Thoughts a day and a half on from the final:

-The Independent has a very interesting analysis of the melee.

-In among the concern over Terry, it was actually the Diaby injury that really cost us. We badly needed him on.

-Should Djourou have played instead of Senderos? Yes, because however steady he looks, Drogba always has a stormer against big Phil.

-Would you have taken off Walcott instead of Aliadiere? One was tiring and the other looked full of beans.

-Is Jose Mourinho the only manager to have taken a side to their first titles in forty odd years and yet done it with so little grace that the club have actually had to LOWER ticket prices to get a full house?

-I am not saying whether Mourinho was right or wrong to enter the field. But, surely, once he did, Arsene had no option but to follow.

-We badly missed Clichy against Robben. Wenger knew it and wanted his number one left back fit.

-I forgot to say yesterday that Cesc hates Fergie (pizza) and Sherringham too.

-How attacking was our midfield? Walcott and Diaby did minimal defensive work (see below) and Cesc and Denilson are predominately creative. It made for great entertainment though it probably cost us in the end.

-People are getting worried about us being perennial runners-up. I remind you of the five second place finishes in three years (three league, UEFA Cup, FA Cup) prior to the 01-02 double.

-I’m not blaming the linesman for the goal as it was impossibly close to call. But let’s be in no doubt: replays showed a non-arm part of Drogba was ahead of a non-arm part of Senderos. It’s called offside.

-Getting in and out of Cardiff was an utter joke. All London matches must never again take place there for any reason whatsoever.

-I couldn’t see a single policeman doing anything when the celery rained down on Cesc.

-Watching the game from my excellent upper tier seats, you really appreciated how great our movement was. It might make the following playa ratings fairly different from what you might have gleaned from the TV:

I am out the country now for ten days, during which time I have no idea whether I’ll be able to see the Blackburn, Reading and PSV games or whether I’ll feel like updating here at all. We shall see.

From Goodplaya at the Millennium Stadium

JOSE MOURINHO, John Terry, Andrei Shevchenko, Frank Lardarse, Peter Kenyon, Michael Ballack, Roman Abramovich, Kerry Dixon and Craig Burley: for large parts of yesterday your boys were taught one hell of a lesson.

On balance, you just about merited it in the end but for for much of it we were absolutely, utterly, entirely, completely, unremittingly, unceasingly good. If you thought Anfield or White Hart Lane had been good, this was miles better.

Players from both sides rushed to
intervene when they realised there
was a risk of Lampard
toppling on top of Cesc Fabregas

There will be professional bores like radio pundit Alan Green who will try their best to have the game remembered for the injury time brawl (see right), as if they never once have erred. But to Alan I would say two things:

Right, that said, I can rarely, if ever, remember seeing football played with such absolute abandon and delight. And when Theo Walcott unlocked a Chelsea side featuring the first choice strike force, midfield, central defence and goalkeeper to capitalise on our domination, I think most of us were in dreamland. It came about from (what was then an out of character) control and pass from Walcott in the first place, to which I turned to Richard and said: “That could do him good.” I was right.

Bad Luck

We continued to be excel, but not a lot went for us. Bambi like Armando Traore played above himself at left-back but Arsene had desperately been hoping Clichy would be passed fit and with the first goal and Robben’s second half running you could see why.

Also, the equaliser was mighty tight but just offside. The laws say if any part of the player (except the arms) is in front of the last defender, the man is offside and Drogba, just, was. A bitter blow.

Then when Aliadiere broke away down the right, Baptista raced forward but was cynically hauled back out of sight of the ref (and probably the camera) for a good five seconds. It was a massive chance. Then Essien was highly lucky to stay on the pitch for an awful lunge and a couple of other cynical tugs.

Even in the second half, while Terry’s knockout was clearly awful, I think most of us would happily have let Terry carry on in exchange for Diaby being fit to do so too. When others’ legs tired, his seemed to be gaining a new lease of life and when we lost him, we lost not just a vital outlet but an increasing threat too.

But in the end it was not to be. I am, of course, disappointed we didn’t win. But the funny thing is I feel little pain at seeing Chelsea victorious. Their whole existence is so skewed, so vacuous, so obscene, so wrong that seeing them celebrate elicits not jealousy but instead just a numbness.

Conclusion

Playa ratings on Monday at some point but I’ll just finish by saying how, despite an utter nightmare journey to and from Cardiff and a defeat to boot, I’m delighted I went today. I was there when it all started at West Brom and have seen four of the six games live and two on telly. It annoys me when pundits seem unable to find a medium between Arsenal the greatest team ever and Arsenal the worst thing ever, but this truly was a wonderful journey.

It was one of daring, optimism and audacity and irrespective of the result today, the side wrote a wonderful story playing some outstanding football. Of course, this won’t be the exact team in 2012 (for one thing Alex Song will have to come back in), but it’s a tribute to an extraordinary, extraordinary manager that today we watched what was, with the exception of Kolo Toure, an entirely third generational Arsenal team, make Chelsea look so very ordinary for long stretches.

We saw they are not the finished article. But the strides taken in six games since West Brom have been something to behold.

… Or at least in five minutes I will be.

I’ll just leave you with the videos of the two Spurs semi-finals to complete our run to the final.

Enjoy.

MYLES PALMER makes a valid point when he says tomorrow could potentially finish in a rout for Chelsea. Remember the five goals their firsts put past our seconds at Highbury seven years ago? These things can happen.

But where I think Myles and many others are wrong is to let that fear stop them going tomorrow. As someone who attended the West Brom and Everton games, got within 20 minutes of the original Anfield one, then watched the rearranged game and the Spurs first leg on TV before going to the second leg in person, I’ve had enough fun along the route that even a spanking wouldn’t really spoil things.

And if that does happen I can guarantee you one thing: you won’t find me bemoaning the non-selection of Henry, Gallas et al. More than anything what has seen us to the final has been a spirit, an optimism that might not have been there among the established stars.

Team wise: My suspicion is Arsene will go for one first choice midfielder or one first choice striker. I suspect Gilberto could play, next to Denilson, Diaby and Walcott with Baptista and Aliadiere up front. The alternative is to play Adebayor up front, with Aliaidiere coming in from the left wing, which might suit him but would leave our wings looking massively attack minded. We shall see.

We head to Cardiff as underdogs and after years of having so much expectation on us, it’s nice in a way. In fact, my friend Richard is so relaxed that he has agreed to go for a pint before the match. He NEVER does that. The last time was before we beat Leeds 5-0 to win the title, so confident was he.

Chelsea will be utterly gutted by events at Craven Cottage. Not so much by the result but by the realisation that United evidently have the luck of Champions that they, Chelsea and we have all enjoyed in the past. It can be hard to derail. Personally, I’d love to see Chelsea overhaul them. It’s basically now or never for Fergie and he knows it. Lose this one and it’s goodbye. Chelsea on the otherhand have already won two, so three in a row won’t make much difference on the pain side for us.

And if (when?) it all falls apart for them, it won’t be a solitary runner-up spot that is responsible.

THAT BOLTON, Chelsea, Man City and now Wigan and Blackburn have announced plans to freeze or lower ticket prices should come as little surprise.

As this table illustrates, the four north-west based teams are not coming close to sell-outs. They have so many seats to fill that by lowering prices there is the scope for increased revenue.

Chelsea on the other hand are at a tipping point. Were initial success under Mourinho to prompt a surge in popularity, it would have done so by now. By effectively reducing their prices (taking into account inflation), Peter Kenyon will be hoping to lower the number of radio and newspaper adds the club need to pay for. So again, it’s revenue driven.

What does all this mean for Arsenal? Keith Edelman spoke about prices yesterday. The best lines were:

What does this mean? Well, Arsenal’s money men are very savvy. They had the foresight to realise 7,000 people would buy the incredibly expensive club level season tickets. They were bright enough to realise there were other people who would pay £17 more per game than the next expensive ticket for the best seats in the upper tier.

Figures such as £80 a ticket may horrify many of us, but we may as well realise there are a hell of a lot of people who watch Arsenal who have a hell of a lot of disposable income. Unless there is a serious economic downturn, charging these people £70 instead of £60 or £120 instead of £110 makes complete sense. They are subsidising the rest.

I suspect the board also realise there are a lot of fans for whom enough is rapidly becoming enough. Generally speaking, they are called the lower tier.

I predict (and I should say this is pure guesswork) rises above inflation for the priciest tickets and at no more than inflation for the cheaper ones. Feasibly, prices for some of the far back seats on the upper tier wings could also come closer in line with those in the lower tier, where I’d argue the view is often as good and the atmosphere miles better. The spaces against Blackburn may have been due to having just two days to flog the seats but they were a warning nonetheless.

Finally, I can see individual ticket prices for the best games (United, Chelsea, Spurs and glamour European games) rising because they will always sell-out. On the flip side, we may just see a small reduction for poorly scheduled TV games against average opposition.