Churchill once said: 'Sometimes it's not enough to do your best, you have to do what is required.' Sure, after the exquisite performances against Real and Juve, the Villarreal second leg was a nerve-jangling affair where, you might be excused for thinking, we did what was required. Reaching the final does seem like it is more tense than anything else and, when Arsenal should have been at 2-0 by the time of the Villarreal penalty appeal, providing a totally different outcome, a week of bleating won the day for Villarreal and they finally received their precious penalty. The Jens Interceptor got there faster. Vintage stuff.

However, against Barcelona, playing our European game to the best of our ability, with full concentration and stamina and a hunger and desire never before witnessed to win that trophy, is an absolute must. The team seem to know that this. To just do your best is not enough. They must do what is required and play a game right out of their skins.

Whether a fan or a player, there is neither room nor time for complacency. Reaching the final alone is not good enough. Sometimes, history mocks the losers; usually it simply forgets them. Arguably, the world's purists and neutrals should witness a spectacle of football never before seen, something which will be unrivalled in the forthcoming World Cup. I want them to remember how great Arsenal were to become the Champions of the European Champions' League… and who can wait for that?

I know that we can do it. I know we deserve to do it. I know that it is a trophy embarrassingly absent from our cabinet. Five European finals to date have yielded only two victories. Once the European Champions League Trophy makes its way from Anfield to Islington, we can then seize the rest of footballing history, reclaim the Premiership, retain the Champions League, add the FA Cup, do a triple if not a quadruple for the first season at Ashburton (sorry, the Fly Emirates Stadium) and do the quad again the following season, unbeaten. The season after that, we can aim to do the same again, but winning every game this time. The season after that? Let's try winning every game without conceding a goal. Then we would have dominated football, moving the ballpark, as only our club is capable of doing.

This young team is on the cusp of greatness and I think they know it. However, seeing Arsenal against Man Utd and the Haringey Hopefuls without Henry, and you can see a lack of rhythm running through the team. Had Henry started, we would have been at least one up at Old Trafford by the first ten minutes. Van Persie hasn't quite inspired since his return and there is no understanding between he and Adebayor. Adebayor's profligacy is beyond belief. His positional play and running is quite good but, after that, an awful lot of work needs to be done to steer him away from being another Kanu. The midfield is almost complete but, without Fabregas, lacks much creativity. Diaby can disappear for pretty much a whole match although that is now academic. Reyes is tenacious and moves forward well but runs into trouble when an earlier pass would have been better, especially with Hleb and Eboué around these days. Freddie, you're not quite what you were in 2002 but, well, at least you scored the other day! Eboué is fast becoming my favourite player, stop putting the final ball of a dribble too far, feel more confident about your shooting and you'll become a one man team.

But, what is clear, a lot of work needs to be done and, with Pires most likely leaving, one thing seems very clear. Spend as much as it takes to bring Ronaldinho to the Emirates Stadium next season to play alongside Henry. Other dynamos would be Tevez and Riquelme but, frankly, the world wants to see Ronaldinho teamed with Henry and I cannot see logic in him moving to Barcelona when Ronaldinho would do better to join the Arsenal. Otherwise, Wednesday is the proving point for the whole team, like the slowly unturned, releasing screw in Pierre Bezuhov's head in ‘War and Peace’, this moment will be the defining moment from which this team will spring forward and change the course of club soccer worldwide. I think they are looking forward to Wednesday.

Soothsayer? Earlier this season, I said that we would win more than the FA Cup this season, at a time when people would not have believed it. We are in the European Champions League Final and that is probably unbelievable enough for most people. Believe it. The moment is nigh. I said that Wenger had effectively asked the team to look to themselves for the answers, to discover the Holy Grail. I praised our team subsequently for coming out to play football, before they faltered again against the physical, long ball approach of football's Neanderthals too many times but also I noted they had not been outplayed really by anyone. There were exceptions: Bolton away in the League, ditto Liverpool, first half away to Tottenham and a total of forty-five minutes at home to Tottenham. That was it. The rest was bad luck and not finding our own rhythm, passing game and space and game to score more goals as well as being profligate in front of goal.

On Wednesday night? There is no room for profligacy in front of goal; no room for being caught offside, no room for losing the ball, no time to miss in closing down the opposition's space, no time to lose in running into space and no time to make the wrong pass or miss making the right one. There is not time to be caught in possession by running with the ball longer than necessary. And you know Barcelona will be thinking the same. However, if we play like that, we will win because, frankly, we are the best team in the world and we all need to breathe in deep as we walk onto the pitch determined to prove it. Roll on Wednesday.

So, Arsène Wenger admitted to be physically sick early on his managerial career when he lost a game. Obviously the Haringey Hopefuls felt the same tension before conceding the Champions League fourth spot. While I could be wrong, there seems to be a surreal mist clinging to Canary Wharf where a team could have contracted something before their arrival, have a good dose of the squits while there, damn the venue so publicly that they may be sued for defamation. I wonder if the ball were kicked out of play while in their respective lavatories, having virally collided with each other beforehand?

How was the final match at Highbury? I raced to Champs Bar on Sunday morning to watch it just to discover the network had changed the coverage for second and third place matches, rescheduling this piece of life affirming theatre, love and joy to 4PM when I was committed to a family birthday. Apparently someone has a video of the match but no Sky Sports celebrations were shown - not over here. Some things in life can make you cry. Let that not be the case on Wednesday, only tears of total joy. I'm man enough to cry - for the right reasons and I'll happily weep into my beer and on anyone's shoulder on Wednesday afternoon at the sight of Wenger et al lifting that trophy for the first time. Once achieved, I'm confident it won't be the last time.