Let’s face it – on any other day, the title of this article would be on a docket at the local Magistrate’s court down Seven Sisters Road.

The arraignment session in Court 14 will be filled by lawyers of Jermaine Defoe, Tottenham Hotspur, the FA, UEFA and the various media companies who have a reputation to defend.

“Motion for separation, your honour”, the £700 an hour bespectacled lawyer for Sky Sports would demand. “This perverse charge has nothing to do with us and my client resents being kettled into the position of defending our reputation with this group of uncouth defendants”.

“But he’s British and that’s why it’s no crime”, you can here another lawyer shouting from 4 deep.

The prosecutor, acting on behalf of the interest of the fair minded football loving public and for the interest of the integrity of the game tries again to stipulate the charges amidst the jeers and commotion in the gallery caused by the press corps.

“Your honour, all the defendants are accused of a systematic, calculated and deliberate attempt to show bias, prejudice, xenophobia, favouritism and breath-taking hypocrisy. They have brought the game into disrepute by continuing to mask the cheating that is blatant in the game, and by continuing to turn a blind eye when that cheating is perpetrated by an Englishman”.

“But your honour, my client challenges the jurisdiction of this court on the grounds that Southwark Crown court is already dealing with my client’s business” interjects one goateed and shaven headed lawyer from within the group as the gallery erupts in cheer.

“order, order, order”, the magistrate bellows as he hammers the plank by his side to try and recapture the sanity of his court room. “Who on earth are you representing?” he asks the goateed lawyer with a firm but bewildered look.

“The Tottenham manager your honour”, the reply follows.

“Can someone tell this idiot this court doesn’t deal with tax matters”, the magistrate demands as he looks for the court clerk as if to remind her to make sure those in front of the bench understand why they’re actually in court.

“So let me clarify this”, the magistrate continues while facing the prosecutor. “So who among these defendants actually benefited from the hand job against the Young Boys?”

“Your honour”, the prosecutor responds. “We submit to you that The Tottenham no. 18 Mr. Defoe was the primary culprit who used his hand to shaft the Young Boys, and the co-accused media defendants are all collectively responsible for colluding in that crime by refusing to be fair at the reporting of such heinous acts against association football”.

“Are the people able to meet the burden of proof?”, the magistrate enquires.

“We have comprehensive footage of the crime your honour”, the prosecutor replies with a tint of a smile, “both from the broadcasters as well as the official Tottenham match DVD which is already on sale at the club shop and website. Your honour, we also have precedence to illustrate the systematic and breath-taking bias shown by the English media in favour of English players, especially the divers like Mr. Rooney and Mr. Gerrard who are referred to as being ‘very clever’ instead of the cheats they are. The people will also be submitting crucial evidence against the media in the cases of Mr. Thierry Henry and Mr. Eduardo Da Silva who the media treated like the anti-Christ after similar offenses”.

“But Talk Sport is the no. 1 commercial radio station in the country”, a voice shouts from behind the throng of lawyers. “Surely, we have the right to create controversy in the interest of the English game when the player is not an Englishman? Enough with the bloody foreigners we say. They have caused the English national team to become a laughing stock around the world”.

“Order, Order” the magistrate shouts amidst the cheers and clapping from the gallery. “Bailiff, throw that ginger haired man and his Talk Shite out of my court room”, the magistrate demands in fury.

“But your honour”, the legal aid lawyer acting on behalf of the BBC demands. “We have done nothing wrong and our commentator even challenged the fairness of the situation and pointed out that if the Young Boys had had the helping hand, there would be absolute fury across the country for an English team being denied a chance at European football at the hands of a foreign team and a foreign referee”.

“Save your nonsense for the jury”, the magistrate barks back at the BBC lawyer. “Clerk, set the date for trial. NEXT!”

“Docket number EFJ21468 – the crown vs ….”, we hear as the camera fades out.

I forget what this post was about….LOL! Yeah! Cheating and the blatant disregard of this supposed crime against association football.

Where is the outrage, or didn’t we just see Jermaine ‘Defrauding’ the Young Boys with a blatant hand job.

I wonder what would happen if it was Thierry Henry or Eduardo on the end of that shot. Or if it was Arsenal playing Celtic for a place in the group stages of the Champions League.

There’s absolutely no way out of the need to acknowledge and bow down to Leo Messi for what you can only describe as genius and magic.

Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Pele) and Diego Armando Maradona must be wondering if their legacy as the 2 best players of the last century is going to be surpassed by this 22 year old magician.

While the world ponders that thought, I must say it was a privilege last night to watch a play station footballer come to life. I have no complaints whatsoever about Arsenal’s defeat to Barcelona, for doing so will diminish the rightful acknowledgment of the diminutive magician.

I so look forward to the World Cup for this boy’s magic deserves recognition with the Coupe du Monde

As for Arsenal, we shall discuss where to go from tomorrow. The Champions League was not to be for this year, and the boys need to hold their heads up high for they have served the faithful well this far.

For now, here’s an ode to my beloved Arsenal.

If you think you are beaten, you are,
If you think you dare not, you don’t.

If you like to win, but you think you can’t,
It is almost certain you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost,
For out of the world we find,
Success begins with a team’s will,
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are,
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.

Football’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man,
But sooner or later the man who wins,
Is the man who thinks he can!

I shall never forsake my beloved Arsenal!

Stone Cold Arsenal is looking for new writers. If you have the passion and fire for Arsenal, and you feel you want to share your thoughts, your passion and your emotions with the thousands who read this blog daily, visit our Write For Us page to find out more.

That’s right, you can’t go forth and multiply without the necessary cojones in the same way that you can’t go and wrestle the right to play in the Champions League semi-final without the balls to stand up and be counted.

I think it’s an attribute that someone called ’testicular fortitude’ when describing the audacity of the last minute goal against Wolves over the weekend.

It’s going to be a strange night tonight, a cup final if you will. It’s a night where form goes right out of the window and audacity and courage takes over.

In truth, Barcelona will be cursing themselves for not killing off Arsenal when they had the chance.

Years ago, I was introduced to a fairly unsavoury character who made Tony Soprano look like a pussycat. My associates and I were organizing an event in South East London, and had to shop around for ’security’ because we had a tight budget.

It wasn’t the sort of event that you’d go down the market and haggle for a £8 an hour bouncer to satisfy the minimum requirements of your entertainment licence. This was one of them events that you actually needed the security and had to stretch your budget.

So in interviewing the new prospect, he decided to share some anecdotes about some of the ’challenges’ his boys had to deal with. I suppose he wanted to impress me so as to nail down the lucrative contract.

What sticks to my mind was his assertion that in his type of business, if you have a chance to deck the opposition an finish them, the worst thing you can do is let them get up and come back at you.

For the sake of expediency, I’m sure you’ll excuse me for not going into detail.

His take on the issue resonates with the current situation Barca and Arsenal are in. It’s fine pontificating about the galactic football that Barcelona unleashed in the first 45 minutes of last Wednesday’s opening tie, but the object of the exercise was to win.

The fact of the matter is that Barca succumbed to what Arsenal has been accused of for years on end – Pretty football with no end result.

It was clear that Barca were the more worried team in the last quarter of the match, and for that reason, I believe Arsenal have a psychological advantage.

It’s not going to be an easy game by any means, but Arsenal were past their stage fright by the time Fabregas buried the equalizing penalty. Arsenal had the momentum and Barcelona knew it and it rattled them.

Everyone outside the Emirates has taken the view that there’s no chance in hell for Arsenal to come out of the Camp Nou with a victory. I tend to feel being written off especially in Europe does work to Arsenal’s advantage if you think of previous results against both Inter and AC Milan at the Sansiro, Real Madrid at the Bernabeu, and the Old Lady in Turin.

Both teams are affected by the walking wounded with Arsenal missing 5 preferred first choice players. I doubt if those on the pitch will be taking the view that they are not worthy and that has to be a good sign.

The expectation is that the boys have been forced to watch the DVD of Wednesday’s game so many times that they’ve had to live and breathe it enough to know what is tactically needed for the game.

We have the personnel to address the changes needed and my sense is that the victory has to be driven by our mental strength. Arsenal gave Barca too much respect when they rolled into town, we have to redeem ourselves and yank that confidence away from them.

The boys have nothing to lose. Go out there and play your game.

Show that you all have the balls to fit the mental fortitude and character that you’ve shown us this season.

For tonight’s game, we will be sharing our thoughts and emotions on twitter. Follow us on twitter and join in the conversation during half time and after the game.

Stone Cold Arsenal is looking for new writers. If you have the passion and fire for Arsenal, and you feel you want to share your thoughts, your passion and your emotions with the thousands who read this blog daily, visit our Write For Us page to find out more.

Enjoy the game wherever you are.

If there’s two things this Arsenal team are guilty of, it’s the fact that this season, they don’t know how to lie down and die; and secondly, they have perfected the art of inducing heart attacks amongst the supporters.

I don’t think there’s a script at London Colney that encourages the team to do anything the easy way, and it has to be said, it ain’t good for the heart. I wouldn’t have it any other way though – it’s beautiful.

Last night was one of the most entertaining matches I’ve ever watched. Don’t get me wrong, as an Arsenal fan, it was bloody uncomfortable at least in the first half, but Barcelona came to play, and play they did.

The Catalans produced a master class in possession football that totally starved the Arsenal, a situation that I honestly don’t remember us ever being in.

I guess we were all feeling the same way other teams feel when we run riot all over the Premiership with our possession football. Nothing wrong with occasionally getting a dose of your own medicine.

Once Arsenal had jolted themselves out of the self inflicted stage fright, I was reminded about why I love this team so much. This season, we’ve risen from the dead more times than Lazarus or any phoenix, and the fighting spirit, courage, tenacity and character of the team makes me so proud.

Even so, the match last night was filled with irony from every corner.

The irony that Almunia is the only reason Arsenal are still in with a chance to upset the apple cart, yet a few days ago, he was the Anti-Christ if you believed what you read on the internet.

The irony that Barcelona were guilty of everything Arsenal have been accused of for years – playing pretty and majestic football yet failing to kill off teams that are screaming to be executed and buried. How many times have we been told that the only statistic that counts is the one on the scoreboard?

The irony that despite being kept under unimaginable pressure, Arsenal knuckled down, fought like mad and took their chances. How many times have we been hit hard by teams who are ruthlessly efficient despite our dominance in possession?

The irony that Arsenal’s ’scapegoats du jour’ – Denilson, Walcott and Bendtner – played out of their skins and were the players who totally changed the game for Arsenal. How many times have these characters been bashed beyond recognition and charged with the crime of being unfit to wear the Arsenal shirt?

The irony that despite risking Fabregas, the Arsenal captain has already done enough to leave his mark by opening the door for his team-mates to finish a job at the Camp Nou. How many inspirational leaders on the pitch give you an equalizer, and takes out two key players (Pique and Puyol) from the next tie?

I can just picture Cesc cursing “If I ain’t playing next week then these 2 bastards ain’t playing either”. Getting two players suspended and burying a penalty for good measure is a job well done for the captain.

The irony that Leonel Messi (was he really playing last night?) was sacrificed when they went down to 10 men to give him a breather after spending most of the game in Denilson’s pocket.

The irony that Barcelona are shit scared of Theo Walcott (who totally made Maxwell his bitch), yet they refused to give Arsenal the ball and bullied us all over the park in the first half.

In truth, we started the game really badly and froze, but the spirited return and strong finish will do our confidence the world of good. It was evident that the key to Barca’s game is working harder without the ball than they do with the ball.

They showed they can’t sustain that tempo for the whole game, and Arsenal’s propensity to be anal with fitness and our ’never say die’ spirit became their worst nightmare.

The match wouldn’t be the match without the roller coaster reactions all over the web and all over news columns and air waves. Reading some of the comments on the Arsenal boards during the game, I must say that I thought I was in a psychiatric ward with schizophrenics running the show.

There is the mother of all ironies there when you see Arsenal fans spew so much garbage and show their total lack of belief in this Arsenal team, and their total lack of fighting spirit as Arsenal fans.

How is it that Arsenal supporters expect their team to fight to the death (and believe me – this team has fought admirably to the death all season), yet at the small experience of adversity, these same so called fans whimper away and hide behind the sofa.

Get a frigging spine I say to all those who still have the audacity to question the resolve and determination of this team. Yes, you may question tactics and individual or collective team performances, but it’s unacceptable to question this teams resolve.

If you want to understand what type of fans I’m talking about, check out our definitive anatomy of an Arsenal doom and gloom merchant.

Also, if you think Arsenal fans were pissed off, try checking out how Barca fans feel for throwing the game away.

And of course, the equation wouldn’t be complete without the hypocrisy of the media. I found it painful to listen to the ITV commentary, even when we had the comeback on and were giving Barca grief in the last half an hour.

I switched over to Radio 5 live only to find Alan Green reading out Arsenal’s obituary.

If Manchester United had fought back the way we did and clawed back an impossible 2 nil deficit – they would be waxing lyrical about Man United. Nobody remembered that United were totally bitch-slapped by Bayern Munich for 88 minutes in May 1999 before they smuggled the European cup from the Camp Nou to the horror of the Bavarians.

If Liverpool had fought back the way we did and got the 2 goals back, the media will be waxing lyrical about the invincibility of Gerrard and Torez. Nobody remembered that Liverpool were totally bitch-slapped by AC Milan in Istanbul in May 2005 before they too smuggled the European cup from under the jaws of the Italians.

When is it that this Arsenal team will get the respect its due – instead of the snide and contemptuous remarks about Arsenal getting away with murder?

The media didn’t give us a chance in hell to even make it to the 4th place champions league spot, let alone challenge for both the EPL and Champions League titles. What hypocrisy the show for applying selective amnesia to the mental strength of the teams they favour, yet the evidence is all there that Arsenal have time and time shown that despite adversity, they have formidable mental strength.

They point out that we can’t do it in 5 days time because – wait for this, we have key players out with injury.

So what’s new? Arsenal is still here and we refuse to go away.

Last night, I hadn’t even finished pouring a glass of wine and settling down before I heard the excitement of Sky’s commentator Martin Tyler’s voice barely 2 milliseconds after the kick-off.

“Oh shit!”, was the first thought on my mind when I rushed into the living room to consider the inevitable. I wasn’t so much worried that Manchester United had scored, I was more worried that Rooney had scored.

My reason for this fear has nothing to do with the fear of Rooney. He’s a striker and it’s his job to score so I would suggest that he’s the most likely Man United player to score. My issue is with the sycophancy that follows any goal he scores from the media and the entire football establishment.

I was thinking to myself whether I can deal with the “Rooney is the best player in the world” back slapping that I find really suffocating.

But the thing is this – yesterday’s game showed that he who dares wins. Let’s face it, Man United were very pedestrian yesterday and they paid for it.

Arsenal can quickly learn a lot from last night’s game on two fronts. Firstly, the form of the day rules. Despite the universal predictions of a Manchester United hammering of the Bavarians, the form of the day is what counts.

You see, football pundits and book makers remind me of credit rating agencies who need to be taken out back, made to kneel down facing the wall, and given a good hiding.

These rating agencies provided assessments of financial institutions that were so far off the mark, they brought the world economy to its knees, yet few bothered to question the credibility of the nonsense they spewed.

I mean, how the hell did they not see the world-wide economic crash coming. It’s like NASA missing a comet heading for earth and yet they tell us all is well and they’re focussing on a trip to Mars instead.

I never believed that a Manchester United win was a full gone conclusion for the simple reason that Bayern Munich are not mugs. The English media seem to think they are, but the German team didn’t just walk out of the cotton fields into the quarter finals of the elite European club competition.

Secondly, Arsenal can learn that focussing on our strengths is more important than being fascinated by the spectacle of Barcelona.

In yesterday’s press conference, Stevie Stammers from the Sunday Mirror tried desperately to push Thomas Vermaelen to provide a response as to whether he or Arsenal would be intimidated by Leonel Messi.

Vermaelen’s answer was as cold and as witty as they come: “We have no time to be intimidated, we have a job to do”.

Simply put, he who dares wins.

As the Catalans roll into town, the news wires, tabloid columns and air waves are filled with all manner of hyperbole and little to do with football.

It’s all about the romance of Cesc Fabregas playing against his boyhood team before he allegedly joins them; about the return of Thierry Henry to Arsenal; and pretty much about Barcelona steam rolling Arsenal (that’s what they say anyway if you believe them).

I’ve rarely commented on the fiction and tabloid diarrhoea that seems to occupy journalists from both countries who seem obsessed with forcing Fabregas to move to Barcelona. If the Arsenal captain farted, they’d find a story to go with it – like how the young Catalan can’t cope with Arsenal’s diet and therefore will be leaving for Barca in the summer.

Even so, we’re going to steer clear of the suffocating shit stirring that will occupy us until kick-off tomorrow night at 7.45 pm.

There’s a reason why the matches between Arsenal and Barcelona are generating interest all over the world. It’s undoubtedly the long overdue meeting between two of the best free flowing and exciting teams in world football.

They are teams that thrive on an attacking and scintillating brand of football. While some might point that this attacking mentality tends to throw defensive discipline away in the case of both teams, football purists would argue ”so what! It’s bloody exciting”

I think that regardless of the results of the two-legged tie, if you can’t enjoy the spectacle of two exhilarating teams coming at each other without inhibition, then you shouldn’t be watching football at all.

But why is it that Arsenal and Barcelona can command so much respect around the world for their brand of scintillating football?

Granted, Barcelona may have been at it for a bit longer as Arsenal pretty much went back to the drawing board following the dismantling of the ’Invincibles’. However, the ethos and philosophy of both clubs is admirable.

In a lot of ways, one of the most intriguing things about the last generation of Arsenal players is that they were never as successful in Europe as this current crop of players. Even the ’Invincibles’ really struggled to reach the heights that this current Arsenal team has reached in Europe, despite the accolades they collected domestically; and despite the superstars they had in the team.

I think in there, lies the answer to the evolution of the current Arsenal side. I suspect it’s a factor many people still obsessed with a certain brand of football that combines power with technique fail to see time and time again.

This current Arsenal team is normally and unfairly compared to the ’Invincibles’ and this is wrong in a lot of respects. For one, the ’Invincibles’ were at the peak of their careers and this is not the case with the core of the current Arsenal side.

Secondly, Wenger has slowly moved away from the archetypal team of the last decade, and slowly focussed on a core of mobile, pacy and technically gifted players.

The football establishment , stuck in their time warp of Neolithic ideas of what football should be like, have been quick at beating this Arsenal side with a very big stick. The team has been accused of being light-weight, not being strong enough and not showing the brute force seen elsewhere in the football league, etc.

Not enough credit is given to this Arsenal side for the distance they have travelled and the evolution they have shown in the game. Even more annoying, are the misguided truths and inconvenient lies that suggest that this brand of Wengerball is ineffective and doesn’t work.

I read a fascinating article yesterday on Untold Arsenal that blows one of the myths about Arsenal not being ’clinical’ in front of goal. This is a myth peddled day in, day out until it has become fact among the pundits and hacks – yet the plain truth is that Arsenal are the most lethal and clinical team in the EPL and in Europe.

Don’t believe me? Read Jerome Harwood’s article about this on Untold Arsenal.

By evolving the team, Wenger has made it more effective in Europe, while still keeping it very competitive domestically. In a lot of ways, the only other team that compares to this is Barcelona.

Structurally and in terms of the technical capability of the team, Barcelona and Arsenal are very similar. The two clubs operate with players of the same mould physically and technically, and aspire to the same virtues of total football.

Arsenal’s misfortune is that they play in a league that is peppered with teams that prefer to use an unsavoury brand of brute force disguised as commitment and grit. They play more with teams that thrive on physicality with a ’kick and chase’ mentality.

Over the last few years, the Gunners have learnt how to take care of themselves on the pitch and they continue to balance the physicality needed with the vision of playing scintillating football.

In truth, the media, pundits and hacks still harp on about Arsenal being ‘weak and lightweight’ – yet there is no evidence of this. Mind you, I differentiate physicality from the cowardice of kicking Arsenal players off the park, carrying out cynical rotational fouling, and literally breaking legs of Arsenal players in late challenges. There’s a difference between being physical in a contact sport and being violent.

Despite these similarities that put Arsenal and Barca head and shoulders over many teams in the world when it comes to playing total football, the two clubs couldn’t be so far apart.

When it comes to club management and administration, Arsenal are light years ahead of the Catalans. In recent times, football finance and football debts have been a key area of concern, and for the foreseeable future, there’s no getting away from the fact that you need to balance football with proper financial stability to survive for the future.

Just as an example, last year, Barcelona’s debt stood at €350m and they made a profit of €8.8m, despite winning 6 trophies. Arsenal on the other hand made half year profits this financial year of over £35m, and managed to reduce the mortgage on Emirates stadium by a staggering £100m.

Arsenal’s strategy is clearly to drive down the mortgage repayments over the next 2 or 3 years, while still remaining very competitive. This despite all manner of doubters including a handful of Arsenal fans who’d rather see Arsenal spend that money on so called ’big name’ players.

The fact of the matter is that Arsenal at the moment are at the cusp of something great, and will in 2 or 3 years, be debt free of the stadium mortgage. Not only will we have a squad capable of challenging domestically and in Europe, the club will also have an obscene amount of ’organic’ money to use to develop the squad and move the club into total domination of the game in years to come.

Not even Barcelona will be able to match that, and it’s hard to see any club in the world that will be generating tens of millions of pounds every year.

While we wait for the rest of the football world to catch up with Arsenal’s vision and financial stability and superiority off the pitch, we can marvel at Arsenal’s technical superiority on the pitch against a team that is also technically superior.

Like I said, regardless of the results against Barcelona, if you can’t enjoy the game, then you need to stop following football.

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• He Who Dares Wins, There’s No Other Way

We at Stone Cold Arsenal had opined earlier that Arsenal’s fortunes over this home stretch would quite simply be determined more by our ability to outscore opponents rather than by our ability to contain them.

We failed to do so at Birmingham City and the chase for the title therefore has just become the more arduous. It was an insipid game. With most of our strike force and creative heart still not in prime form, and a makeshift defence rendered necessary by circumstances, such an outcome was always on the cards.

While Birmingham, to put things in perspective, have taken points off virtually all the top teams at St. Andrews this season, three points were certainly not an impossibility and debates about the late introduction of Arshavin and Nasri will rage for some time to come.

Waste of time I say. We’re better off looking ahead and trying to win every game that lies ahead. So too criticisms of Almunia and the sloppy defending that cost us two points. Futile to fret about these things so late in the season.

We’ll do well to reconcile ourselves to the fact that this season is going to be a test of this team’s character, eventual outcomes be what they may. They’ve acquitted themselves honourably so far; their response to Birmingham will be a fresh marker.

Next on the agenda is Barcelona. I’m quite happy we drew them as opposed to one of the lesser teams as the pressure of expectations are non-existent. We have nothing to lose, and I can’t think of a more liberating feeling than that.

Can we, and will we go out there and give the games our all is the question. To me the outcome is far from decided, formidable as the task is. How we acquit ourselves here is going to speak volumes about our potential and character.

Reputations and teams can be made or undone in games like these, and I regard this tie against Barcelona as a great opportunity for this side to make a decisive breakthrough in their development. Win it, or make it a darned close affair, and they’ll go a long way towards fulfilling their rich potential.

Fabregas is not certain to start, and strong influence as he is, I’m not particularly worried. Between Nasri and Arshavin we should be able to hold our own in the creative department. Should it be Vermaelen-Sol at the back, or Vermaelen-Song?

I confess to favouring the latter option. Campbell’s talent and experience I’m afraid don’t compensate for his physical limitations in games such as these, and between Diaby and Denilson, Song shouldn’t be much missed in midfield. Needs must is my view.

I’d like to indulge a memory prompted by this draw: The quarter finals of the Champions’ League in 2004.

Deportivo La Coruna were drawn to play defending Champions AC Milan, and lost the first leg 1-4 at the San Siro. Against the formidable odds, they then thrashed them 4-0, in a display of relentlessly attacking football at the Riazor , eliminating Milan in the process.

Not that I want Arsenal to take such a tortuous route, but I certainly expect them to emulate Deportivo’s spirit and endeavour.

Here are the highlights of those two games:

An instance, I hope you dear readers will agree, of what makes football the “Beautiful Game”.

As an aside, I’d like to know if readers would like a column featuring two Spanish clubs, espousing starkly different philosophies, that for awhile around the start of the millennium punched well above their weight both in Spain and in Europe.

The afore mentioned Deportivo coached by Javier “Jabo” Irureta, and Hector Cuper’s Valencia who reached two successive Champions’ League finals. At the time, I found them a fascinating study in contrasts, and I’d like to know if you, our readers, will be interested in knowing more about them.

To conclude, I’d like to draw your attention to two articles highlighting the appalling indebtedness at the heart of club football in England and in Spain:

http://tinyurl.com/yhlf2fk

Seventy per cent of Barclays Premier League clubs have had their credit ratings “suspended”, an investigation by The Times can reveal.

Reports seen by this newspaper and generated by Riskdisk, a credit checking agency, reveal that 14 of the top-flight sides have been blacklisted, essentially meaning that companies trading with them are advised to withdraw credit terms.

http://tinyurl.com/yexef69

According to José María Gay, Spain’s leading expert on football finance and an adviser to Uefa: “La Liga is dying”.

In all, Gay calculates Spanish football’s debt to be €3.5bn. The Spanish federation still owe the players’ union €6.8m and, according to the former president of the union, Gerardo Movilla, an estimated €100m is still owed to footballers in unpaid wages.

The state loses out, too: Atlético owe the tax man €15m; 50% of their transfer income is embargoed.

Look back over the clubs who have competed in the Champions League recently and the situation is alarming: Valencia’s debt is more than €600m.

Like Real Madrid (who sold their training ground for €447m to the council in 2001, wiping out their €278m debt), a property deal was supposed to be their salvation. However, the market crashed at just the wrong time. Now Valencia have two stadiums – one they cannot sell and another they cannot afford to finish building.

According to the third largest shareholder at Atlético Madrid, their debt is above €300m. Villarreal have just failed to pay their players for the first time because the ceramics industry from which their owner, Fernando Roig, makes his money has been hit hard by the crisis. Deportivo La Coruña are more than €120m in debt. Mallorca are desperately seeking a buyer and preparing for administration.

Celta Vigo and Real Sociedad have been relegated and, with no parachute payment to break the fall, went into administration. Real Sociedad’s president at the time was a certain Astiazarán, now the league’s president.

I urge you, our readers, to take the time to read through both those articles in full as these are issues that should concern all serious football fans.

I must say that I, as an Arsenal fan, ‘am delighted to only have to deal with on-field worries and frustrations.

Well then, here’s to acquitting ourselves as champions, the outcome be what it may, against Barcelona.

Speaking of the state of football finance, ownership and the sheer madness of the precarious positions football clubs find themselves in, don’t forget to join in our intriguing debate of why Arsenal is an oasis of fiscal sanity in an orgy of excess.

Also, if there’s any specific topic or aspect of football that you’d like to read in-depth, just contact us and we’ll educate ourselves on it before presenting our two pennies worth in another popular mini series, like the ones you’ll find in our ’Article Series’.

When Martin Atkinson started his 50 yard sprint towards the Arsenal penalty area just before half time in the game against West Ham, you could just smell disaster. His hand was in his pocket faster than he could blow the whistle and long before he even got to the incident.

It was like he had an itch and it needed to be scratched. To hell with what actually happened, a West Ham player going down in the box is good enough.

I suppose one way of looking at it is that we can thank Atkinson for the opportunity of creating another unforgiving test by reducing Arsenal to 10 men. Of course the boys passed with flying colours, so for what it’s worth, it was a good thing to face and overcome that adversity.

The flip side is that we get to miss the services of Vermaelen at St. Andrews this weekend. Someone in the legal team at Highbury House clearly feels it’s worth an appeal seeing as the referee was trigger happy.

You’d think that if Gazidis and his team can squeeze the UEFA chuffers and arm twist the European body to back down on Dudugate after the Crozilian’s 3 match ban, then the crisis laden FA is a walk in the park.

I’m one of those who think that perhaps Wenger should work on the basis that Vermaelen will be listening to Saturday’s game on Talk Sport radio from his gated mansion in Hertfordshire. Optimism about the appeal is good, but pragmatism is more useful.

This of course leaves the bemoaning Arsenal community with a sense of injustice as match officials seem to take matters in their own hands.

All season, you’d be hard pressed to find anyone who was comfortable with the fact that Silvestre and Senderos were Arsenal’s centre half understudies. I can’t remember the number of times I heard the quote ”we’re only an injury or suspension away from a defensive crisis”.

Well, we now have both an injury and a suspension to our first choice defensive pairing. The only argument I have is that I don’t think it constitutes a crisis.

For one, Wenger executed a masterstroke by bringing in Sol Campbell to plug in a hole until the end of the season. It was unrealistic to expect Arsenal to get any competent centre half willing to warm our bench in a world cup year, just in case something happens.

So do we have a crisis as is made out elsewhere on this wonderful blogosphere of ours?

I guess it depends on your disposition in life. For some people, the easier option is to take the view that anything that doesn’t work according to the script is a crisis.

Sometimes in life, we need to stop our propensity to look for negatives in any situation. The way to look at it is that we’ve been dealt a lousy hand and rather than moan, we need to use it to play a damn good game of cards and get us out from between a rock and a hard place.

I believe Wenger has several options in Arsenal’s defence, that stops this from getting anywhere near a crisis. Appealing Vermaelen’s red card is not a bad start.

My sense is that the options revolve around whether Sol Campbell and Thomas Vermaelen will be a more solid defensive pairing against Barcelona in 8 days time, or whether we will have to do with Alex Song and Vermaelen.

Campbell can’t physically play more than one game a week, but then again, who would have thought it was possible that he’d be still playing for Arsenal at 35.

Last Saturday, Wenger decided to use Song in defence, and I thought it was pleasing that Song took to the role like water off a duck’s back. It was like he’d been playing in Arsenal’s defence even before they built the Piccadilly railway line in 1902.

Song‘s performance against West Ham in defence makes it easier for Wenger to leave out Silvestre at Birmingham, if he chooses to play Sol Campbell. It’ll require another ’energizer’ bunny performance from Denilson, and a midfield of the Brazilian, Fabregas and Diaby are very capable of holding the fort at St. Andrews.

My sense is that since the stakes are very high, Song will be relieved off his midfield duties this weekend and asked to join Silvestre in defence on Saturday against Birmingham.

I suppose one way to think about this is to ask yourself whether you’d be more comfortable with Messi running at Silvestre with the ball or whether Campbell is a better bet. It’s the lesser of two evils and someone, glad it’s not me, has to make a decision about what risk we can live with.

The alternative is to play Song and Vermaelen in defence against Barca, but I think Song will be more useful indulging in the dark arts of the defensive midfielder in the game against Barca.

I get the sense that Barcelona are cursing the Champions league quarter final draw against Arsenal. Contrary to popular belief, Arsenal’s game has a lot of respect across Europe, and the game a week on Wednesday will be one of those where the team that wins is the team that has the balls to score more goals.

Before we get excited about the football spectacle though, there’s a small matter of navigating past the unsavoury characters at St. Andrews on Saturday.

We know what happened last time, and Arsenal’s team talk is already done.

After a well earned rest for the team on Wednesday, the Arsenal medical staff were back to the ever familiar routine of assessing their casualties. I sometimes get the sense that some Arsenal fans are more worried about the injury roll call after every game, than they are excited about Arsenal’s encouraging prospects for silverware.

It’s the classic dilemma where it’s easy to view the constant injury gremlins that plagues this Arsenal team as the proverbial glass half empty. Some argue that this pessimist paradigm helps rationalize and make sense of the anxiety and high blood pressure inducing moments during this ’Squeaky bum’ spell of the season.

Of course, with the changing fortunes of the team in the last few weeks as Arsenal stubbornly clawed back points to haul themselves into the title race yet again, there are a sizeable proportion of optimists who see this glass as half full.

I’m one of those who take a more philosophical approach and avoid the red herring of whether to see the glass as half full or half empty. I guess I’m an opportunist who is just grateful for the chance to quench my thirst.

We start by taking the next game at the KC stadium simply as it is, the next cup final for Arsenal. We seem to have many of these cup finals now, and so far so good – just 14 more to win if at all we’re going to prove we have the audacity to defy the laws of establishment.

What I found really intriguing in the past week or so is how so much focus was placed on Arsenal struggling through the last round of the Champions League. I accept that this sentiment was amplified by two individual howlers that couldn’t have been legislated for when the Gunners visited the Estadio do Dragão 3 weeks ago.

In fairness, the dragons of Porto didn’t offer much of a lethal threat in both rounds. Yes of course, they offered a threat, but you have to begin to wonder when people complain, whether they expected Porto not to even enter our own half, let alone shoot at Almunia’s goal.

Besides, I was under the impression that the reason why we have a defence and a goal keeper is to – you know, defend and goal keep. I would suggest that a clean sheet and making Helton collect the ball from the back of his net 5 times is a pretty emphatic statement that once and for all slay that dragon of Porto.

Moving right along, we have the pleasure of visiting our good old friend Phil the Orange and his charges up in Hull this weekend. Incidentally, I found an appropriate Video of the Week to mark the occasion. It’s a video of Phil Brown apologizing to Arsenal and to Cesc Fabregas for the Spitgate incident last year. Make sure you check it out at the video slot in the bottom right of this blog.

The tigers have been more like pussycats this season and after their last loss, their manager was quick to point out that they won’t be playing that ’fancy Dan’ football that doesn’t work. I would suspect that was code for ’We’re playing Arsenal so you know what to do’.

Arsenal will have to be focussed and forget the triumphs that brought down the dragon this week, and concentrate on taming the tigers for the right to collect the next 3 points in the cup final series. It’s not good enough to focus our energy on the mounting injury list and missing personnel.

We’re in the mother of all dog fights that is ruthless and unforgiving for those who feel sorry for themselves. In truth, we have a squad capable of dispatching the tiger of Hull in a similar fashion to the dragon of Porto, and our only enemy will be complacency.

We have the physical strength and arrogance to match the uncouth approach of Brown and his charges, and if we really need to, I’m sure we can push our technical superiority to help us out a bit.

More importantly, Andrey Arshavin has gone the extra mile to match the ridiculous hair cut worn in previous encounters by the reprobate that is Steven Hunt. To be honest, I agree with my friend Yogi that both of them run the risk of being arrested for wearing those hair cuts in a built up area.

The most exciting thing that happened to Arsenal this week was the dilemma that Samir Nasri presented the manager. It totally relieves the pressure of having Cesc rushed back into the play maker role orchestrating our play in the midfield.

I think the young Frenchman has just earned himself a starting place in the Les Bleus squad for the World Cup, and what an opportunity he now has to stamp his authority in the Arsenal midfield and cement his place for the summer jaunt down south.

The only nerves around town seem to be regarding the choice of either Sol Campbell or Mikhael Silvestre to partner the most celebrated Belgian since Jean Claude Van Damme.

Sol seems to have recovered from the fatigue of playing 90 minutes on Tuesday, and since the next game Arsenal play after Saturday allows for a week’s rest, I would suspect Wenger would start with Sol alongside the Verminator.

Crocked or not, the team has to roll up their sleeves and get on with the small matter of collecting the next 3 points. Taming tigers is never an easy job, but that’s why we carry our cannon around.

Last night was somewhat surreal as the football on offer left my emotions and thoughts split three ways.

Firstly, there was the reality check being dished out in its coldest and most ruthless form at the Santiago Bernabeu. Secondly there was the shift into the overdrive of media sycophancy about Manchester United’s supposed ’World domination’ and the collective kissing of Alex Ferguson’s and Wayne Rooney’s rectal passages.

The media establishment were so far up the said asses, it was hard to see how the fumes and operating conditions would have allowed them to offer some objectivity.

It was only yesterday that all and sundry tried to portray Arsenal’s annihilation of Porto as not worthy of the Gunners, citing a supposedly tame dragon that was Porto. This third aspect really pissed me off.

Well, I thought I was pissed off until my wife, an ardent Chelsea supporter, came downstairs remonstrating about how she had been let down by AC Milan. I tried to convince her that Milan weren’t the team they used to be and that their contingent of senior citizens has passed their sell by date.

She was having none of that as clearly, her issue was that in the next week or so, she’d have to cope with the media barrage of ”Rooney this, Man United that, Ferguson this, Man United that”. The thought of Rooney, Ferguson and Man United being shoved down her throat by the media felt like it was going to make her physically sick.

I’ve got to tell you, that when even Chelsea fans complain about the media sycophancy towards Sir Red Nose and his charges, then something is clearly amiss.

Perhaps it’s just naive to expect that the establishment’s darling won’t get its customary treatment – and what, with just around 12 weeks to go to the World Cup – it’s even more naive to think that Wayne Rooney isn’t about to get the media endorsement to become a Knight of the Realm.

Of course, he’ll have to score the winning goal at the World Cup before Aunt Liz and Uncle Phil take the Royal train from Buckingham Palace to Carrington to personally endow the next Knight in waiting with the right to use Sir Wayne on his personal stationery.

I don’t know which is more scary – having to live with Sir Wayne for the next I don’t know how many years, or having to live with the vanity of Lady Coleen.

If you haven’t noticed yet, I was obviously tuned into Sky Sports 1 last night watching the events at the Santiago Bernabeu. Florentino Perez, the Real Madrid president has to be one of the biggest platinum idiots this side of the Mediterranean. I would have had sympathy for him under different circumstances, but Perez has form for breath-taking recklessness in spending an obscene amount of money to try and buy titles.

There can’t be any more spectacular ways to burn 260 million Euros – and what, for the sake of winning the Champions League in your own backyard? He tried it before and it didn’t work, and he should have heeded the famous Chinese saying that suggests that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

The truth is that Real Madrid has just become the perfect case study of the fact that there is no place for reckless and brazen cheque book management of football in this day and age.

Arsenal and Arsene Wenger have been constantly derided and ridiculed for supposedly being tight fisted and anal about not spending money they haven’t got. While this is going on, the recklessness of other comparable clubs like Man United and Liverpool have been hailed as the way forward – only to turn out to be basket cases of debt riddled clubs that are running on the fumes of history and reputation.

Chelsea and Manchester City on the other hand are play toys for sugar daddies who let’s face it, have to be candidates for the lifetime stupidity award for business acumen.

I hear the argument that these folks are billionaires so they must have done something right in business. Actually, they haven’t done anything that spectacular like build a software empire from scratch or something dramatic like that.

Abramovich benefitted from the Russian economic revolution in the 90s by being in the right place at the right time to pounce – and the Abu Dhabi Investment Corporation are pretty much sitting on top of an oil mine that allows them to print the money themselves.

Despite this, the reality that you can’t buy titles, history and tradition by throwing money at middle table mediocrity still doesn’t seem to sink in. Abramovich has already lost £700 million (and counting) – and all he has to show for it is 2 league titles and a few FA cups. If that’s a good return for £700 million,, then clearly we all need to fold our tents and move on.

The new trend seems to be that of shifting the obscene amount of debt from the liability column on the balance sheet to the equity column. Manchester City have followed this pathetic route – but it doesn’t mask the fact that it’s bad business. They’ll of course say they have the money – but if ever there was a definition of doping, then this has to be it.

Heads are rolling this week in the Spanish Capital, and heads will continue to role. One disadvantage for Arsenal of course is that Wenger will now become a target sought after like a nonsense as Madrid try to save face and justify burning the money they’ve burnt in the last year.

Football today couldn’t do any worse than take a leaf from the philosophy and approach of Arsenal’s Professor who holds a Masters degree in Economics. He masquerades day to day as the Arsenal manager, but in Wenger, football has a sage who balances the virtues of football with the discipline of business.

Wenger is the reason why Arsenal leads, and others follow. If the footballing world didn’t learn anything from Real Madrid’s exit out of the Champions league yesterday, then I suspect a bigger tragedy in football must and should happen for our game to be in a better place.