Worth it...sort of

Okay, I admit it. By and large, I suppose it was worth it.

4-1 at White Hart Land is always good. Seeing Twitchy 'arry give his best non-plussed twitchy look is also good, but not as good as watching Spurs fans empty their own stadium with a whole 15 minutes left to play in extra time. I mean, what the hell does that mean? Do you not have an iota of faith in your team? Was it that obvious that you were out of your league? (Yes). Was the ticket to a meaningless Carling Cup tie so cheap that it didn't really matter not seeing your favourite players for another 15 minutes?

It was also worth it as a lesson to 'fael fan der Faart. To stop talking and concentrate on the damn football. There's been talk that yes, we fielded a pretty strong team, but let's be clear, Spurs did not exactly field 11 kindergarten team players. Just by fielding Fabianski, we gave as good as a one goal handicap (which was what happened), so I'd say both teams started the game with similar intentions.

Except that it looks like we have a wee deeper squad.

The first half was pretty much excellent stuff, and while you'd always be happy with 1-0 at White Hart Lane at half time, I'd have been much more comfortable with 2-0, as our play had deserved. Spurs were nowhere, Wilshere was bossing things, and I was wondering what happened against Sunderland. So 1-0. Should've been more, and as expected, we paid for it.

Fabianski. Lets another one slip by, and I'm sure he'll be rewarded with yet more time on the pitch. Although it was interesting that Wenger said that "he touched it and he looked like he had it. Apart from the goal he had a good game...but overall it is good for him that we won."

Translation: the fool had it covered. He had barely anything else to do it. Good thing we won, the stupid arse.

I must say, I don't think I have ever in my time watching Arsenal's goalkeepers, felt as strongly or as surely about how this Fabianski sucks. But I'm not going to going on about this any more. It's Wenger's call to make.

So, good to great performances just about all through the pitch (except in goal). Wilshere stood out as usual, Vela looked unfortunately isolated at times, Koscielny immense as usual...I'm pretty happy. Who knows, we may just see Henri Lansbury a few times off the bench soon. But it was interesting that Wenger left Jay Emanuel-Thomas (let's just say JET) on the bench. Wonder if we'll see a bit of him v West Brom.

And oh yeah. Nasri. Now that's how you take penalties. The pressure was on, and both were as cool as French concombres.

Twitchy 'arry: "I thought the first one was harsh. He fell over. Really I think he dived for the first penalty."

Awww. You poor poor thing. But don't worry. You're still a bigger team than Arsenal.

Final word on the linesman. The linesman who wrongly flagged when Gibbs was marginally onside late in first half. The same linesman who wrongly didn't flag when Keane was marginally offside in the second. Well, what can you do? It needn't have come to extra-time. But it did.

For everyone out there who wants to re-live the whole thing over and over, though, enjoy:



We're on to the fourth round (big fat yay), and you know, as is par for the course now, we get news of yet another injury. Gibbs and his damn wafer metatarsals. I'm pretty sure I'd rather Gibbs to Clichy these days. Oh well. So long as we manage to put together 11 for a kickabout on Saturday then.

BREAKING UPDATE: Gibbs' injury is only short term. Holy Mary Mother of...I'm not sure if this is the first time ever that an Arsenal injury has turned out to be less serious than originally feared. We must be turning a karma korner. Amazing.

It must be me. I've been getting used to - Oh, he seemed perfectly fine walking off the pitch. Probably just lost a couple of leg hairs. And two days later, we find out he's broken 12 bones, 9 toe-nails, couple of hamstrings and will be out for 8 years. So this is pretty good news.

Anyhow, here's my bet for the starting 11 on Saturday: Almunia, Sagna, Vermaelen, Squid, Clichy, Wilshere, Denilson, JET, Nasri, Arshavin, Chamakh. On the bench: Pat Rice, Pat Jennings, Ian Wright.

There's more good news from Mexico too. Looks like the Mexican FA has gone and banned Carlos Vela from international duty for six months from this month. Woooohoooo! Something to do with a party after the recent internationals. Hmph. Whatever. No more stupid long flights for internationals, injuries, jet lag, whatever. Excellent stuff. Keep it up, boy!

Final bit of trivia for the day. Looks like Mancini's finally figured out who he has in his dressing room. A bit of rich wusses, pussies, and other undescribables. Well Hallelujah! Amen.

"But at the same time it is important they start to change their mentality. If they want to become a top squad and a top team they must change it. It is impossible that every three days players do interviews complaining that they are not playing."

All I can say is: well, what the #$%!&^% did you expect?! Crikey.