I loved watching the celebration, Gibbs, Lansbury and Wilshere shaking fists and hugging each other. Players who have been at the club since childhood, some even joined before they reached double digits. It was nothing less than the team deserved

Whoever edits the football footage at White Hart Lane will have another night off, the printing company can put their feet up because they will not be needed. The hot selling DVD’s of a few years back may well become a collectors item as order was restored in North London last night.

There seems to be plenty of talk coming from the darker sides of North London since the beginning of the season, well nothing has changed I guess. Their chests have been puffed out since walking into the big playground after having achieved their first 4th place finish since before I can remember but having bigger fish to fry has meant that they could no longer field their strongest line up and overpower our youngsters, as they so proudly managed in the past.

Perhaps a Tottenham first eleven would have struggled with overpowering the 2010 vintage as this Arsenal team visibly showed plenty of fight and commitment to win the ball back when not in possession of the ball.

I was surprised to see Jay Emmanuel-Thomas start on the bench as I thought this would be his chance to prove his worth but in hindsight you can understand why Carlos Vela was given the role. Vela has been an impact substitute so far and has impressed on more than one occasion when coming off the bench. Wenger would have wanted to know if Vela was ready to play the central role if needed as he is higher up the pecking order and closer to the first team.

Tottenham started the quicker of the two teams as you would expect away from home in a north London derby but as the minutes ticked away, Arsenal slowly but surely wrestled back the right to play football. A team that has Jack Wilshere, Tomas Rosicky, Denilson and Samir Nasri is always going to have the ball for long periods and that was certainly the case in the first half.

Tottenham who boasted to have a stronger bench than Arsenal were found chasing Arsenal shadows for much of the half. Jack Wilshere playing in his preferred attacking central midfield position as opposed to his more conservative senior role, stood out like a sore thumb.

Driving through the Tottenham midfield, majestically waving his magic left foot around pinging passes left to right, playing one-two’s and setting the tempo. Tottenham’s only response was the usual response. No not play better football, but to hack into Wilshere whenever he got on the ball.

The goal was coming and unsurprisingly it was Wilshere who played a massive part in the goal. The combination play on the left was superb, Wilshere overlapped Rosicky and the Czech found his run, Wilshere’s cross into the box was every strikers dream, It was also probably every attacking midfielder’s dream as Henri Lansbury was left unmarked in the box to prod in from close range.

I loved watching the celebration, Gibbs, Lansbury and Wilshere shaking fists and hugging each other. Players who have been at the club since childhood, some even joined before their ages reached double digits. This is why these players can effortlessly keep the ball, almost without having to think about it. The big spenders like Manchester City, Real Madrid and formerly Chelsea cannot buy 10 years worth of time.

It was nothing less than the team deserved.

After the goal I felt that we were not capitalising enough on our possession. We were creating triangles all over the pitch but the imagination around the box or the extra bit of brilliance wasn’t quite there on enough occasions.

Vela who didn’t have a bad game, didn’t get himself involved as much as perhaps he would have wanted. The movement off the ball in and around the penalty box wasn’t always on offer from the Arsenal players.

The Tottenham defence were standing firm until they were broken from a fantastic run from left to right from Kieran Gibbs and Jack Wilshere played an inch perfect defence splitting pass, the linesman wrongly raised his flag for offside when replays clearly showed that he was at least level with the last man. Bad decision.

Redknapp must have felt somewhat twitchy at half time watching his players spend the best part of 45 minutes chasing boys in red and white shirts so he threw on Robbie Keane and Aaron Lennon in an attempt to get back into the game, in fairness the home team improved and they got their equaliser. Robbie Keane was standing outside the box, Johan Djourou stepped up perfectly to play the striker offside, well at least that is what the rules state. The same linesman who missed Gibbs’ perfectly timed run, this time allowed an offside Keane to take the ball and place his shot towards goal. Keane’s effort wasn’t struck with much power and Lukasz Fabianski will be disappointed with his attempt to save the shot, as it bounced off his hand and into the net.

We had been by far the better team until this point but if you do not score the goals then you are always open to being pegged back.

After the Tottenham goal, Arsenal steadied themselves once again, dusted themselves down and got the passing game working once more. Vela headed over and Eboue blasted wide when picking out better positioned players in the box would have been the more sensible option.

With twenty minutes to go, Arsene sent on Chamakh and Arshavin for Vela and Rosicky, a clear sign that Wenger wanted the game won. In years gone by Arsene may not have risked so many first team players at this early stage of the competition.

Laurent Koscielny continues to impress me, one recovery sliding tackle on Aaron Lennon who was just about to pull the trigger was absolutely breathtaking and as good as any defence splitting pass or cross field ball. Lennon took too long and got hit by the deadly Cobra.

The game was dragged into extra time after Arsenal failed to break the Tottenham defence further but that wouldn’t last for long as Arsenal were awarded their second spot kick in a matter of days, it was Nasri who was felled in the box once more. Harry Redknapp has accused Nasri post match of going down too easily, no doubt we will read about moaning Harry in the media or maybe not.

Nasri did as he should at the weekend, picked himself up from the turf, collected the ball and slammed it home from the spot to put Arsenal back in control again. Penalty kicks appear to be like London buses, another one followed shortly after the first of the game. Chamakh was blatently tugged back inside the penalty box, even the linesman would have seen that one. Nasri calmly rolled the ball in the opposite corner as his first. I suspect we will be waiting and checking our watches at penalty bus stop for a little while now.

I had spent a good ten minutes complaining about Andrey Arshavin’s application and contribution to this Arsenal team with a mate of mine before he set off charging towards goal after a quickly taken Wilshere free kick, Arshavin fired the ball across the keeper and into the net on his weaker left foot, a finish that not many of the Arsenal players would have managed to pull off, especially on the weaker side.

Never have I witnessed a player who can give so little for a team and then produce so much. That is the story of Andrey Arshavin.

The one downside to the game was the usual problem, nothing new but still very frustrting. Kieran Gibbs looks to have done some damange to his foot and had to be taken off for Gael Clichy, a massive shame for the lad as he produced yet another promising display. He has been pushing Clichy very hard for a first team spot and if he has to spend a long time out it could be crushing for the guy. I hope he heals fast and damage is not as bad as first thought.

I must admit to feeling a little down that we couldn’t get the fifth as payback for a couple of years ago and I had to snap myself out of it. The modern spoilt Arsenal fan ey?

A fantastic evenings work me thinks. Dumping those lot out of the only competition that they have a realistic chance of winning, exorcising some old demons, Jack the boy Wilshere shining in his natural position but most of all I really loved the collective defensive work when we didn’t have the ball. The training ground work is really paying off at all levels of the club it seems.

Anyone fancy a DVD? nah, beating then lot is nothing special. This is the norm for Arsenal football club.

Fabianski (6)
Eboue (7)
Koscielny (7.5)
Djourou (7)
Gibbs (7)
Denilson (7.5)
Lansbury (7)
Wilshere (8)
Nasri (7.5)
Vela (6.5)
Rosicky (7)

Please note that ratings are only my interpretations of the game and that others will have differing opinions