Arsenal’s League Cup campaign kicks off with a third round tie with Doncaster Rovers tonight, and here we’ve taken a look at how the Gunners have fared in the competition down the years.

Arsène Wenger has never won the League Cup with Arsenal, despite winning the FA Cup a record seven times, hinting that the Arsenal boss has never fully prioritised the competition, I feel.

Nonetheless, Arsenal have come close a couple of times in recent years. In 2007, the Gunners made it all the way to the final in Cardiff against Chelsea. A young Theo Walcott even gave Arsenal the lead early on, but after that it all went wrong. Didier Drogba scored two goals for Chelsea while the Gunners had two men sent off in a late on.

After three years of semi-final and quarter-final exits, Arsenal made it back to the final of the League Cup, this time at Wembley, against Birmingham City. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to end the growing trophy drought, and Arsenal went into the final few minutes at 1-1 with extra time approaching.

Then, a mix up between Wojciech Szczesny and Laurent Koscielny gifted the ball to Obafemi Martins in the 89th minute, who scored to win the trophy for the Blues. From then on, things have never looked very promising for the Gunners in the competition.

A couple of years later, Arsenal started well, beating Coventry City 6-1, and then played a bizarre game against Reading where the team had to come from 4-0 down to win 7-5, thanks to a hat-trick from Theo Walcott and a brace from Marouane Chamakh.

But the very next game, Arsenal were knocked out by Bradford City on penalties.

Overall, Arsène Wenger’s various teams haven’t made it past Christmas in the competition since that final against Birmingham. Three quarter-final appearances in seven years is as good as it’s got, and Southampton have knocked the Gunners out twice in the last three seasons. Hopefully this year all that can change.