Two poor mistakes have cost us dearly. It'll be difficult to come back in the 2nd half.

But we've created some good chances and if Baptista knew which goal he was shooting against, we might have pulled a goal back already. He miskicked the ball and it went into his own net. Then at the other end he miskicked the ball and cleared it for Spurs. Eejit.

The Baptista OG shouldn't have happened in the first place, it was never a foul by Denílson for the free-kick.

Walcott has been useless again. Maybe bring on Hleb in the second half & Flamini for Diaby. If we pull a goal back, or get a draw it'll be a good enough result.

I think they said that he's away on international duty mate.

Right then, 2-0 at half time but I'm not at all comfortable with our lead. I think we'll need that 2 goal cushion when we go to the Emirates so hopefully we can hang onto it and maybe even add to it. What i don't want to see is Spurs taking a defensive attitude in the second half. We did this a lot last season when we were in a winning situation and it led to a lot of tense finishes to games which really should have been comfortable. Sometimes attack can be the best form of defence - hopefully we'll continue to play our normal game throughout the second half.
I have a feeling that Arsenal's young guns could start firing at any time so we really need to concentrate and put in a professional performance.

Right, back to the action.

we had a great chance at the end of the half to get a goal back ...damn . I hope we can stage a comeback and get a goal or two . We certainly cannot afford to concede any more .

2-1 now.
update 2-2 omg woried.

2-2

I think Baptista will want to sleep with the Carling cup if Arsenal win it.

Spurs under a lot of pressure. hmm sounds like a good game final Spurs 2 Gunners 2.

Hey - The Beast has scored 7 goals in the last 2 CCup games - shame one was an og :lol

And 2-2 is a good first away leg

Totally dominated the game 2nd half. Robinson should be embarassed, yet another amateur decision.

It's such a pity that Spurs got that fluke of a goal, from a free-kick that shouldn't have existed.

Our Reserves (including 2 First teamers) deserved to beat the Spurs First team at White Hart Lane.

Yep, that was an awful decision by Robbo. He's not been convincing for a while now and I just don't know what he was thinking...



In fairness though, Keane was wrongly judged to be offside when he went through one-on-one with Almunia, where he likely would have scored. Bad decisions go both ways and in this game I think it was quite even in terms of decisions.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, Spurs have a habit of playing too defensively when they lead a game. It's happend so many times before that I was just not surprised to see it happen again. It's extremely frustrating. I think they get nervous and lack the kind of players that drive the team on and inspire them to play harder. King can do that job and I think we missed him tonight. Toure and Fabregas both have the ability to take the game by the scruff of the neck and I think that they both had a very good second half.
I have to say that Walcott was poor - he has no physical presence and gets brushed off of the ball too easily. His performance aside though, Arsenal looked good in the second half and thoroughly deserved the draw. Spurs have it all to do now but I'm still hopeful that we might be able to pull it off, as difficult as it may be.

Well played to both teams - an entertaining game on the whole.

Walcott hasn't played well since the injury there.

He has all the qualities & the skill. He's got great pass, control & pace - the perfect attributes to grow into a successful attacking Winger.

But his problem in the last couple of games has not been his weight or his strength. It's his confidence & his attitude. He was so cocky on the ball tonight. Too eager to impress the Manager and instead of playing a simple pass to keep possession, he'd run at 3 Spurs players and get nowhere.

Has been dwelling on the ball too much and trying too many fancy touches. Needs to get his head down and keep it cool & simple.

Yep - Walcott had a poor game today, but every player does at times, and he's still very young

He's played better in his First team appearances and seems to have lost his way since the most recent injury he had.

He can become a star at Arsenal, but needs to dig in & work harder now.

I'm not denying that he's a big prospect twm. I think he could potentially be a very decent player but tonight, he was less than average. I can't see him knocking Lennon off of that RW spot in the England squad any time soon. I agree with you J-Axe, Walcott was trying to do far too much and he wasn't doing the simple things well at all.
Out of interest, do you think that the RW is where Walcott will play throughout his career? Is that his best position?

Walcott will be moulded into a Striker I think.

But playing him on the wing won't do him no harm, as that's the same treatment a certain Thierry Henry got at a young age. Walcott won't provide good defensive cover for his fullbacks and he has a good eye for goal which makes me think he'll become a Striker, despite his lack of goals for Arsenal.

The problem at the moment is that he is not as good as the other Strikers at Arsenal and because of his speed & pace, he will be used as a winger instead - to get him games.

I don't like Lennon though. He is almost a one-trick pony. When he comes inside, he looks lost and often his crossing from wide is merely average. He often (alike Walcott) tries too much and falls over his own heels, which is frustrating for even me to watch.

Walcott has the ingredients to become a star, so lets see.

I honestly think Martin Jol made a wrong decision with brnging Keane on instead of Mido,the big guy/little guy combo was working in the first half with Berbatov and Defoe,so why didn't he stick to the same policy by bringing Mido on? it changed Spurs style too much and cost them dearly in the second half,but i'm not gonna take too much away from Arsenal,i thought they were superb in the second half,Fabregas ran the midfield on his own,and what on earth was Robinson doing,he's heading into David James territory with his latest performances...

Cesc was brilliant in the second half, but Denílson was also a big part of the reason to why we dominated Spurs then. His work-rate was exceptional.

Robbie Keane is a class act and Mido has been injured for a long while (he's only back) so obviously Keane is the more fitter, sharper & better replacement for Berbatov.

Shouldn't have any excuses though, they are ridiculous. Keane is good enough for the Spurs First team and always has been, most of our team playing tonight was not good enough to make the First team's bench.

Just thought I'd mention that Keane has been out injured for a long time as well. In terms of injuries, there was really no reason to choose one over the other, in which case, perhaps Mido would have been the better option.

Gazza - You hit the nail on the head there. Spurs were dominating until Martin Jol brings on Keane for the injured Berby and switches to 4-5-1 FFS!
You could see that played straight into Arsenals hands, Martin Jol is tactically inept and needs to grow a pair of balls.

4-4-2 was working so well but he got so scared of losing his lead he thought switching to 4-5-1 and packing the midifield would save him.

After the game the reporter asked Wenger 'Do you think their change in system helped you', Wenger just laughed, he must have thought it was fvcking christmas!!!

J Axe - dont be so smug about your socalled reserves earning a draw at WHL, that was quite a experienced team out there. Almunia over 30, Toure and Senderos played whole of last season for 1st team, Cesc and Hleb first choice midfield, Baptista Brazil international and played for Real Madrid, could go on.

i had a little smile about that too Jono , Wenger had to make sure he was not being too disrespectful to Martin Jol when asked by the reporter but you could see he was happy about the change .

I thought the crucial point was the inclusion of Fabregas in the Arsenal line up , i was not sure whether Arsene Wenger would play him but it made all the difference . We had a few more first teamers than i had expected but i suppose being the semi final made it a bit more important to include a bit more experience . The free kick that led to the Baptista own goal was a bit harsh but the Robbie Keane offside decision evened things up i guess . Walcott was very poor last night and agree that he was trying to hard to beat people and impress rather than playing for the team , Eboe was also a good substitute immediately causing Spurs all sorts of problems as soon as he came on . Two great goals by Baptista and a bad error of judgement by our England number one Paul Robinson (i wonder if Mclaren was watching) , hope the injury to Hlebb is not too bad and i felt sorry for Alliadire who came off injured again , it was good to see Diaby back playing . According to Wenger he will play the youngsters again at the Emirates for the second leg , i think they deserve it and i would not be surprised to see Fabregas included in the team again next week

Aye Fabregas was a huge difference maker in this match, the lad is unfortunately absolute class but if you give him as much time on the ball as we did today then you are just asking for trouble.

I guarantee you he wont be nearly as effective against Bolton in the cup when they pressurise him out of teh game. You watch, they will shut him down whenever he even thinks of getting the ball, and it will work wonders. Exactly what we should have done today.

i think i remember that leading up to the second Arsenal goal , Fabregas had the ball but he was unsure what to do with it , no Spurs player bothered to challenge him or win the ball back , then of course he chips a beautiful ball over for Hoyte to run onto and cross for Baptista who coolly slotted home .

I hope against Bolton that we can adapt our game to cope with any possible tactics they use , they are still a bogey team for us but it is about time we were able to see off teams who play like that . But you never know , one game Rosicky is the hero , another game Henry is the match winner , Fabregas was the man of the match last night ...

and Spurs were effective in the first half last night , Fabregas did not get much of a look in , i think they just laid off us a bit in the second half which is like asking for trouble and Fabregas made the most of it .

i hope Spurs win cuz then we have a easy team to play jk i think it would be a bad game is Gunners face blues again look at the last match we played against them it was filled with diving and bad sportsmanship.

Smug? Stop moaning will ye. I'm allowed to revel in the fun of it all.

- Almunia is 29 and nowhere near as good as Lehmann.
- Senderos did not play the whole season. He only stepped in when Campbell was injured or went AWOL. He is not a First team player at Arsenal. Just about makes the bench in front of Djourou, as Gallas is our starting Central Back.
- Hleb came on for what, 10mins and went back off injured? Hardly time to make big impact.
- Baptista is at Arsenal because he was rejected from Madrid, deemed not good enough to get in the team. He is also not good enough to get in the Arsenal First team, just about making the Subs bench.

Cesc & Touré were the only First team players who played the game. Eboué came on late into Midfield and Hleb had a short appearance near the end also.

Our youngsters (a team aged at an average of 20yrs & 7months) did extremely well and deserve miles more credit that you're giving them. I hope Wenger fields the same first 11 next week - because they can beat your First team.

i think we should not get carried away with the way we played on Wednesday , it may be true that Fabregas and Toure were the only regular first team players that would usually play every week barring injury or suspension , but we still had several players that have played for other clubs or have some experience having played in the first team during the last couple of seasons . I would not say now that Senderos is an inexperienced youngster ...he has now made over 67 appearences for Arsenal and should be able to cope in the first team whether he is first , second or third choice . Baptista is as Jono said a Brazilian international and whether he was not good enough for Real Madrid does not make him an inexperienced player and he has shown over the last few games for Arsenal that he is maybe good enough for the first team . Almunia has been at Arsenal for a while now but just has not been able to get the games because of Lehman , Hlebb has now made over 40 appearences for us and i would not say is inexperienced , the same for Eboue who has now played over 30 matches for us since he arrived . In fact the only players on Wednesday with limited playing experience were Hoyte , Denilson , Alliadiere, Walcott , Traore , Diaby ...still an impressive performance though .

That was objective, nice one Conner.



I thought I heard the commentators say the average age was 21.5 years if you dont count the goalie. Nevermind, doesnt matter anyway. We had a very young team out too, Daws, Gardner, Lennon, Ekotto, Hudd. Just so happens thats our first team, hehe. Well some of them will be replaced by the likes of Jenas, King, Lee etc.