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 

Goals from Emmanuel Adebayor, Jeremie Aliadiere and Tomas Rosicky (well.. an own goal by Pascal Chimbonda), gave Arsenal a hard-fought but well-deserved victory over Spurs in the Carling Cup Semi-Final second leg at Ashburton Grove. Arsenal had taken the lead in a tense game through Adebayor in the 77th minute, in a game in which they dominated possession with scant reward. Fabregas and Rosicky had come one by then, and it was the latter who found the Togostick in space, allowing him to slot a left-footed shot past Fatty Robinson.

Unfortunately, with 5 minutes remaining, Mido equalised for the Scum. I was most unperturbed by this, because I was firmly under the impression that away goals mattered, and I couldn't understand why the commentators were acting like Tottenham were back in it, until I realised that they were actually - back in it; away goals only counted after the end of extra-time. Devious.

So, anyhoo. Extra time it was. Unfortunate, because Arsenal could have held out, but Mido had scored a very good header. The free kick leading up to it was quite soft, and reminescent of the first leg. It was out on the right-flank, in the right-back position, and the feisty Denilson went shoulder to shoulder with a Spurs player. Huddlestone curled a free kick into the near post area, and this time Mido outjumped Kolo Toure to score a great header, as opposed to Baptista's unfortunate own goal last time around. The free kick in the first leg had been horribly soft, this one slightly less so. Questions could be asked about the defence, but when a 5'10" Kolo has been outjumped by a 6'2" Mido then you have to just get on with it.

And get on with it the Arsenal did. What great character this young side shows. Instead of getting nervous and starting to crumble, they just picked up their game and went at Spurs, with amazing confidence and control. Fabregas continues to be a class apart from everything else around him, and what a player Denilson looks. For an 18-year old Brazilian kid who's barely played at first-team level to come to a new country and put in performances like this, he must have exceptional character. He's always fighting hard for the ball, always chasing, harrying, tackling, and never hesitates to shout or communicate with his teammate (whether or not it's in English.. I don't know). He's also got a wickedly venomous shot on him - 5 or 6 times Robinson had to parry absolute thunderbolts away. his technique to hit those is fantastic because he was launching them off volleys, half-volleys and straight off the ground. He's also got great control, vision and, being Brazilian... more than a few tricks up his sleeve.

Ok, back to the game. Well extra-time was a strange affair, because Spurs barely touched the ball. Arsenal were maruding with little reward, but things were still OK because they would still go through on away goals if the scores remained the same after extra-time.

If the game was somewhat close by the 90th minute, it ended with the possession being 61% in favour of the Arsenal, with the Gunners also having 11 shots on target to Spurs' 3. Still the White Lillies managed to hold out. Desperate stuff. That is until their pretty-boy Portuguese sub, Ricardo Rocha decided to stoop to about 5 millimetres above the turf to get in a diving headed clearance. He failed miserably of course, and Aliadiere pounced on the rebound and smacked it past Robinson's near post. It's a great moment for the young man who's been here as long as Thierry Henry but never really shone. He's scored the winning goal in a cup semi-final that's also a North London derby. It couldn't get much better, and hopefully he'll get his chance in the final.

Arsenal continued to dominate the game, and there were a few chances wasted here and there, but also some good keeping and defending on the part of Spurs. The icing was firmly laid on the cake however, when on a break, Adebayor flicked onto Rosicky, who turned brilliantly in the box, shimmed and dribbled past a few defenders (leaving Rocha for dead, what a great game for him), and smacked a shot off the inside of the near post that then hit Chimbonda and went in. The Spuds had a few corners after that, but really there was no chance of coming back from there.

So well done to the kids, although some of those kids - Fabregas (19), Senderos (21), Clichy (22), Hoyte (20), Adebayor (23) - are very, very experienced now. Good on them.

Amongst the other youngsters, Traore was decent again. Physically for a 17-year-old he is incredible. Fast, tough, tall, and reasonably skillful, but lacking defensive nous. He will get that with experience.

Walcott (17) was okay, promising, but no end-product still.

Diaby (20) continuing his rehabilitation after Dan Smith's disgusting tackle on him last year was much improved. Ineffective in the first leg, he passed and held up the ball well, showing his skill and a bit of the Vieira-ness he seems to have about him.

So Cardiff and Chelsea lie in wait, and although the selection for the final will be interesting, i'm sure the youngsters will still get their chance. Not only has Arsene Wenger never won this trophy, he has never reached the final of it, so he will not want to have his players underperform.