I haven’t seen the match, as I’m on the road in the south of the U.S. with family. But, I heard the result and I saw the highlights… and I’m pretty disappointed, to say the very least. We can whine all day about how many injuries we have, which is a ridonkulous amount by any measure, no doubt… but our back up players should be good enough, and they just weren’t this time. Eboue and Fabianksi were both pretty much worked. I’m sure they  all put in their best efforts… but the end product just wasn’t enough to deal with the likes of Terry and his slovenly bunch. How sweet would it have been if we won 1-0 on a goal that went in off Assley Hole’s right hand? Sweet, indeed. But instead… it’s him that will return to Wembley for the final. The football gods are truly a cruel crew.

The Champions League was always more important than the FA Cup for me, but I still wanted to see the boys make it all the way to the Finals. They must be gutted. I know I am. But that’s neither here nor there now. We still have our place in the league to defend and perhaps improve, and there’s the small matter of potentially meeting the chavs again for the Champions League Finals in Rome. Of course, that tasty morsel lies past the road through Old Trafford, but a man can dream, yeah?

You know the saying “Down to the wire”? Well, this must be the wire. Actually, it’s probably one of several wires that we’ll be down to in the coming weeks. The perfect storm has brewed us up one hell of a wicked schedule for this Spring.

We have a minimum of six matches against the other three of the Top Four coming, and in fairly rapid succession. If things go well, that count could go to eight. Not to mention a few other tasty League matches to fill in the gaps between all the awesomeness. And next up, we have a Semi Final clash at Wembley against Chelsea. I’m going to quit screwing around and give you the down-low on this match right now: Chelsea are playing well lately, but I think they’re going to be cautious with us. That might play to our advantage, and I’m hoping it translates to a late match win for us. I’m expecting a low score for the first 70 minutes, and then all hell will probably need to be broken loose. How sweet it would be to get over on those bluish pricks.

Max? Maaax? Look down there. What do you see?

Someone running. Yes. But we’ll soon put a stop to that. Won’t we, Glovey? Sorry… channeling the Blue Meaney there for a second. He’s bluish. All Bluuey.

Unfortunately, the Injury Faeries are out in full force to get us, yet again. For most of the season it was our midfield they hampered. Now, the little bastards are after our defense. Bacary Sagna has been  ruled out for the match, as has Gael Clichy. The Clichy news sounds dire. A stress-fractured vertebrae. I’m not sure how serious that truly is, but it doesn’t sound like something you bounce back from in just a few weeks. I wish him a quick comfy recovery. With Gallas out for the remainder of the season and Djourou still not in sight, that leaves us pretty thin at the back. It’s likely we’ll see Song & Eboue at the back again. They did pretty well against Villareal I thought. They’ll have their work cut out for them against Hiddink’s boys, though. No matter… I’m thoroughly looking forward to this match, and I truly believe we could find ourselves heading to another FA Cup Final come tomorrow night.

COME ON YOU GUNNERS!

Vela 25, Da Silva 53, Eboue 84 – Divers: none

The announcer just said, “And that’s the cheekiest volley I’ve seen in a long, long time.” And as such, Captain Eduardo Da Silva has put us up 2-0 at home in this round of the FA Cup.

I’m watching it on a 30 minute delay on the DVR, so I imagine in real time we’re probably in injury time about now. Earlier, at 25′, Carlos Vela put a beautiful little chip shot over the Burnley keeper to open the scoring. The match has definitely leaned toward us so far, but Burnley has not been without their threats. They’ve gotten into our back line a few times, with some clearances that would have made the Keystone Cops proud.

At the back, William Gallas is paired with Johann Djourou in the middle with Kieran Gibbs in for Clichy and the excellent Bacary Sagna in his usual position at right.  They’re doing well enough, but still have this troubling habit of leaving the door open. The middle started with Emmanuel Eboue, Abou Diaby, Alexander Song and Andrey Arshavin with Eduardo  and Carlos Vela up front. Just now, at 60′, Robin van Persie has come on for Vela. I thought I saw Theo warming up on the touchline, but he hasn’t come on as of yet. I spoke too soon… it’s now about 70′ and we’re just waiting for the ball to cross the touchline to see Theo. Aaron Ramsey has come on for Abou Diaby and the moment I’ve been waiting for, Theo Walcott has come on for Eduardo after three months out due to injury. I really hope his shoulder issues are behind him. RvP has taken the armband for the reminder of the match.

Theo just had a great chance to score, fed by Arshavin, but the Burnley keeper came out to stifle it. Theo’s looking good so far. He just fed a lovely little chipped cross into the box but RvP failed to volley it home.

Ok, the planets are clearly in line today and, here’s something I never thought I’d ever write: At 84′, Alexander Song does a lovely little backheel and Emmanuel Eboue buries it for a goal! Yes, read that again if you must. The celebration alone was worth the price of admission. Well done boys.

And there’s the final whistle. We’re off to the next round of the FA Cup. A dominating performance by The Gunners. Arsène Wenger is mixing things up pretty good with his line ups these days and it’s working well.

Van Persie 47, 84, Gray 49 (og) – Divers: none

I didn’t get to see this match, unfortunately. From what I read on other blogs, you either had to be at Ashburton Grove or subject yourself to some insaniac Spaniard who streamed the match from his home with full puppet accompaniment. I got tired of looking for torrents for the match around 8pm here in states and then caved and went to Arsenal.com for the result. First time this season.

So, from what I gather, the performance wasn’t stellar, but certainly got the job done. 3-1 is a nicer result than we’ve seen in a while. The squad seemed a bit threadbare, but by no means was it reserves only. WuTang Fabianski has apparently been given the FA Cup matches for the year. Mikael Silvestre went off with an injury and will be out for three weeks. Kieran Gibbs came on to replace him at the half hour mark. With Denilson & Song out (injury & suspension) Aaron Ramsey put in an appearance in midfield alongside Abou Diaby. It’s good to see Aaron getting a full match.

We went 0-0 at the half and then came out and Robin van Persie got himself a brace and some Plymouth fellow poked one home for us while Niklas Bendtner gave him a poke in the hindquarters. Plymouth managed a goal of their own not long after the restart, but from all reports, remained mostly toothless.

So, we’re on to the next round in late January and we’ve drawn away to Cardiff. I know even less about Cardiff than I do about Plymouth. Should be great. I guess. All I know is the Pond Life drew Manchester United away, where they will receive a thorough bowel cleansing… one way or another.

Next up in the Premier Leaugue is Bolton at home. A solid win there and we should start seeing some old injured faces return shortly thereafter. I hope.

Anemic. This is the first time this season I’ve been truly disappointed with my team. That, in itself, is a good thing if you you’re a glass half full sort of person… and I am, but… that performance was just abysmal.

I know… injuries, absences, its only the FA Cup, yeah, all that. It’s still a let down, especially to go out with that horrid a showing. I fully realize we have AC Milan on tap in a few days, and we needed to rest key players for that match. Man U was in the same boat. It didn’t seem to slow them down as much though. They were just relentless from the opening whistle. Constant pressure smothering our midfield and harassing our defenders. And, nothing seemed to go our way. Nothing.

To be honest, if the match had ended with no more to tell than that, I would be fine with the loss. I would be able to tell myself, “Ah, it’s just the FA Cup” and be just fine with it. But then, we began to hurt and embarrass ourselves, as if having 11 other players on the pitch trying to hurt and embarrass us wasn’t enough. Emmanuel Eboue went in studs up to earn himself a straight red from Alan Wiley. Welcome home, Emmanuel… now go sit on the fucking bench for a few matches. That’s just great. Let’s see… what could make this night any worse? Oh, I know… how about a spate of diving? Sure! First Phillipe Senderos and then Emmanuel Adebayor. What the hell were you thinking about?! You’re down 4-0 to a side that’s beating you like a red-headed stepchild and you think diving is going to be the magic pill that turns things around for a comprehensive 4-6 win? Are you completely out of your tree? Pink cards for both you.

After seeing Manu dive, I almost shut the match off. I sat there with mouth open for a while because I simply couldn’t comprehend what I was seeing. It was like a bad dream where your beloved team marches out onto the pitch and then impersonates some other hated team. I’ll always love my Arsenal, no matter what. Seeing them lose is hard, but it’s nothing compared to seeing them cheat. I hope I never see it again.