Three points - at a price. Grrrr.

Fuck it.

On the one hand I'm delighted with three points last night against Stoke, who I hate. One the other hand, which is turning into a clenched fist as I type, we have lost Theo for a few weeks with an ankle sprain and Cesc for God knows how long with another tweek of his hamstring. I am no doctor, no, but the look on his face when he walked off tells me it's not good.

Lucky for us, we haven't got any big games coming up. Oh. Hang on.

So Theo will miss the Carling Cup Final. I'm gutted for him, but you know what? We can win it without him. Cesc? Come on, he's bound not to play, and even if he's 99% fit, he shouldn't. Because you know, ten minutes in, the hamstring will go PING and we'll have to do without him for the rest of the season. Theo possibly missing the Barcelona game is a big worry because I fancied him to run riot at Maxwell in the space that Camp Nou provides, and without Cesc there, I imagine we'll struggle to create much like we did last night after he went off, although I doubt very much that Barca will stick nine men behind the ball.

With Cesc on the pitch last night there was a buzz about the place, and we should have been at least two, possibly three goals to the good before he went off.  Theo hitting the post and another one he skewed wide. When he did leave the pitch, the team went as flat as the stadium did. How odd. I'm just thankful that the much maligned Squilacci stuck one in with his nut (from a corner of all things, not directly, but with another Bendtner assist), because we really failed to create that much thereafter.

Much like against Orient, we took the lions share of possession, got ourselves into good positions, and then did not a lot with it. Tip tap tippety tap tip tap nothing. No, Stoke didn't make it easy, they were never going to, but I still find it infuriating that the loss of our Captain can change the mood of the team so quickly. Nasri can create, as can Wilshere and Arshavin, so we'll just have to get on with it.

On a positive note, I'm loving Scrabble in goal. The man makes decisions, quickly, and deals with things. He doesn't come flapping, and when called upon last night he made a fine save from Carew's drive, having first put down his cup of tea and kit kat. Perhaps more importantly, he doesn't seem right in the head. And that I like.

There was a lot of twitter ranting last night about the tackle on Theo. I think it's symptomatic of the hatred of all things Stoke/Pulis/Baseball hat/Shawcross/Delap/towel/throw-ins that the iphone was ablaze with abuse towards Whitehead, but you know, I thought it was just a tackle, a little clumsy maybe, and Theo was just unlucky to go over on his ankle. Sorry, but that's the way I sees it.

We're now only one point behind Man Utd who play Wigan-Chelsea-Liverpool, and I'll be fucked if they don't drop points out of the last two of that little lot. So injuries aside, my little lovelies, things ain't looking too bad are they? And we've got a cup final to look forward to on Sunday.

And I've got Monday off.

So fingers crossed on the injuries, not only to Cesc and Theo, but also Van Persie and Koscielny. Come on Gooners, please let's be positive. What did she wear?