That's how I like my Spuds - Right in their f***ing place

Travel to and from the match went without a hitch (for me and Garantia and least, EII very nearly missed kick off due to the implosion of the underground or something).

We took our seats, all separate and Garantia managed to bag herself a move from a 22nd row seat to a third row one by swapping with some man so he could sit beside his son (she would move again at halftime as we talked some weird woman beside me to swap an 18th row seat for a third row one so we could sit beside each other - yes, I actually had to convince her, and when I asked at first she said 'maybe at halftime - seriously!).

Off we went and to be honest, it wasn't a lively affair. We didn't seem to be fired up, and while the Spuds offered less threat than expected, we never got out of second gear.

Then up stepped RVP. I can't remember much about his first goal, I didn't even get a chance to watch a replay of it on the big screen. We hadn't yet taken our seats from celebrating the goal and all of us were focused on the Spuds fans chanting 'who are ya!' when someone noticed Cesc was clear through on goal and it was two. Most of us there hadn't even seen the Spuds kick off, so we had no clue how Cesc had got the ball, what the hell had happened, it was bedlam.

Needless to say the Grove had been quiet up til that point, but from then on it rocked. My ears were literally ringing from the noise, and when you hear Wenger saying the reason he had a hissy fit was because he couldn't get defensive instructions to the players because of the noise, which, according to him, he had never heard at such levels, you can just imagine what it must have been like inside the ground.

The third came after another assault on one of our players, this time Eduardo and everyone stopped, except Clattenburg and Sagna. The Spuds moaned that they thought play was going to be stopped, but tough shit, you committed the foul, we get the advantage and you get to suck on our shadow yet again.

After my review of Bendtner in Wednesday’s match, the need to do it again so soon with another player is painful, but Diaby's performance yesterday was beyond lazy. Recently he seemed to have turned a corner and was being far more productive and consistent even. Against the Spuds, he was nothing more than a passenger who occasionally shoves a paper in front of your face when you are driving. He ran for nothing, attempted about two tackles, the only comparison I can give you is any one of the ex-25's 'performances' which earnt him the honour of becoming a target for the fans. Not one person in the ground could understand how he managed to stay on the pitch for the full 90 minutes, and to be honest, my granny would have put in more in 90 minutes than Abu did. It wasn't a technical or skill problem, it was an attitude problem, and he needs to adjust it now. Was he suffering with a virus or something? There can be no other reason. Can there?

Special mention must go to Alex Song who was just immoveable. We have found our enforcer. Bet you didn't see that coming this time last year?

Almunia returned and offered a solidity in goal that we haven't really seen all season. He made some fantastic saves and takes from crosses and only flapped once that I can remember, and even managed to land hard and not roll around for a five minutes in agony. Is he the answer to the goal keeping dilemma? No. It really is that simple.

I must make mention of Mark Clattenburg's 'performance' yesterday. There has been a lot of talk about refereeing standards this season, and I feel that this hair-plugged prick encapsulated them all in a single afternoon. He somehow manages to give only a free kick for a blatant handball(Bentley), and when Asshole-Ekkoto kicked the ball away all he got was a talking too, yet somehow Crouch was booked for the same thing in the second half. I was under the impression that they were both automatic yellow-card offenses, like the taking of your shirt if you score one, a rule which referees had no choice or room for interpretation. Bentley had a hack at Diaby, not punished, a disgusting tackle on Vermaelen which should had seen him receive his second yellow, yet he received none and the tackle on Eduardo leading up to our third should have resulted in a second yellow for the aforementioned Asshole-Ekkoto, who, it has to be said, could have at least three of four yellows. Bentley also kicked out at an Arsenal player when the crowd began singing 'Bentley Bentley what's score, Bentley, what's the score' (I know you didn't need all the words to that but it makes me happy to type them.  Clattenburg managed to book Vermaelen for a fantastic tackle in which he clearly won the ball (I could see the ball change direction from where I was and I was on the other side of the pitch) and penalised Arsenal a number of times when the ball had been clearly won.

Redknapp saying there is no difference between the teams post match is simply laughable. We weren't great by any stretch of the imagination, but never in my wildest dreams did I expect to turn up to the North London Derby and witness the Spuds spend 90 minutes offering no threat whatsoever. Aul Twitchy Face can say what he likes, how it was never a three goal game for us, but I beg to differ, and, in fact, in the second half, if Eduardo had his shooting boots (which he seems to have misplaced recently, or perhaps my expectations of him are just ridiculously high) they were lucky not to be on the end of another 6 goal result. Never, in my memory, did a victory over the Spuds seem so simple and straightforward.

Bendtner's injury, which sees him ruled out for around an Arsenal month, which, as you all know, could be anything from four weeks to the rest of the season. It does beg the question as to if there is actually such a thing as a footballing 'god' as pre-season we were all glowing at the thought of our attacking options, only to watch as one by one they are struck down, at times, seemingly from above. If the news is correct that Vela has recovered from the knee injury he picked up prior to the Liverpool game, maybe this will be the opportunity we have all been begging for to see him play more in the team. If not, in true injury hokey cokey style, we have Sami back so we should be able to cope. It would be nice to have all our players available, if even for one weekend before the end of the season though. I don't think that's too much to ask, do you?

On the train on the way home, we got talking to a young guy who was the spit of Mannone (without the nose) and he seemed quite pleased with the comparison. I said he was only missing the height, until he stood up and was around 6'7".

Lovely lad, and I think he thought we might have been having a laugh, but we weren't, in person you could almost swear this was the young Italian. That all followed on the back of a load of Arsenal fans standing on Holloway Road chanting at another young fella on a moped 'We've got Cesc Fabregas' I had no idea what the fuss was about til Garantia dragged me closer to the guy and he turned round and smiled. You would have swore it was Cesc. Such was the good mood of all the Arsenal fans after this match that there was joy to be found around every corner, and on every mode of transport.

And that's that, I've written most of this when I got home so that's why most of it is probably nonsense. I waited til the morning as I was pretty sure in my exhausted, yet euphoric state, there would be more typos than usual. In fact, I was pretty convinced some words wouldn't even be legible, and I was right. Editing on Sunday morning is a bitch, but hey, at least I have until Wednesday until I have to go back to work and with that and the result against the Spuds in mind, nothing shall get me down today, not even my illiteracy.

Have a good one folks, I know I will.