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.

February 20th - PSV scored with their only shot on goal, and it was the start of Arsenal's slump. The following weekend, they lost 2-1 to Chelsea in the Carling Cup final having dominated the game, but wasted their chances. That so-called "meaningless cup" took on too much importance, and resulted in too much damage with that Chelsea-biased brawl - suspensions for Adebayor, Toure and Eboue.

Next up were Blackburn in the FA Cup 5th round replay. Arsenal dominated the game for 87 minutes, but couldn't convert their chances (the missing Adebayor was important here). Predictably, Blackburn scored with their only shot on goal in the 87th minute, Senderos being made to look like an amateur by an African for the second time in 4 days, with Benni McCarthy leaving him for dead and thumping his shot past Almunia. Things managed to pull together a little bit with a 2-1 league win over Reading, but the second leg against PSV was the biggest game of Arsenal's season, and it ended in a draw with PSV going through. That was that, Arsenal's season over in 10 days.

So nevermind all that (sort of). I would like to focus on Philippe Senderos, because in Arsenal's 10 terrible days, his week of mishaps have been crucial. So much so that Gilberto Silva is now first-choice at centre-back, with young Denilson occupying his place in midfield.

Arsene Wenger has always talked at great length about how Senderos has terrific mental strength, and how he never lets mistakes get to him, but if that were the case then why would he be sat on the bench? With the team struggling, and short of goals, it just doesn't make sense for Gilberto to be at centre-back - not only is he a great defensive midfielder, but he has come up trumps with a hatful of goals this season when needed.

Arsene has always stated that Senderos would learn from his mistakes, but it's his third season now since he made that storming debut against Bayern Munich, and he still only seems to have made minimal progress. Compare that to Johan Djourou who has leapt into the first team and gotten better and better, and Senderos just seems like an awkward, unathletic struggler, always chugging away with that sad-dog face of his, and looking more and more error prone.

So one has to wonder about his future. Against PSV he just looked disorganised. Against Chelsea the Sunday after he showed all the reactions of a tortoise as Drogba cruised past him to power in the winning header. In midweek, against Blackburn, Benni McCarthy left him flat on his backside to score an 87th minute winner. Then on the Sunday after, he came on as a late sub against Reading to protect our lead, and succeeded only in making a mess of a corner that resulted in a goal for them. The ball somehow bounced backwards and down off his head, and was flicked in by a startled Fabregas.

I don't disbelieve Arsene when he says that Senderos will learn from his mistakes, but the question is... how long is he going to take? The team has suffered whilst the youngsters have been educated, that was to be expected, but Senderos somehow seems to not learn at all from his mistakes. Djourou in my mind is already ahead of him in the pecking order, and if another centre-half arrives in the summer, that should be the end of it.

We've always known and accepted that Phil was never the quickest, but the problem is he doesn't really offer anything else. He's a big lad, and so the least you'd expect is a commanding presence, but he doesn't really even offer that - he gets brushed off the ball and beaten to headers far too often. To add to that, he's awkward, and unathletic and frequently caught out of position.

As Kesky on one of the Arsenal forums said recently:

"Senderos is just not athletic enough (for this sport). He is big, but his waist is almost as wide as his shoulders; almost like an ugly woman.

Rooney is a fat man. Lampard is a fat man. Senderos is a fat woman."

I'm a fan of Senderos, because he seems like such a good character. But ultimately, when the team is struggling you need people like him to step-up, and he does the opposite. There have been numerous comparisons made to Tony Adams - they're both well built, and Adams as a youngster made his fair share of mistakes just like Senderos, but you just can't compare the two. Adams had such immense presence, charisma and power. He intimidated opponents and if he made a mistake once, you could be sure it wouldn't happen again. Big Phil has a long way to go before he's Swiss Tony.