Wenger is delighted his team have reached the final but said his Gunners had to sacrifice Premiership points to get there.

"The big problem we have in England is that if you go for the FA Cup, like we did and Liverpool did, you have automatically a problem in the championship - especially if you also play in the Champions League, like we did," said Wenger.

"Certain weekends are FA Cup weekends, then you have to play your Champions League matches, plus your rearranged league matches.

"For example, we played Manchester City between our two games against Valencia. We had to play them in midweek because we'd played in the FA Cup on the weekend we were due to play them.

"It gives you a problem and you have to sacrifice something. You need to find a solution, so maybe you should play all FA Cup ties midweek and keep the championship games on the weekend.

"But that will never happen because the FA Cup is too prestigious."

Wenger mused: "I would advocate playing all FA Cup ties on a Wednesday.

"The supporters may object, but if you have 20 teams in the league, plus FA Cup replays, plus the Champions League, there are always more games - and somewhere you have to pay the price.

"Don't get me wrong, I don't think the competition is not good; I think I have shown that it is an important competition for me because I have sacrificed points at some point in the championship because of the FA Cup. I am not proud of that, and we won't neglect the FA Cup next year.

"But you have to accept that, because we have these postponed games, you might drop points in the league as a result of going for the FA Cup. You have to cope with that, because of the way the competition is structured.

"There are some good brains who organise it but unfortunately nobody has found an ideal solution."

Wenger's views may be controversial, but he believes he is simply being realistic. In a frank assessment of the game today, he branded the Uefa Cup a "second division" European competition.

He also said despite calls for the size of the Champions League to be reduced, it will never happen because that would bankrupt clubs like Arsenal.

"Everybody dreams of reducing the Champions League, but nobody will go for that because it will mean less money, and with the wages we pay we cannot take a drop in income," said Wenger.

"It cannot happen unless we go bankrupt.

"Also, they have a problem with the Uefa Cup - everybody knows that. If you look at the television rights, nobody wants to buy the Uefa Cup.

"We made money last season because we are a big club and people are interested in watching us, but in other countries they struggled to sell the Uefa Cup."

With Liverpool set to meet Alaves in the Uefa Cup final next Wednesday, Wenger added: "When you play in the Uefa Cup final you don't feel that you play in the top league.

"To lose a Champions League final is very hard, but we played the Uefa Cup final last year not with the feeling that if we win it we have done the business.

"But the FA Cup is different. When you play in the Uefa Cup final you feel that you are playing in the second division of the European league - it has lost its prestige. But the FA Cup final, everybody fights for it. "