As Arsene Wenger trudged across the desolate, trophyless wasteland of North London, he fondly recalled lifting the FA Cup some 6 years ago; how shiny it had looked, its weight in his hands, and how reflected in its surface was the beaming face of the Frenchman himself. Now the face that gazed back at him from the trophy's relfection was a mocking one, sneering at his own recent accomplishments, or lack thereof. In the distance however, there was a twinkling light - surely not the fabled Carling Cup, the holy grail of domestic competitions? Indeed it was, and what's more, only the brawny and witless players of Birmingham City lay between Arsene and glory.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the trophy proved naught more than a mirage: Arsenal succeeded only in maintaining their outstanding run of losing in finals (this was the third since 2005) and so we must wait at least another 3 months before ending this barren spell. That said, as disappointing as it was to lose another final, especially to those leg-breakers from the Midlands, is anyone really that bothered? It's always easy to say after going out of a competition that you weren't really that bothered about winning it anyway - fortunately, some of us have it in writing from before Arsenal even reached the final. Here's what I said on the 23rd of January:

'Frankly I'd prefer to finish second than win the Carling Cup, which is more joke than trophy.'

I meant that, and I still stand by it.

The one truly irritating aspect of the whole affair, putting to one side the media's obsession with being unable to talk about Arsenal without mentioning the '6 years without a trophy' thing, is that losing to Birmingham was another stark reminder of the Gunner's ridiculously poor mentality when it comes to big matches. Why are we so consistently fragile? Why is no one prepared to rally the troops and instill come confidence in everyone on the pitch when they need it most? With a few key exceptions (like the Barcelona game) watching Arsenal when the pressure's on is an unbelieveably trying experience, because it's begun to seem like an inevitability that the players will be unable to cope with it. This was the case again on Sunday when the vastly superior Arsenal players looked completely out of their depth against a distinctly average Birmingham side who they'd already beaten home and away in the league.

It should be noted that Wenger was without both Fabregas and Walcott for the tie, two players who could conceivably have made a world of difference; without Cesc, our talented midfield looks disjointed and short on ideas, in much the same way that our attack was blunted by the loss of Van Persie last season. Walcott's presence meanwhile would have forced the Birmingham back line to play deeper to prevent balls over the top, thus either forcing the entire team to play deeper, effectively nullifying the threat of man-mountain Nikola Zigic, or opening up a gap between defence and midfield which then could have been exploited by the Arsenal. That said, there should be enough talent in this squad to allow for injuries to key players, but it never quite works that way.

Equally frustrating to watch is our persistent inability to deal with big centre forwards, who continue to terrorise our defence week after week. Other teams seem to deal with them with consumate ease - Zigic, Carew, Sidibe - players like this rarely break into double figures for the season, largely because they're technically piss-poor, and they only really threaten from set-pieces. When Birmingham took the lead via the head of Zigic on Sunday, what could we do but shrug our shoulders and say: "Well that was always going to happen"? A corner to the edge of the area, headed back towards goal, then nodded over the helpless keeper by the 6ft 8" striker. Even the most talentless hack in all of North London could have written this script.

Arsenal's riposte was of course a thing of beauty: a swift counter-attack ended in a super strike from Wilshere which cannoned back off the bar. The ball eventually found it's way to Arshavin though, and after accelerating past a Birmingham defender he lofted the ball towards Van Persie who volleyed into the corner. Sublime stuff all round, but the striker, who was born of a Dutch mother and a sheet of glass, took a knock during the goal, and will now miss the Barca game. Brilliant. He lasted until half way through the second half, but without him or Fabregas, the creative spark was completely gone from the entire team. With only occasional flurries of attacking intent from Arsenal, and only hopeful balls downfield from Birmingham, the game seemed to be meandering towards extra-time. Surely only a monumental piece of skill, or an equally monumental cock-up from either defence would end this game during the regulation 90. Take a wild guess at which one happened. And which defence was involved. Yep and yep. Sczensy and Koscielny both went for the same ball, and with both trying to avoid getting in the other's way, the ball broke loose to Obefemi Martins to tap in. Maybe the most disappointing aspect of the whole afternoon was how unsurprised I was by how things had turned out. If Paul the psychic octopus had told me before the game that Birmingham were a dead cert to win it 2-1, I think I could probably have told you who was going to score, when they were going to score, and how they were going to score with near 100% accuracy.

Still, no use getting too glum over what is almost definitely the least respected piece of silverware anywhere in the world. Could the loss have long term implications for the rest of the season though? Well it could stiffen our lads' resolve to win something even bigger - the Champions League perhaps. Or maybe it'll destroy them mentally, and we'll be lucky to win a trophy ever again. Could go either way really.

The latest news on Van Persie is that he's out for at least three weeks, which means he'll miss the Barca game. What slim hope we had of progressing from that tie is all but extinguised. The good news (no, really, there's honestly some good news) is that Man Utd lost at Stamford Bridge tonight - should Arsenal win their next league game, they'll be just a point off the leaders. I've read the script though, and it looks like we're set to come agonisingly close to pipping Utd to the league title, only for Almunia to literally and inexplicably hurl the ball into his own net in the last game of the season, sealing a last minute loss and another trophyless season. Still...there's always next season...