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Arsenal are the only English team still in with a chance of winning four trophies this season and tomorrow night they have what should be the easiest opportunity when they face Birmingham City in the League Cup final.

But doing things the easy way is not really Arsenal's style, as their recent results testify. Having beaten the mighty Barcelona 2-1 in a tumultuous Champions League tie in front of 60,000 fans at the Emirates stadium, four days later they were held 1-1 in the FA Cup by Leyton Orient of League One, watched by a crowd of just over 9,000. From the sublime to the ridiculous hardly does them justice.

The Arsenal players have talked openly about the quest for four trophies, which goes against the 'take each game as it comes' ethos usually heard from managers and players. While the ambition is to be applauded, Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger could be forgiven for thinking that just one trophy would be a start.

Wenger has not brought anything to the Arsenal trophy room for six years, which is their longest lean spell in the past quarter of a century. The Invincibles of 2003-04 have been succeeded by teams who have repeatedly come up short at the critical moments. Arsenal have won nothing since their FA Cup success of 2005, which was not exactly the most glorious in the club's history after they played out a stupefying goalless draw, had a man sent off and eventually clawed to victory 5-4 on penalties.

In the intervening years they have lost a Champions League final and a League Cup final (in both of which they also failed to end the match with 11 players) as well as finishing Premier League runners-up once.

Perhaps the floodgates will open if they can just break the losing habit and they won't get a better opportunity than tomorrow's final of experiencing that winning feeling again. Whereas in recent finals they have faced Barcelona and Chelsea at the height of their powers, Arsenal this time take on the 15th-placed Premier League team.