yeah i know , it seems you misunderstood me . I was saying that Spurs would not necessarily have to win by a huge margin in the first leg to have any chance of going through to the final after the 2nd leg at The Emirates ...in football strange things can happen ..ie 6--3 at Anfield . We lost to Wigan last year when on the verge of making the final ....it aint over til its over ..

Cesc is starting, alongside Diaby then. Song totally dropped from the squad - surprising unless he's injured.

Touré alongside Senderos. Otherwise, same line-up.

Hleb, Eboué & Flamini on stand-by on the bench.

Spurs team looks really strong. Will be our biggest test by far in this competition.

I'm going out on a limb

Spurs 3 - 2 Arsenal

2nd leg 1 - 1

Spurs go through

Jol get's 3 match ban to stands. Wanger get's the same plus a black eye

Come on Spurs 1-0 Up

Now its 2-0 baptisa own goal

Berbatov's skill when he hit the post in the first five minutes was unbelievable. His goal was good but I feel Toure could have stuck his head on it.

Arsenal were unlucky to concede the free-kick that lead to the goal but Huddleston's ball into the box was intelligent.

I think Arsenal will play better in the second half but they should have scored just before the half-time whistle went.

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...