Since we lost the League Cup final, everything has turned against us – Arsene Wenger points to defeat as tipping point in Arsenal’s season

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Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger says his team’s season began to unravel after the shocking defeat to Birmingham City in the League Cup final, and his players have struggled to regain their belief since.

Four trophies were in the reach of the Gunners before the 2-1 loss to Alex McLeish’s side and Wenger’s men seemingly failed to recover from the game at Wembley.

Champions League and FA Cup misery followed, as Arsenal were knocked out of Europe’s top competition by a dominant Barcelona and title rivals Manchester United dumped them out of the domestic tournament.

Now, the Gunners find themselves nine points adrift of Sir Alex Ferguson’s champions elect, who they face at home on Sunday, and risk finishing the campaign in a disappointing third place thanks to the resurgence of their London rivals Chelsea.

Wenger has had to defend the integrity of his young squad as the last hopes of the title drifted away last weekend after a 2-1 defeat to Bolton, but the French manager believes that the crushing blow they faced back in February has been on his players’ minds ever since.

“I feel the team gave a lot in the last two months,” he told the press.

“Since we lost in the Carling Cup everything has turned a little bit against us.

“When we were on all fronts, this team had fought very well. I just feel that after the Carling Cup we continued to be absolutely spot on with our attitude.

“But we missed a little bit of that subconscious belief which makes you win. That frustrates you because you know that it is there and you want to fight against it.”

Up until the loss at the Reebok Stadium last Sunday, Wenger’s side had been on an impressive 16-game unbeaten run. However, too many of those games were drawn, points missed that Wenger knows would have kept the Gunners in contention for the title.

“If you look at all the numbers, it is the closest we have been,” he added.

“The most important trophy above all for me is the league – and this year we had the quality to win it.”