1 man went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

I was fortunate enough to get tickets for the last home game in the Grove's debut season, and the atmosphere was tremendous yesterday. Unfortunately a certain cowardly left-back failed to appear - not on the pitch, on the bench, and not even in the stadium. It was disappointing because fans had probably been preparing all season for this moment, and all the songs that had been prepared had scant opportunity to be sung, but i've decided to theme this post accordingly.

2 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

Arsenal once again showed all their failings of the season, and Chelsea showed their strengths. Arsenal went under the cosh from the kick-off, but recovered well to have a strong spell of posession, and then one the stroke of half-time when Julio Baptista broke free of the last man and was brought down in the penalty box, Gilberto duly tucked away the penalty. As a bonus, Boulahrouz was also sent off for being the last man. Arsenal had the initiatve now, and for the first 10 minutes of the second-half they had bags of chances.

3 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

And that was symbolic of the season really; Adebayor, Hleb, and notably (and unsurprisingly) Baptista all squandered chances, and Arsenal conceded an equaliser from a cross - sloppy marking as usual, Michael Essien heading in at the near post. Chelsea had shown great resilience in coming back into the game, and as the fullbacks pushed up for Arsenal, they somehow managed to dominate possession with their 10 men.

4 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 4 men, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

Some good singing on the day - "F*ck Off Mourinho", "Shit Club, No History", "Liverpool", and "Ashley Cole, is a f*cking arseh*le" amongst others. I did enjoy the "Sacked in the summer, you're getting sacked in the summer" whenever Jose Mourinho began his histrionics.

5 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 5 men, 4 men, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

Chelsea almost stole it later on in their period of dominance, when neat footwork from Joe Cole saw him place the ball high into the top left corner past Lehmann, when facing almost away from goal. But it was rightly disallowed for an offside in the buildup. Arsenal poured forward in the last 10 minutes, squandered several chances, and then with almost the last kick of the game Eboue was played in on the right, and he wound up and unleashed a high, hard shot that thumped off the crossbar. Chelsea played well, and deserved their draw, but a winner would have been nice, because Arsenal had been the brighter, more attacking force throughout.

6 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 6 men, 5 men, 4 men, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

I can't for the life of me understand why Khalid Boulahrouz even bothered to foul, or try and win the ball off Julio Baptista. Anybody who watches football knows that when the Beast is clear through on goal, he either softly caresses the ball into the keeper's midriff or sends it somewhere near the corner flag. Silly man, deserved his red card for being stupid.

7 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 7 men, 6 men, 5 men, 4 men, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

As I said, the game was symbolic of Arsenal's failings - inability to finish chances, to cope with pressure, and to concentrate and defend properly. The other side of the coin was displayed by Fulham's other team who with 10 men fought their way back into the game, and almost won it. Incredibly irritating, incredibly resilient.

8 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 8 men, 7 men, 6 men, 5 men, 4 men, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

Even my dad, who was watching his first ever football match in person, said quite confidently that the Arsenal looked pointless up front, and needed a winger, preferrably a left winger. This is the same thing that fans have been saying all season, and if my dad who knows very little about football found it obvious enough to give such confident punditry, then it definitely is obvious. This of course means that in the summer we will sell two wingers and sign a central midfielder. What do I know anyways?

9 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 9 men, 8 men, 7 men, 6 men, 5 men, 4 men, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

Watching the lap of honour after the game, there were some interesting things to be noted. For one, it was called a "lap of appreciation", which I guess is fair enough when you are not competing for any honours at all. Mathieu Flamini seemed alive and well, which was nice considering that many of us suspected that Arsene Wenger had drowned him in the hydrotherapy pool. I also noticed (albeit from a great distance) that Jeremie Aliadiere seemed to be wearing spectaces. Strikers with bad eyesight are about as valuable as goalkeepers with no hand (no disrespect meant to the fine participants of either the Blind or Disabled World Cups).

Anyways, the season's done. Tied for 3rd place on points, but in 4th on goal difference, I feel the team has moved up a level from last season. With the kids blossoming in the background, all that's needed is 1 or 2 good experienced players (left winger included), and things could be very, very interesting next year. Seriously. Last season Arsenal only got 4th spot on the last day of the season, and stuttered throughout. Of the 6 league games played with Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool, they lost 4, drew 1 and won 1. Pathetic. I was worried at the end of last season.

This year, of the 6 league games played with those 3, we've won 3, drawn 2 and lost 1 (to Liverpool). Both draws were against Chelsea, and both involved them coming from behind to equalise for 1-1 (and one of those was in injury time). Add to that 3-1 and 6-3 away wins over Liverpool in the FA and Carling Cups and 2 wins and 2 draws over Tottenham in 4 games, and Arsenal have dealt comfortably with the big teams. It's the small teams that have posed the problem - losses to West Ham (x2), Man City, Sheff Utd and Fulham have been unacceptable, and you add those up and it's 15 points more to the total. This is not unrealistic because in each of those matches, Arsenal dominated (sometimes 20 shots to 1), but just allowed the points to slip away. Add to those results the pairs of draws against struggling Newcastle (1-1 and 0-0) and Middlesborough (1-1 and 1-1) and that would be another 8 points. It all adds up - that's roughly 20 points, with those added to our total, we'd be contenders. All we need is to gain experience and be clinical.

10 men went to bed, went to bed with Ashley, 10 men, 9 men, 8 men, 7 men, 6 men, 5 men, 4 men, 3 men, 2 men, 1 man and his mobile phone, went to bed with Ashley

Those of you who've watched Arsenal this season, will have known the eventual outcome within 15 minutes of the start of yesterday's game against West Ham. It was the same old story. Arsenal created a glut of chances and didn't score. You wondered whether West Ham would pinch one off a counter-attack, and sure enough on the stroke of half-time they did. And then Arsenal continued to create a glut of chances but to no avail. SAME. OLD. STORY. One-nil not to the Arsenal.

There was all the intricate passing, pretty football, and scintillating build-up play and movement that you'd expect of Arsene Wenger's sides, but nothing at the end of it. To take Arjun's “just can't score” metaphor a step farther, this Arsenal team have all the foreplay imaginable, but when it comes down to getting the job done, they just can't raise themselves to the task. There's far too much fannying around, and the look completely impotent without their big guns. Excuse me for that series of puntences please. I just couldn't help myself.

The point is that Arsenal can't really find a goal from anywhere at the moment with Robin Van Persie and Thierry Henry both out for the rest of the season. Judging by his overall lack of mobility and effectiveness, Julio Baptista has proved to be more of an “immovable object” than an “unstoppable force” - talk about the biggest let down of the season.

Emmanuel Adebayor, is always a threat, but is not prolific, and can't be expected to shoulder the goalscoring burden alone for long periods. He does so much, so well, but needs people around him to finish. Aliadiere? Well he's quick, slippery, works hard and holds up the ball well, but has all the threat and accuracy of a water pistol. And that's about it.

It was a 3^rd straight league defeat, and things are becoming pretty serious now. They are 5 points behind Liverpool, and 3 ahead of Bolton, and barely clinging onto that last Champions League spot with a game in hand. The problem is that there is absolutely nothing to look forward to in terms of personnel, because everyone who could be fit right now is fit, they're just not good enough to score goals, and ultimately that is the basis of football. Wenger might wax lyrical about how Cesc, Hleb, Rosicky, Denilson and Freddie pass and move and dribble, and how unlucky Arsenal are to not be winning, but he's not fooling anyone. It's the old cliché of “goals win games”, except by having a team devoid of finishers, he's in a way responsible for them being unlucky. Some solution will have to be found to solve this problem for the remaining league games, then come the summertime, it's time for some investment.

It was announced after the game that Robin Van Persie had fractured his foot when scoring the goal. So that explains the limping afterward and the fact that he wasn not really much involved. Arsene Wenger said he had hoped not to use him because of his ankle injury, but now he's out for at least 6 weeks with his 5th metatarsal fractured. No one knows exactly how it happened, but it did, and it brings up the immediate question of whether Van Persie's equalising goal was worth not having him for a few months. I'd say yes.

Footballers and metatarsals are funny things. Some of the most high profile injuries have been metatarsal related - David Beckham before the 2002 World Cup when Aldo Duscher of Deportivo crunched into him during the Champions League, and and Wayne Rooney before the 2006 World Cup when he went down in a heap after a tackle by Paulo Ferreira. The whole of England gasped and sighed in 2002, and they did it again in 2006, because their heroes were endangered. Eventually both Beckham and Rooney were declared "fit" for each of those tournaments, but it didn't matter because England were pure crap anyways.

In the spirit of good old jingoism, the BBC prepared this great page on metatarsal injuries in football. It's worth a read.

It's bad news for Arsenal, because Van Persie is the top scorer this season, and he's score some crucial, crucial goals. He's also the only left-footed attacking player, and that balance will be missed. The problem with this type of injury is also that the healing times are crazily inconsistent. 6-8 weeks is supposed to be a sort of predicted recovery period, but means nothing. Here's why:

David Beckham (2002): Second metatarsal - predicted 6 weeks returned 7 weeks later
Gary Neville (2002): Fifth metatarsal - predicted 6-8 weeks returned 21 weeks later
Danny Murphy (2002): Second metatarsal - predicted 6 weeks returned 21 weeks later
Scott Parker (2004): Second metatarsal - predicted 8 weeks returned 34 weeks later
Steven Gerrard (2004): Fifth metatarsal - predicted 6-8 weeks returned 10 weeks later
Wayne Rooney (2004): Fifth metatarsal - predicted 8 weeks returned 14 weeks later
Ashley Cole (2005): Fifth metatarsal - predicted 6-8 weeks returned 12 weeks later
Michael Owen (2006): Fifth metatarsal - predicted 6-8 weeks returned 17 weeks later

So it's quite possible that RvP's season could be over. We will just have to wait and see (and hope).

Arsene Wenger has said in the past how he is very critical of bladed boots (like the Adidas ones), because they can cause injury, and Ashley Cole and Gael Clichy both had identical injuries wearing those boots. Rooney did too, and so did Roy Keane, so there is something in that. Footy Boots has done a great overview of the bladed boots/injuries extravaganza that is worth a read. They say that the ongoing tendency to make boots more and more lightweight and flexible has basically contributed to more injuries because of lack of support of the foot. If you've bought boots consistently over the last 10-15 years, then it's something you'd definitely notice.

Footy Boots: "The metatarsal injury was unheard of years ago, now with modern ligtweight foortball boots its responsible for 30% of long term injuries."

Anyhow, the good news (sort of) for Arsenal fans is that this is the one position for which there is great competition. After Henry and Adebayor, there's Baptista and Aliadiere. Just last week Wenger was saying how he wished he could give Ali more playing time and how he needed chances to show how good he is, and this will have opened the door. Baptista has been hungry and waiting as well, and this will help. Theo Walcott can (and probably will eventually) play as a striker, so there's no lack of options. Van Persie will certainly be missed, but this is a great chance for the other lads to stake a claim. Especially Aliadiere who has been unfortunately beset by injuries and rubbish loan moves throughout his career. He is the king of the reserves and the Carling Cup, but he needs to start having an impact in the league.

Well, what a bloody odd game... 6-3 at Anfield, who would have thunk it? That's Arsenal's third win against them this season, and they've won 3-0, 3-1 and 6-3 (12-4 in total!). I remember people saying early on how Liverpool were going to be the top challengers to Chelsea this season (I must admit I thought this too), but they have been quite miserable.

The much-maligned Alex Song was largely excellent scoring a (fluky) goal and pulling the strings in midfield.

Julio Baptista has said he wants to score goals, and well.. he did. 4 for the Beast today, including a peach of a free kick from Thierry Henry territory. He also missed a penalty.

And let's not forgoet Jeremie Aliadiadieriarediere, who scored the opener, and provided the assists for all of the Beast's goals from open play.

What a weird game. You rarely expect to go to Anfield and have an easy time of anything, but to go there under these circumstances and be 4-1 up at the half, it was quite unbelievable.

For starters, the Arse beat them 3-1 on Saturday in the FA Cup at Anfield, a result that was great enough in itself given what a fortress Anfield is, and how many troubles Arsenal have had there in recent years (2 losses in the two previous Benitez seasons, and just 2 wins in all Arsene Wenger's years at the club prior to that.. one coming in the 2001/02 double-winning season, and the other in 2003/04 unbeaten season). So you'd think firstly that the 'Pool would be out for revenge. To compound that, given their form in the league, the Carling Cup was now their only chance of domestic success, so one assumed that they would be going for the win. In fact, when this fixture was originally scheduled and then abandoned due to fog in December, Liverpool had name a full strength side, but yesterday they had a mismatch of players on there, with a lot of their stars rested. And lastly, treating the competition how he does - as experience for the kids, Arsene Wenger put out his usual Carling Cup reserve/youth side. So all-in-all, there really should have been no excuse not to win for Liverpool, but they were torn to shreds.

Arsenal were sensational going forward with their movement and quick passing, but Liverpool didn't help with shambolic teamwork. Just as he did for Rosicky's second goal on Saturday, Gerrard failed to make anything close to resembling a tackle on Julio Baptista for the Beast's hattrick goal. Stevie G did hit back with one of his stunning volleys (5-2), and then obviously over-the-hill Hyypia headed a 3rd from an excellent cross by the otherwise useless Palletta.

Tough stuff for the Kopites, especially with Mark Gonzalez getting injured after trying to tackle Theo Walcott early on, and then his replacement Luis Garcia damaging his anterior cruciate ligaments in a 50-50 challenge with Justin Hoyte. Poor Garcia is now out for the season, and Liverpool will definitely be looking for reinforcements in the transfer window.

For Arsenal, a great vindication of Arsene Wenger's youth policy. Apart from reserve goalkeeper Almunia who was 28 (and has been EXCELLENT in his three games against Liverpool this year, perhaps he'll play on Saturday?), no other outfield player was over 25. The team sheet read like this:

Hoyte(21) Toure(25) Djourou(19) Traore(17)

Walcott(17) Fabregas(19) Song(19) Denilson(18)

Baptista(25) Aliadiere(23)

That is pretty special I have to say, and then key thing is that 2 or 3 of these teenagers are already established first-teamers. I know it's a cliche, and that it keeps getting said, but just wait a few years... to have monstrously talented players playing together and getting top-level experience from such a young-age... only the best can come out of it. We just have to hope that we can keep the team together, stay injury free, and sign the right blend of experience and youth when we need to.

YouTube Highlights are below:
0-1: Jeremie Aliadiere
1-2: Julio Baptista
1-3: Alex Song
1-4: Julio Baptista
1-5: Julio Baptista
3-6: Julio Baptista

Have to say it again, Aliadiere really was tremendous yesterday, he looked sharp, strong and full of running and invention. This is his last chance at Arsenal, and hopefully he can take it.