Well Liverpool were after some sort of revenge after 3 drubbings from Arsenal already this season with a 3-0 win at the Emirates, and the two cup wins in the FA and Carling Cups. Unfortunately we obliged and Liverpool beat us convincingly 4-1.

To be fair, Adebayor hit the post twice when it was 3-1 and on another day it could have been 3-3 at that stage. Totally undeserved of course but I wouldn’t have complained about it! But as the clock ticked down man of the moment Peter Crouch sealed the game and scored a hattrick.

How embarassing.

Arsenal were just not at the races and you can’t face a team like Liverpool and put in a performance like that. The only players who had a decent game were Gallas, Lehmann and Adebayor – the others were just not interested.

But without Henry, Van Persie, Gilberto (and Freddie & Rosicky starting on the bench) than your always looking at an uphill struggle.

During the game I questioned whether this Arsenal team has enough winners but I suppose it’s hard to motivate yourself when there’s nothing to play for. But then again there’s enough reasons to be motivated, including playing for the fans and the fat wage packet.

And after the match there were more answers than questions.

The fact is that Julio Baptista is not good enough. With Arsenal trailing 1-0 he had a fantastic chance to equalise but got his shot closer to the corner flag than the goal. When you see his form in the Carling Cup and in the Premiership it’s like seeing two completely different players – or maybe it’s because the Carling Cup is an easier competition.

We also know that Cesc is completely burnt out. He had the ball in good positions today but only succeeded in losing the ball and looking sloppy all afternoon. Give the boy a rest!

And with Arsene looking to start Diaby for the remaining fixtures this season it looks like he has a lack of faith in his low-scoring wide men. Arsenal have missed goalscoring midfielders such as Overmars, Pires and Freddie in his prime and playing Diaby there instead of Hleb, Rosicky and Freddie shows that Wenger’s not happy.

William Gallas is a warrior in defence and thank god we’ve got him next season. Toure can at times look lost and Gallas should hopefully help our inexperienced defence.

And finally, the drubbing at Anfield has shown us what we already knew – you can’t have injuries to several key men and still fight for honours.

Let’s hope we show more fight in our next match!

I am totally speechless.

Tonight’s game against Blackburn Rovers was so one-sided it was untrue, but yet again for all their possession Arsenal forgot the art of goalscoring. And it was Blackburn Rovers with their first shot on target on the 84th minute that ended up deciding this FA Cup tie.

The first half was full of Arsenal chances, with Baptista missing two simple headed opportunities to open the scoring. On top of that, Aliadiere had a decent shout for a penalty when Brad Friedel clipped the attacker and got no-where near the ball – and Freddie was denied one of the most blatant penalties I have ever seen. Freddie was through and Brett Emerton kicked the Swede once on each leg and had his hands all over his shoulder.

But Graham Poll waved play on!

That has to be one of the worse refereeing decisions this season – and even Sky were saying it was a blatant penalty!

Not even the most Anti-Arsenal person on the planet could deny that it was a stone wall penalty.

Arsenal continued to dominate in the second half but missed a hat-full of chances and while the game is 0-0 then anything can happen.

And just like against PSV and Chelsea it did.

Arsenal’s failure to make their chances count – and these were clear opportunities – was criminal. In a game where other teams are seemingly clinical with minimal chances against us, Arsenal without Thierry Henry cannot score.

So now we have defeats in the Champions League, Carling Cup and FA Cup.

How the hell does Arsene save this season?

Goals win games and Arsenal are severely lacking any cutting edge and we cannot just pass off the last 3 games as another bad patch or just a few bad days at the office. And people will say that I may be over-reacting but when you lose in 3 different competitions within a week then it has a huge bearing on the outcome of the season.

2 goals in the last 4 games is astounding for a team like Arsenal who create so many chances.

The crazy thing is that against Chelsea and against Blackburn Rovers, Arsenal have dominated those games both in terms of possession and in terms of clear chances created.

What else can you do?

Like most Arsenal fans, Arsene Wenger must be wondering what the hell is going on. Arsenal are playing some wonderful stuff but the ball just won’t go into the net!

I just hope Arsenal are saving their goals for the PSV game next week.

Before the cup final I thought like most Arsenal fans that we could nick the win, and after the first 15 minutes Arsenal looked like the far better team.

Like against Barcelona in the Champions League Final, no-one had given Arsenal a chance against a far more experienced (and expensive) Chelsea team who were at full strength.

After 5 minutes Julio Baptista struck a fantastic shot that went through John Terry’s legs and needed a superb save from Petr Cech to deny Arsenal scoring the opening goal. Arsenal started brightly and made Chelsea look pedestrian, moving the ball around confidently and making all kinds of penetrating runs in the final third.

And 7 minutes later the Arsenal kids did what no-one thought they could – scored against a full strength Chelsea side. Theo Walcott controlled the ball well after an Arsenal corner and played a smart one-two with Abou Diaby before calmly curling the ball past Cech into the far top corner.

Arsenal had scored against the Champions!

From then on Arsenal grew in confidence and made some decent chances, only for Cech to make some vital saves.

And those proved to be decisive as Chelsea scored a controversial goal on 21 minutes. I was sure it was offside when Ballack played through Drogba and although it was a tight decision – how many times have we seen those close ones given? The replays showed Drogba was marginally offside but the flag stayed down and Almunia was easily beaten by a scuffed shot.

An equaliser against Arsenal in a final which was offside? This was becoming all too familiar.

The disappointing thing was Arsenal probably deserved to be 2 or 3 goals to the good at that point, but if there’s one thing you can say about Chelsea is that they’re clinical.

Despite the setback, Arsenal’s youngsters showed their confidence and desire and pushed Chelsea back, making their millionnaires look lacklustre and second best.

Arsene Wenger and his young side deserve a hell of a lot of credit for their performance.

As the second half started as the first with an open game and Arsenal contributing all of the outstanding play. Cech was once again called into action and saved well from Diaby and minutes later Fabregas saw a shot flash slightly wide of the post.

You knew then that it might not be our day.

And for me, the moment that changed the game came on the hour mark when John Terry was stretchered off the pitch. Terry went in for a diving header from a Chelsea corner and Diaby swung his boot in an attempt to clear the ball but was marginally late and caught the Chelsea captain in the face.

The game was stopped for a good 7 minutes while Terry was receiving treatment and it was clear Diaby – despite the incident being completely accidental – was severely affected by the whole thing. The young Frenchman was seen crying by the side of the injured Terry and obviously brought back horrible memories of his own tragic injury suffered against Sunderland last season.

After the stoppage Arsenal didn’t seem the same and arguably Arsenal’s best player at that point Diaby (who had easily controlled the midfield against Ballack) was not at the races anymore and was substituted (for an apparent foot injury) only minutes later.

Eboue was brought on to cope with the introduction of Robben and Hleb replaced Diaby. Arsenal didn’t have the same movement after that and for the first time the game looked tighter and this suited Chelsea.

Lampard saw his long range effort hit the bar and minutes later Arsenal had a golden chance take the lead.

Fabregas sent over a brilliant corner and picked out Toure who was unmarked in the 6 yard box. But the Arsenal captain mis-timed his header and the ball bounced off his shoulder and over the bar.

Then Shevchenko saw his effort smash off the bar.

And then on 84 minutes the tiredness showed and Denilson gave away the ball with a sloppy pass and from that Robben picked out Drogba in the centre for him to head the ball into the bottom corner.

With 7 minutes of injury time added on Arsenal looked tired and a fight broke out after Mikel’s foul on Kolo Toure. Kolo and Mikel were sent off and Lampard and Fabregas were given yellows. Then surprisingly Adebayor was also sent off – when replays clearly showed he was in fact seperating the fights that were going on! Ade wouldn’t go off and I can’t blame him really.

And I’m sure this little incident will give those idiots at Sky something analyse over and over again in the coming weeks and months…

Overall Verdict?

Well Arsenal had the better attacking possession and attempts on goal and despite having a young side were unlucky not to be a couple of goals up in the first 15 minutes – and probably would have been if it wasn’t for a fantastic Petr Cech. Unfortunately he made a huge difference in the outcome of the game for me.

Like in the previous rounds, Arsenal again played some wonderful football which stunned Chelsea and the young side should be given a huge amount of credit for making Chelsea look ordinary.

Has anyone else controlled a game for large periods against Chelsea like our kids did in any of the last few seasons?

I have to say I thought the Drogba offside decision was poor and you would usually see those given. They talk about giving the attacker the advantage on those situations but throughout this season the referees have not implemented that way of thinking at all!

In the end, even though it was the Carling Cup this defeat for me is hard to take.

But I have no doubt this will add to the youngsters character and make them stronger individuals and more importantly players in the future.

I’m not sure whether this poor Arsenal performance was down to bad luck, too many games or just the lack of desire.

Whatever it was Arsenal gifted PSV an advantage going into the second tie with some really sloppy play and a lack of urgency. PSV had set up camp to defend and nick a goal and that’s exactly what they did – but it was not as if Arsenal were making it difficult for the Dutch team.

And even though Arsenal have been lacklustre against Middlesbrough, Wigan and Blackburn Rovers recently so was suprising that Arsenal put in another poor display considering this is the last 16 of the Champions League.

The only player who looked lively in the first half was Tomas Rosicky, and it was only his effort which was cleared off the line early in the first half that caused PSV any sort of problems.

If that goes in then we could have gone and increased our lead.

But after that Arsenal fizzled out.

Thierry Henry looked particularly sloppy – or maybe unfit – and the captain’s display was rubbing off on the other players. Cesc Fabregas looked like he needs a good month off to rest and you couldn’t really expect much from the recently returning Hleb and Gallas.

The problem was that you cannot afford to have 7/8 players not playing well but that’s what we had tonight. As a team who bases their play on slick and smooth passing Arsenal we misplacing passes left, right and centre.

You could not help feeling the kids would have put in a better display tonight.

Onwards to Sunday.

Well Arsenal have done it again and contributed to one of the best matches this season with their unique attacking style which at times tonight was simply a pleasure to watch.

And it was Freddie’s Forget Me Not on Valentine’s Day that proved the difference in a game that Arsenal really should have won before the first 90 minutes were up. 

But they put us supporters it yet again with two goals in extra time to put the tie beyond doubt.

It was a match where Arsenal pretty much dominated from start to finish and if it was not for some poor finishing then the game would have been over before extra time.

The first half was fantastic to watch as Denilson, Adebayor, Hleb, Rosicky et al played some of the best football I’ve seen this campaign. The passing and movement from the entire team was just brilliant and Arsenal created several chances to open the scoring.

And on 14 minutes Hleb waltz past 3 players on the right touchline and nutmegged a Bolton player to play in Denilson. Then the little Brazilian pulled off a trick of his own to feed the ball into Adebayor who gave the ball to Rosicky on the edge of the area. The Czech then tried to setup up Baptista for a shot but the ball deflected off Campo and Adebayor took full advantage as ran through and smashed a left foot shot past the keeper.

And from then on Arsenal were playing excellent football, but they couldn’t get that important second goal that would have killed the game.

In the second half, Gilberto smashed his penalty over the bar and later on Adebayor missed an open goal as his effort hit the post.

And after all the great play and chances we had Bolton won a corner in the 92nd minute and the melee in the box resulted in Meite equalising to send the game into extra time.

But Arsenal showed that grit and determination that has seen them comeback from setbacks before and the lads still played with the same adventure and freedom as the put even more pressure on the Bolton defence.

The decisive moment came on 109 minutes when Arsenal carved out another fantastic goal from virtually nothing. The fresh Aliadiere ran 50 yards taking on 5 players before playing a smart through ball into the path of the spriting Freddie who controlled the ball and hit the ball so early right into the bottom corner.

What a fantastic finish!

Freddie showed us all that even with all the kids in the squad we shouldn’t forget about him and that typical clinical Freddie finish couldn’t have come at a better time.

The match that had everything had even more to come as Anelka fouled Adebayor in the Bolton area to concede a penalty – only for Baptista to hit over the bar like Gilberto!

But the Brazilian made amends a few minutes later as he setup Ade for Arsenal’s third and to put Arsenal into the next round of the FA Cup against Blackburn on Saturday.

Player Ratings

Manuel Almunia: 7/10
Made some important punches from a flurry of Bolton set-pieces but should have dealt with the corner for the goal was it was placed right under the bar. But did well to save Gary Speed’s header in extra time when the game was 1-1.

Johan Djourou: 8/10
Played out of position at right-back but did well with diagonal long balls Bolton played out wide. Contributed to a good defensive performance by the back four.

Kolo Toure: 8/10
Showed the heart of a lion and played excellently yet again. Organised the defence really well and got his head to everything.

Gilberto Silva (c): 8/10
Showed good composure at the back and coped well with Bolton’s aerial barrage in the second half. Should have really done better with the penalty though and lucky not to score an own goal when his touch from a Bolton cross hit the post.

Gael Clichy: 9/10
Was brilliant on the left and gave Rosicky some excellent support with darting runs and great passes. Did well against Diouf and limited his impact on the game.

Alexander Hleb: 9/10
Although he only lasted 77 minutes before having to come off he provided a threat all night and kept the ball brilliantly as we know he can. Defended well and was always there to help out Djourou.

Abou Diaby: 9/10
Ran all day in midfield and had a fantastic game. Great when defending set-pieces and kept the ball moving in the middle of the park – along with Denilson made Nolan and Speed look invisible.

Denilson: 10/10
Man of the Match. For an 18 year old he was simple outstanding and I cannot remember him losing the ball once. Does all the simple things right and amazed me all night with his composure on the ball, excellent passing and dribbling skills. Cannot praise him highly enough!

Tomas Rosicky: 8/10
Was lively all night and linked up well with the front two. Came close with a couple of opportunities and showed intelligence by exposing the space in behind the Bolton defence.

Julio Baptista: 7/10
Always looked on the periphery and couldn’t settle into the pace of the game. Had numerous clear chances to find the Bolton net but just wasn’t his day.

Emmanuel Adebayor: 9/10
He did miss a sitter but scored twice and never stopped running. Without the influencial Thierry Henry he took control of the game and showed his class. Fantastic performance.

Substitutes

Freddie Ljungberg: 8/10
Replaced Hleb on 77 minutes. Took a good 10 minutes to get into the pace of the game which wasn’t suprising with his lengthy injury but took his goal superbly.

Jeremie Aliadiere: 9/10
Replaced Rosicky on 90 minutes. Only played in extra time but was highly influencial – especially with the tired legs out there. Ran at the Bolton players like they didn’t exist and eased the pressure on Arsenal with his runs. His waltzing run that beat 5 or 6 Bolton players setup the decisive 2nd goal to put Arsenal into the next round. Unlucky not to start and finally looks settled in an Arsenal squad.