When Arsenal and Birmingham City met for the Carling Cup final last Sunday one team had been facing 48 years without placing a trophy in, what is likely, a nice oak cabinet near their training grounds.  That team was not Arsenal despite the fact that many media types have made much ado about their "trophy drought".  Since that "drought" has spanned a mere five seasons, apparently for nearly the last five decades Birmingham City has experienced a "trophy plague".  It must have been the trained locusts following The Blues that distracted Wojciech Szczesny and Laurent Koscielny.


Yep.  There's not much else to soccer strategy other than "don't do this"

Even after the match, where the players in royal blue collected their medals, Arsenal's struggles were pushed to the headlines.  A club with substantially shallower pockets just claimed their first title in nearly five decades, but more importantly Arsenal failed again!  Birmingham City secured their first European competition since the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup existed (see 1962), but Arsene Wenger has bundled a cup again!


For perspective, there are twenty teams in the EPL.  Of those twenty Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool, and Tottenham Hotspur have claimed a tournament/league trophy since Arsenal hoisted the FA Cup in 2005. Four teams, that's it.  Obviously Birmingham recently crawled out of the Dust Bowl, but it's not like everyone is winning trophies but Arsenal.  Here's how long it's been since those other fourteen teams have walked to the winner's circle: (Premier League, FA Cup, Carling Cup, UEFA Champions League, or Europa League)

Aston Villa - 1996
Blackburn - 2002
Blackpool - 1953
Bolton - 1958
Everton - 1995
Fulham - N/A
Manchester City - 1976
Newcastle United - 1955
Stoke City - 1972
Sunderland - 1973
West Bromwich Albion - 1968
West Ham United - 1980
Wigan Athletic - N/A
Wolverhampton - 1980

Needless to say, the last few decades have not been all rainbows and lollipops for most EPL clubs.  In a league in which any team has the opportunity to get three trophies in a season, and the good teams could claim more than four, most teams don't win any.  The explanation for this divide deals with why Arsenal has been talked about more for losing than Birmingham City have for winning. And also why Bolton doesn't have as many Facebook likes as Manchester United. A small number of teams just have more money.


(Ian Lim - Wikimedia)
You can check this off your list of cool things Wigan Athletic doesn't have

Though twenty teams enter the EPL each year, only a handful have a chance to win.  Manchester United, Chelsea, and Arsenal will be at the top; Tottenham and Liverpool could hang around; and since Manchester City has recently acquired hundreds of internationals on their roster, they should contend.  Every other club is in a battle to not get relegated.  Arsenal routinely find themselves expected to contend, and thus not claiming any reward creates the stigma of not "keeping up with the Jones's" and so forth.  

Manchester United has claimed seven trophies since 2005, Chelsea has won six. Those are the peers to which Arsenal is compared.  Does it matter that The Gunners have won sixteen trophies since Blackpool last held a Cup?  Not in the new era of the EPL where there's a distinct divide between haves and have-nots.  It seems Arsenal has become the old money rich with the mansion and luxury vehicle garage, who haven't bought a new vacation home since the grandchildren were born.  And now the grandchildren are fumbling soccer balls into the neighbors yard, and ruffling granddad's puffy coat.