Arsenal vs Tottenham Hotspur - Emirates Stadium, London - Wednesday 31st January 2007

After what felt like a victory in last week's game, it was the second leg, and a chance to finish the job. I came straight off a plane from Dubai, but getting to the ground, it seemed that no Arsenal fan doubted the fact that we would get to the final. Despite a lacklustre FA Cup performance in between the 2 games, the general consensus was that our kids were going to humiliate Spurs (again).

The first hour or so of the game was pretty tight - Arsenal had the better of the play, and the better chances, but couldn't score. At this point, many in the crowd were starting to get suspicious that this was a deliberate Spurs tactic - don't concede, but don't do that much attacking either, to set up the very late smash and grab. So it was a considerable relief when Emmanuel Adebayor put Arsenal into the lead with about 15 minutes to go.

It didn't last too long, though, as Spurs had thrown Mido on in attack, and he was looking lively. With about 3 hours of the January transfer window left by this point, it was alleged that he had a mobile phone down his sock, so that his agent could contact him with contract offers. But he scored a decent goal on 85 minutes to equalise.

Then, almost at the end of the game, he came very close, too close, to scoring again - if his attempt had gone in, it would have been quite comfortably the worst moment in Arsenal's recent history. We have to lose at our new stadium some time, but a last minute winner from Spurs, to put them into a cup final at our expense - no way. So the final whistle of normal time was another relief.

Extra time was generally one way traffic - Arsenal were all over Spurs, who had either completely run out of energy, or were playing some inexplicably strange tactics - they seemed to just let Arsenal overrun them. Perhaps the fact that our team had played less football recently meant that they were stronger at the end of the game, but Arsenal were dominant throughout extra time.

The winner came from Jeremie Aliadiere, a fitting reward for his hard work in the Carling Cup campaign so far, where he has looked like a pretty decent player, but perhaps not got the recognition to show for that. A few minutes later, a combination of Tomas Rosicky and Pascal Chimbonda (who shouldn't even have been playing, the thug), got the ball into the Spurs net again, for what in the end was a very decent victory.

This of course set up another swift exit from the stadium from the "best fans in London", so much so that by the time the final whistle went, there was hardly anybody left in the away end to taunt any more!! Such a shame that the Tiny Totts failed again, against a group of Arsenal squad players. That shows you the gap between the 2 sides. Chelsea will be much tougher in the final, mainly because they will probably play a full first team, but I think the kids deserve to play again, if only for the experience of such a big occasion.