Arsene Wenger was right to pick the side he did at the Britannia Stadium on Sunday. He knows that Arsenal have a great chance of glory in the Premier League or Europe this season and those two competitions could be crucial to his plans for the next few years.

Like it or not the FA Cup is not held in the same importance by clubs, players or fans anymore. It is still a great competition that can produce fantastic shocks such as the Leeds United win at Old Trafford in the previous round but, because of money in the modern game, managers now need to prioritise. Wenger realises that if his side are challenging for the two biggest prizes come the end of the season he will stand a bigger chance of attracting the better players. Even more importantly, his star man, Cesc Fabgregas, desperately wants to be at a club competing with the elite.

Like some of the fans, who already pay extortionate prices for their season tickets and travel to European games, clubs also have to pick and choose.

Football is now a squad game and managers should be allowed to choose any players from within that squad. Science continues to improve and clubs are getting wiser to the risks of injuries if players play two games within a few days. This is one of the major reasons why managers are using the rotation on a more regular basis. And now Arsenal are out of the cup they have no distractions in their pursuit of success in the league.

As Wenger told The Sun, January is a time when squads are always put to the test, when injuries start piling up.

"We have 10 injuries and we're going into a period where we cannot rotate very well. I knew it would be tight but I had more hope that putting the three players on near the end would give us more chance of winning the game. It was a risk.

"Some of the players were a bit too young to face a physical fight. It was always important we could cope with a physical game."

These are the quotes of a man who knows that bigger challenges than the FA Cup lie ahead, as sad as that sounds. One of the 60-year-old’s biggest achievements in North London has been keeping them in the Champions League while they have been settling into their new home at The Emirates over the past few years. He is still focused on his long term project at Arsenal and for that to happen the club must be financially stable. The best chance of this is Premier League or Champions League success – not the FA Cup.

So there it is. Premier League managers continue to rotate their squads. They’ll always get slated for it by certain quarters, especially when it results in a loss. It did for Arsenal in the Potteries, but in the long run they might be all the better for it.