Well, the title is oversimplifying it a little bit, but let's not lose sight of everything in the midst of all the fallout from the Adebayor-Bendtner incident, and Spurs' champagne-spraying celebrations (as if they'd won the Champions' League or something).

The Carling Cup is, and always has been Arsenal's 4th priority. The Carling Cup, as Juande Ramos told us recently, was Tottenham's No. 1 target, and Dimitar Berbatov even said this was their "match of the year".

Hence we saw an extremely pumped Spurs team, at home, on the cusp of a Wembley final, playing a disjointed Arsenal side that have the slight distractions of competing for the league, and being in the Champions League AND the FA Cup.

The Spuds haven't won in this fixture since 1999, and that pathetic record of theirs was bound to end sometime. This was the perfect opportunity for it - at home, Carling Cup semi-final (which they messed up last year), and against their local rivals' second/youth side. They played like it was their "Match of the Year", and sadly we played like it was our lowest priority competition. However, while defeat is somewhat (only slightly) palpable, the scoreline was the shocking bit.

And on that, I have nothing to say other than "WHAT THE FUCK?". At 2-0 I shook my head, but though OK there's a chance. At 3-0 I grimaced, and at 4-0 I burst out laughing from the sheer absurdity of it all - who would have thought? Spurs up 4-0 against the Arsenal in a cup semi-final. Happily for them the record books will not tell us that the Carling Cup is a mickey mouse tournament, nor that Arsenal played a secondary side, but that's the price of losing.

Credit to them, they were excellent on the day, and quite clinical, but some of the Arsenal players were god awful. It wasn't even that weak of an Arsenal side, with Gallas and Sagna drafted in because of injury, and Hleb playing on the right to add some creativity. Fabregas even played most of the game after Denilson had come off injured after 20 minutes. Some of the players just did not seem up for it, and captain William Gallas particularly was awful.

Arsene Wenger gave in to the temptation of including some senior players, understandable given the size and nature of the fixture, but I understand completely his regrets in not letting some of the youngsters have a go and playing the players that he did, because some of them were just not in the game. 

The players will have to respond at the weekend against Newcastle, and it will be difficult with the cloud of the whole Bendtner-Adebayor clash hanging over them. Adebayor's behaviour was seriously, seriously out of order, and no matter how much he's done for the club, striking a junior teammate in public, in a game such as that, is completely unacceptable. While Bendtner is a cocky, mouthy lad, he is one of the family, and i'm sure the players and other people within the club are just shocked by what Ade has done.

There is some serious patching up to do.

Arsenal struggled, and probably came away with an undeserved 1-1 draw against Spurs in the first leg of the Carling Cup semi final at Ashburton Grove. It was Tottenham who created the most chances and controlled most of the play, with Dimitar Berbatov especially impressive, but Theo Walcott shot deflected in off his own chest to steal a draw for the Gunners after Jermaine Jenas had given their local rivals the lead.

Let's keep this all in perspective however - Tottenham's first team put in one of their best performances of the season, and Arsenal's second team put in one of their worst performances of the season, and Spurs still couldn't beat us.

The goals are below:

Unfortunately Arsenal's thinning squad took further blows as Robin Van Persie, Johan Djourou and Philippe Senderos were all injured. With Kolo Toure, Emmanuel Eboue and Alex Song away in Ghana for the African Cup of Nations, and Lassana Diarra looking likely to leave, there suddenly looks to be a big shortage of defensive talent in the squad.

Gallas is the only recognised first-choice centreback, and although Justin Hoyte filled in well in the second-half for Djourou, he is not going to win many balls in the air. That might mean Gilberto dropping back alongside Gallas, but then with Diarra possibly leaving, it leaves Mathieu Flamini as the sole recognised defensive/holding midfielder.

Van Persie's unfortunate attempt at a comeback will be regarded less seriously at the moment due to the fine form of Eduardo, but things can change very easily. It's a big month or two for Arsenal, and Arsene Wenger just might look into bringing some players in, perhaps even on loan.

The big news for the Carling Cup semifinal first leg at Ashburton Grove is that Lassana Diarra has been dropped, and that Robin Van Persie is in the squad. Fran Merida has also been left out, and that probably means that he's on his way to Chris Coleman's Real Socieded on-loan for the rest of the season.

Diarra not being in the squad means he's probably on his way, or that he's causing enough trouble for Wenger not to want him anywhere near the squad. Not quite sure what is running through his odd little (big?) head, but Arsenal has always been the place to be for young French players, and Wenger has an excellent track record of making them into internationals. Diarra is just 22, and his a big future ahead of him, but he's still quite raw. He wants to play so that he can be a France regular, but the irony is that most of his appearances for France have been filling at right-back, so what is he aiming for exactly?

He came from a Chelsea team that played ugly football and where he got no chances to an Arsenal team that plays wonderful football, and where he's gotten some chances, but what does he expect? To walk into a midfield that has Fabregas, Hleb, Rosicky, and Flamini playing out of his skin? Like Wenger said, he has to work his way into the starting lineup, that's how it is at a big club, and Diarra is causing problems and talking too much without having earned the right to do so.

He is a talented lad, and I hope he just goes out on loan, because the futures of Gilberto and Flamini are still in some doubt, so we might well need his holding abilities next year. Sam Allardyce was rumoured to be interested in signing him for Newcastle, but Sam Allardyce has been sacked, so who knows.

As for Van Persie, it's a welcome return for him. I doubt that he'll be starting, but it's a fantastic option to have him coming off the bench, and his individual genius is going to be much needed over the coming months. In games like the ones against Newcastle, Middlesborough and Portsmouth, where the team dropped points and looked uninspired, Van Persie could have made the difference with a dribble or free-kick or one of those inch-perfect shots from impossible angles.

The squad is as follows:

2 Abou DIABY
3 Bacary SAGNA
6 Philippe SENDEROS
9 EDUARDO
11 Robin VAN PERSIE
15 DENILSON
19 GILBERTO
20 Johan DJOUROU
21 Lukasz FABIANSKI (GK)
26 Nicklas BENDTNER
30 Armand TRAORE
31 Justin HOYTE
32 Theo WALCOTT
36 Mark RANDALL
40 Vito MANNONE (GK)
41 Gavin HOYTE

They are likely to lineup as:

Fabianski

Hoyte Djourou Senderos Traore

Walcott Denilson Gilberto Diaby

Bendtner Eduardo

That's a fairly straightforward 4-4-2, but Walcott will probably push further forward, with Diaby staying more central, and it might well be 4-3-3 depending on the situations.

The other possibilities are Sagna playing at left-back (Traore was awful against Burnley), or at right-midfield, with Theo on the left or up front. Van Persie could play wide in a 4-4-2, or on either flank in the 4-3-3, although the right-side is preferred by him.

Spurs have no real news coming into this game. Ledley King has returned for them at the back, and Michael Dawson will partner him in the middle. They have more or less a full strength side with Bale and Kaboul the only noteworthy absentees.

Update: Juande Ramos has apparently dropped Paul Robinson for this game 

Scary-looking Vincent van den Berg was one of Dutch football's brightest young prospects when he signed for Arsenal from Heerenveen in the summer of 2006. He was 17 at the time, and cost the Gunners about £30,000 and upwards. He has now joined Dutch side "Go Ahead Eagles" on loan.

The usual "new Bergkamp" comparisons were tossed around, and in a few pre-season friendlies, he did indeed operate in the Bergkamp-role, just off the striker. He played for the resreves and the youth teams, and it seemed like Arsene Wenger had found another gym.

But while seemingly all van den Berg's teammates seemed to be gaining more and more prominence, young Vincent seemed to mysteriously disappear over the years. Barazite, Gilbert, and Traore have all gained prominence and appeared for the first team, but van den Berg slipped even further and further away from the reserves.

Of course he did himself no favours when throwing a hissy fit after being substituted in the last reserve game of the 2006/07 season, but the main reason for his exclusion has been his lack of appetite for the game.

van den Berg is alleged to be one of the typical "foreigners" that the English media so love to pick on. He's a tall boy, but has absolutely no stomach for a fight, and tends to back out of even the slightest of challenges, to the point where he's become a liability to his young teammates. He hasn't worked hard enough in training to improve his weaknesses, and it's probably now been decided that a bit of first-team football somewhere is what's best for him.

Of course his Arsenal career isn't officially over, but the fact that he has joined a small Dutch side instead of one in the Championship or League One means that the club are probably trying to help him with his career. He is still probably well regarded in Dutch football, and he can go back now with something of a reputation and still try to forge a career there.

A fact that many people are unaware of, but which is still quite outstanding, is that Arsene Wenger has never lost to lower-league opposition in his 11+ years as Arsenal manager. His 616 games as an Arsenal manager have included 98 cup ties, but none of them have ever been lost to lower league opposition, and that continued to be the case today as Burnley were edged out by a patchy Arsenal side.

It was a mix of youth and experience - Sagna was restored to right-back, Toure and Eboue played 90 minutes and gave whole-hearted "last" performances before leaving for the African Cup of Nations, and Gilberto and Lehmann got some first team action. There were no real surprises in the line-up, with Traore coming in for the rested Clichy, and Diaby and Denilson completing the midfield. Up front it was Eduardo and Bendtner, and the side was altogether too strong for Burnley.

Eduardo scored the first goal after being put through by a nicely weighted Toure long pass, which he controlled and then carefully poked past the onrushing Gabor Kiraly. The Crozilian then played a simple slide rule pass into Bendtner's run, and the Dane rounded Kiraly before slotting home in one cool movement.

Burnley didn't offer too much, but they had the first chance of the match, with Kyle Lafferty thumping a header against the bar. Lafferty was then sent off for a clumsy lunge at Gilberto. It wasn't two-footed, but the foot was high off the ground and it could have done some serious damage if Gilberto's leg had been planted.

Overall, Owen Coyle can be proud of the effort his boys put in, but they will need much more than fighting spirit to improve things in the league. 

All photos shamelessly nicked from the Daily Mail, but here they are for your enjoyment:

I hope Almunia isn't offended that Beckham copied his hairdo.

This one is more speculation than anything else, but he has already been linked to the Gunners, and would be something of a perfect signing.

He's very pacy, very direct, and can dribble, shoot and pass, and is quite a fiery character. He might not be as creative or classy as Hleb or Van Persie, but his overall game is outstanding for a guy his age, and he has an unbelievable work ethic.

He can play up front, or on the left, or on the right, and can do all three very well, so that would be a huge plus for an Arsenal side that lacks genuine wingers, and doesn't have much striking depth, and where players like Eduardo, Walcott and Rosicky are supposed to be versatile, but had proved to be far from effective.

He will also not take time to adapt to the English game, something which has been a huge problem for Eduardo, and for many previous Wenger signings.

He's also a good kid with strong character, an excellent professional, and isn't into the whole drinking & partying culture that so many of the young British footballers are into, so he's an excellent candidate for Wenger, who is in any case biased towards "winger-strikers".

Let's see how the form book looks after the next few weeks, and if the Arsenal have been a bit goal-shy, this might be a move worth making. 

A lot of Arsenal fans are quite happy with the Milan draw. I am too, but because it's going to be a good contest, with brilliant football and matchups, NOT because I think it will be a walkover like others fans seem too. It's a great chance for Arsenal to progress, because playing against a defensive team would be harder, but a lot of people have this perception of AC Milan as being full of "ageing old man" and a one-man-team based on Kaka.

People seem to easily overlook Andrea Pirlo in any mentions, but he's the most important player for them. Kaka is replaceable, and they can win without him, but not without Pirlo. The key is the Kaka-Pirlo-Seedorf trio, because they are constantly operating together all over the pitch. They are not as much of a one-man team as everyone is making them out to be. Kaka and Seedorf drag defenders all over the place, and rarely lose the ball even when under pressure, and Inzaghi is always there waiting to move into the space they create. Gilardino is finally playing well consistently too.

As for Kaka, even though I don't think Milan are a one man team, he's still their best shot at winning matches, and can do so on his own. Arsenal don't have anyone like that in the squad, who can just turn it on and take on the opposition like Thierry Henry used to, so everybody has to be playing well. Let's hope they are.

Milan aren't playing that well, and they generally don't create that many chances, but they have players like Inzaghi, Ronaldo, Kaka and Seedorf on the end of them, and those guys don't miss. Arsenal create loads of chances, but have Adebayor, Hleb, and Rosicky frustratingly missing most of them. Cesc is more clinical this season, but Robin Van Persie will be crucial.

Also, Ronaldo will be fit and ready by then - you can never rule him out, and don't forget about Pato... he is eligible from Jan 3rd onwards, and even though he's still quite raw, he's got amazing natural ability. I saw him play in only his 7th or 8th start for Internacional, and he completely tore Carles Puyol to pieces.

As for Gattuso, he's got a reptuation for being a nutter and a hardman ni midfield, but he's really not that physical. The Premiership offers much tougher tests, and he gets more of a reputation for that than he should, probably because he's such an oddity for an Italian/Serie A player. I was never a big fan of his, but he's worked hard on his game, and his ability to foul tactically is tremendous. Physically, his main asset is the non-stop running, which I guess is Flamini's as well, but Gattuso is much quicker than Flam, and so can press harder and faster. They also play with two defensive midfielders, and Ambrosini is definitely the stronger of the two. If Emerson plays I think Arsenal will take over the midfield, because he's completely past it.

Milan's main weakness is that fact that they don't have any fullbacks. Jankulovski and Oddo are clueless, but love going forward. Maldini and Bonera are basically centrebacks, and are on the slower side. Ancelotti has this really bizarrely weird habit of only playing them in pairs, so it will either be Maldini and Bonera, or Oddo and Jankulovski. They are still class in the centre of defence, but Kaladze has his dodgy moments. Adebayor will be key against them.

Ultimately Arsenal's main strength will be pace, especially with the fullbacks. Even with Jankulovski and Oddo bombing forward, those guys aren't super quick, and Milan don't attack with as much pace (Kaka excepted). I think that's always been Wenger's strength against the Italian teams, especially when he lets them attack with their slow buildup and then massacres them on the counters.

I think Arsene's record against Italian teams so far (post Wembley) is: P 10, W 5, D 3, L 2

That's home wins against Juventus (x2) and Lazio, and wins away to Inter and Roma. The draws were away to Lazio, where we were unlucky to conede an own goal, away to Juve when we had already won 2-0 at Highbury in the first leg, and a really poor 1-1 home draw to Roma after Totti had been sent off. The losses were of course the 3-0 at home to Inter, and the 1-0 away to Juve where we were virtually out of the group stage already, and Thierry Henry missed a penalty.

That's only 3 bad showings in 10 games, and all of those were in the group stages. Arsenal have won all their knockout stage ties against Italian sides, so the signs are good.

For his first title, Arsene Wenger used a slew of shrewd signings to push Arsenal to victory. He had inherited a solid defensive base, and needed to add the right ingredients, which he did. So Patrick Vieira, Marc Overmars, Emmanuel Petit and Nicolas Anelka all arrived (amongst other) to complement the legendary back 5, and Dennis Bergkamp. In May 1998, Arsenal were Champions.

Some years later, with his back 4 ageing, Wenger once again made additions in Freddie Ljungberg, Silvinho, Lauren and Sol Campbell. Thierry Henry, Robert Pires, Edu, and Sylvain Wiltord all arrived within a few years of each other, and provided a combined exercise of focussed team building and once again buying the right ingredients when needed. In May 2002, Arsenal were Champions.

Wenger had bought very cleverly, and of a good age group, so with just the slightly younger Jens Lehmann replacing David Seaman, Arsenal were the Unbeaten Champions in May 2004, having been boosted in January by the signing of Jose Antonio Reyes.

Since then, Wenger has been building, building, and building, but not purchasing too much. While this was frustrating for the fans, you can't fault the logic behind it. When you are building something, you have to know what you have before you start to make decisions on what to do with it.

So since 2004, Arsene has been carefully building - Cesc, Van Persie, Clichy, Eboue, Toure, Senderos, Flamini, Adebayor, Diaby, Denilson, Walcott and Djourou - they all arrived as promising youngsters, or backup players, but Wenger has gradually built them all into a team, allowing them time to grow into what he hoped they might become, and being careful not to stifle them with a glut of signings.

Hleb was added one year, Rosicky and Gallas the next, and the excellent Sagna this year. They have all complemented and enhanced the fantastic base that was built up slowly, and now Wenger knows what his baby has become. And while this baby has played some excellent football, worked hard, and gotten good results, it has it's failings, and January is the time to address these.

No matter how he chops and changes things, there are two things that Wenger cannot build or adapt to at the moment.

The first, is a lack of punch up front - most of the goals have come from midfield, with Adebayor often erratic and ineffective, and Van Persie injured. Beyond them, there is no one - Walcott is still a long way off, Eduardo is taking too long to adapt, and Bendtner is too raw.

The second, is a lack of a genuine left-sided player. Rosicky has been there for 2 years now, and looks progressively less comfortable in that position. It's not that he's right-footed (both Pires and Overmars were right-footed, but they were very comfortable in their roles), it's just that it doesn't suit his style. Apart from him, there's no one but makeshifts - Clichy, Traore or Eduardo.

And that is the glaring truth - we have only 2 strikers, of which only one is a really threatening goalscorer (Van Persie), and no left-sided player (although Hleb often roams in that area too good effect). There's no solving these from within the squad (if he could have, Wenger would have tried something other than the 4-5-1), so it's time to buy in January, and I think this is the year that it really might happen.

Wenger has spent sparingly for 5 or 6 years now, and especially with the huge revenue from the new stadium, he is sitting on a large amount of cash (nevermind his "We have no money" protestations). Like I've said, apart from the fact that he's cheap, he's also been mindful of the fact that he wanted the youngsters to achieve their potential, and they've done that. So now is the time to add quality and experience. He only needs two players, and there's a very good chance that he will buy them in January, and that he'll spend good money on them too.

As for who they might be? Well I'd like to hear your thoughts on that!

Well Arsenal ended their unbeaten run of 28 games in all competition in Spain tonight, losing 3-1 to Sevilla. The referee was not great, and gave a free-kick to them that was never a free-kick, and which also resulted in the second goal. Even worse than the referee though, was Philippe Senderos, who single-handedly tried to hand Sevilla the match with clearances and decision of such severe incompetence that he almost made one long for Alex Song. Almost as bad, was Fredi Kanoute, whose finishing was just god-awful. He should have at least scored a brace, if not a hat-trick, and the scoreline really should have been 4-1 or 5-1 to Sevilla.

I suppose there are some "positives" to take from the game, for both sets of fans.

For Sevilla - well they will have restored some pride, and can look forward to being the group winners. They avenged their 3-0 loss in London, and looked once again like the team that was so sensational last season, and are continuing to come out of the shadows of the sad death of Antonio Puerta, and the sudden departure of coach Juande Ramos to Tottenham. Luis Fabiano continued his good form, and Jesus Navas was especially mesmerising towards the latter stages of the game.

And for the Arsenal? Well this was as good a game to lose as any. They've lost in a somewhat meaningless game to one of Europe's best teams. They've lost badly, and it's broken their unbeaten run, but it's without detriment to their progress into the next phase in the Champions League, and it would have had far worse effects in the league. Let's face it - they would have lost sooner or later, and it's better that it happened now so that they can address their shortcomings, rather than later, because there won't be a game this unimportant for a while.

Also, let's also take into account the fact that they played with three second choice defenders - Hoyte was average, Senderos awful, and Traore lost (but promising), and three second choice midfielders - Denilson was OK but ineffective, Gilberto was OK but made scary errors, and Eboue was exciting but wildly wasteful. And upfront, they were missing first choices Adebayor and Van Persie, with Nicklas Bendtner and Eduardo making their first starts in this competition. Eduardo was somewhat wasted out on the left, but did well for his goal, which was set up by the young Dane Bendtner.

So a side shorn of their top scoring strikers (Ade and RvP), captain (Gallas), most influential ball winner (Flamini) and most influential attacking midfielder (Hleb) lost to a full-strength Sevilla side.

It's not the end of the world.