Arsenal vs Chelsea - Emirates Stadium, London - Sunday 6th May 2007

As soon as the disgraceful Cashley Hole went off to take millions of Russian roubles by signing for Chelsea, it was always a nailed on certainty that his first appearance back at Arsenal would be full of utterly deserved hatred for the little shit. His autobiography, where he blamed everybody else for everything, and generally moaned about his difficult life for 300 pages, did nothing to endear him to anybody at all - so much so that he has spent the season being booed just about everywhere he has been, and not just by Arsenal fans.

Given the way that his new employers have contrived to ruin football - by buying trophies, intimidating referees, signing players they don't need (just so that others can't get them), employing a manager that makes Pravda seem quite straight-talking, and generally showing no respect to anybody at all; it was also pretty certain that Chelsea's first visit to the Emirates Stadium would not see them afforded a terribly warm welcome.

Unfortunately, Cashley bottled it got a hurty knee or ankle or something, so he couldn't make it. How predictable, and proof that he is a complete coward as well as a greedy, disloyal, whinging scumbag. Never mind, because the chance was there to get a result, and put the final nail into the coffin of Chelsea's championship challenge. Handing the Premiership title to Manchester United is far from an ideal thing to be doing, but I'm sure most neutrals were hoping that Chelsea would be sent home without a trophy.

Before the game in the Rocket, I have rarely seen so many people, so up for a home game - especially when we ourselves have nothing to play for. When it was announced that Cashley was too scared to show up, there was a bit of deflation, followed immediately by a determination amongst the fans to let him know what we thought of him regardless. In fact, during the first half, the level of utter hatred for all things Chelsea was fantastic - whistling and booing whenever they had the ball, and generally leaving them in no doubt that we do not like them.

Its a bit annoying that we could only muster this to get on Chelsea's nerves, but it does at least show that Arsenal fans are capable of showing some passion. The singing of "Liverpool", to taunt them about their Champions League exit, was horribly embarrassing (something that lower league clubs would have done), but the intensity of the barracking that we gave Chelsea did convince me that Arsenal fans can do something other than sit in silence if they want to.

The game itself, well well well. Chelsea came out all guns blazing at the beginning I thought, but by the end of the first half, Arsenal had got themselves firmly on top. Just before half time, we were awarded a deserved penalty, when the useless Boulahrouz was caught climbing all over the equally useless Baptista. Why on earth he felt the need to do that, I have no idea - Baptista was far too crap to score anyway, so his blatant foul was bemusing to say the least. Gilberto scored the penalty to put us 1-0 up, and Boulahrouz was sent off. Then the half time whistle went.

Now, when teams go down to 10 men, sometimes they kind of collapse, and it is fairly easy to finish them off. This was not one of those times, in fact it was the opposite - where the team with 10 men digs in and pulls out an amazing performance. Chelsea did that for much of the second half, and it very nearly worked for them - they needed a win, but did very well to come back for a draw. The referee didn't help the game from anybody's point of view, continually blowing his whistle for some very fussy free kicks. But Chelsea's second half display was very impressive. Slightly out of character also, they were attacking with nothing to lose, which meant that they were forced to abandon their usual defensive, risk-averse approach. Jens Lehmann was man of the match for much of the last 20 minutes, but despite all this, Arsenal could still have clinched a win in injury time, when Eboue hit the bar with a rocket of a shot.

So, Chelsea's league challenge ended, and their team went over to see their fans. That meant they could be fully booed off the pitch, with boos, whistles, and chants of "what a waste of money" ringing firmly in their ears. Excellent stuff, although it was again a shame that Arsenal fans en masse could only muster such passion to hate Chelsea, rather than to support their own team. Still, hating Chelsea isn't a bad place to start.

After the game and back in the Rocket, it was the end of season party for supporters' group Red Action. Perry Groves was in attendance, fully participating in the drinking and singing. In fact, when the karaoke machine came out, he was first up to lead the couple of hundred punters in a better-than-expected rendition of Sweet Caroline. I somehow doubt that Cashley Cole will ever be loved enough by any group of fans, to be in that situation - Perry Groves is a true Arsenal legend.