Theo's goal & Liverpool's 12th Man

Congratulations to Liverpool... on your new twelfth man - the Ref. The Reds would not have drawn the first leg if Hleb's penalty had been given, and obviously would not have won the second leg had if the Babel penalty had not been given. Wenger and Toure have both been quoted in the press complaining about these decisions that gave away the semi-final berth.

I hate the fact that we didn't get the decisions our way on those penalties too, especially the Hleb penalty because that would definitely have been given on any other day. Or maybe if the referee simply had not been from Kuyt's hometown, and old buddies with the Dutchman.

But actually what I hate more is that every time we lose, there is some stupid external factor like a foul, penalty or an offside decision that is to be blamed for the entire match's result. Clichy's comments in the press differed from those of his coach and his Ivorian teammate. After being within 7 minutes of moving to the penultimate round, and not being able to defend from the kickoff after our goal, he said, was just "ridiculous". And he's right. We shouldn't even have been in that position (2-2). Theo's magical 70-yard run (maybe one of the best runs made by an Arsenal player) should have given us the lead, not have just created the equaliser.

Adebarndoor proved that he deserves his new name by missing a complete sitter being one on one with the goalie, and Emmanuel Eboue screwed up once again, getting into the box and opting to shoot at the side of the net instead of crossing for his teammates at the goalmouth. I watched the match with a (French) friend of mine, Nicolas, and when he saw Ade miss the sitter, he said 'typical Arsenal'. Of course, we don't get the EPL out here in Marseille on the local network, so he couldn't have been following Arsenal's devastating game last year, but he was talking about Arsenal of 2005 and 2006. Dominate, pass beautifully, get into great positions, and find ways to miss the target.

We've been slipping into that game again this year, and without Henry we don't have those brilliant individual players who can produce a goal out of nothing. Gerard did it to us in the first leg, and Torres produced a stunner in the second. He's well worth the 26 million pounds they paid for him, and as most of you know, is the second highest scorer in the league despite Benitez's rotation policy. We'll never know if Eduardo was to be that player for us, but we certainly know now that he wont be back till December, and it's really looking like it's time to actually use some of that 70 million quid Wenger has at his disposal.

I mentioned Theo Walcott's incredible assist earlier on, and here is a little treat for you.

So this is that talent that everyone has been talking about for the last couple of years. You can see Ade doing his celebration dance but then realising that the goal really belongs to Walcott, and he directs the crowd to the 19 year old. Theo has shown he can combine his amazing pace with brilliant light touches to leave the opposition eating turf, and I think the time has come to shift him to a central striker's role. The wings don't give him the space he needs to unleash his attacking game. His assist was the best part of the game, and it eased the pain of getting dumped out of the Champions League.

So now all hopes of silverware are pretty much gone. We can only fight for second place, and I doubt we can lose third place to Liverpool who are way behind the Big Three. It may be time now to experiment with the team, and try out something new. Like dropping Eboue, for instance.