to the North Londoners in injury terms.

The Gunners remain firmly in the EPL title race after leaders Manchester United lost at Chelsea this week. They take a 2-1 lead into Barcelona’s Nou Camp stadium in the Champions League next week.

And they smoothly advanced to the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 5-0 crushing of League One Leyton Orient in this week’s fifth round replay at the Emirates.

 

Meanwhile, the club announced a £2.5m loss for the six months to 30^th November 2010, blaming an inactive summer transfer window for the loss.

Manager Arsene Wenger made his priorities clear after the Orient victory, saying: “The league is a vital race. For us, the most important.”

This came after his side failed to end their six-year trophy ‘drought’, when a defensive calamity involving centre-half Laurent Koscielny and keeper Wojciech Szczesny literally handed Birmingham the Carling Cup after Robin Van Persie had equalised Blues’ first-half goal.

Wenger did not apportion blame after the match, despite the winner coming from the central defensive and goalkeeping weaknesses which have undermined Arsenal’s campaign so far.

The Frenchman said: “I blame no-one. Both players are destroyed but we have to pick ourselves up. That’s what a team is all about. It is a good opportunity to show our mental strength, which I think is great.”

Arsenal also lost Van Persie to a knee injury picked up in the act of scoring. And flying winger Theo Walcott joined captain Cesc Fabregas on the sidelines at Wembley after both players picked up injuries in the previous week’s 1-0 home EPL win over Stoke.

Van Persie and Walcott are both ruled out of the Barcelona tie. Van Persie’s knee injury will keep him out for three weeks, while Walcott has a sprained ankle.

Fabregas, however, is a possibility for the Nou Camp after Wenger said he would miss “one or two” games as a result of his hamstring strain.