The Arsenal free weekend brought about a stress free one for the first time since we somehow got ourselves back involved in this bizarre title race. With our arses still sore from the Messi spanking, we sat down gingerly, put our Gooner feet up, and waited to see if there were any favours to be had… and enjoyed.

Chelsea eventually sailed through their semi with Villa on the embarrassment of a pitch that Wembley, sadly, now is. John Terry dropped another little reminder of his character with a horrific tackle on his England colleague Milner. We knew simply being a 'team mate' of Terry holds little sway with 'Mr Chelsea'. It seems his friendship extends beyond sleeping with the mother of your children, to threatening your career with a horrendous, reckless, high and pointless attack. Interesting to see how Milner greets Terry at the next England get together. How Mr Webb failed to send off the former England captain at Wembley, is disappointing, but no surprise. How he failed to award Villa a penalty further confirms the poor standards of officials in this country, as Webb heads to South Africa as an example of our finest.

Nothing to be enjoyed in that game then, but no worries. Spurs would surely trample of potless Pompey in their semi and I'd rather Chelsea, the lesser of two evils, were waiting for them in the final...

Saturday night brought El Classico and the chance to enjoy that rather talented little Argentinian chap terrorising someone else. If he could add some consistency to his game he could really go places. His 40th goal of the season put Barca ahead, from a sumptuous pass from stringpuller Xavi, who was at it again for their second, this time via Pedro. Poor Ronaldo. The attention craver would have been desperate to steal some shine from Messi. He failed, almost trying too hard.

Another pointer from Saturday night was the expense Real Madrid went to last summer in trying to surpass Barca. With the passing of the season, it is crazy to again look at the figures spent on the likes of Alonso (£30m) and Benzema (£40m and sub) etc, etc. Real being made to look ordinary by their fierce rivals, and already out of Europe before our own exit, makes the notion of us competing with them on our limited budget and injury list most unlikely. There is no shame in our defeat.

Onto Sunday. Anyone who saw big fat Sam basking in the company of Fergie at Aintree in the week would have held little hope of Rovers taking anything from United. Old Red face wouldn't have had to wipe his own arse on that day. However, the loss of Rooney seems too much for a tired looking United to cope with, and the goalless draw could be the first turn of fortunes in our favour at the top of the table. A win on Wednesday will see us go clear in second place. You'd have all taken that at this stage of the season were it offered to you in August.

The trip to the wrong end of Seven Sisters Road could see us facing a tired and deflated Spurs side, after the footballing gods smiled down on Pompey. Going into the game I gave little hope to Portsmouth causing an upset, the most I hoped for was extra time and tired legs. That was granted.

Surely a win from the Championship side would be too much? No, granted. Dodgy Harry and the Twitch had led his former side to their current mess, handing out £80k per week contracts to Utaka and the likes. With that in mind, how about Spurs feeling unjust having had a goal wrongly ruled out? Granted. F**king hell, this footballing God fella was spoiling us. One last, last wish please. The tough tackling lad in the middle for spurs, we could do without him roughing up our boys next week, any chance he could miss the game? Yes? And a second goal to seal it for Pompey? Cherry on top and ta very much.

One of the great things of many about following The Arsenal is the ability of Tottenham Hotspur to let their fans down when they least expect it.

It was an enjoyable weekend without, and a profitable one. The stress will return on Wednesday night for sure, but The Arsenal will be recharged and focussed on the home run, with the footballing gods hopefully still smiling down.

*Follow my Arsenal ramblings on Twitter @TheArsenal_