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Commiserations to Arsenal, the latest victims of a Merseyside robbery after the jammy Anfield Reds ensured that all the decisions went their way.

Commiserations to you, Arsène Wenger, and to Arsenal. Possibly we know better than anyone what it means to be the victims of a robbery, Liverpool style. Well, apart from the Liverpool players themselves, who are often the subject of a burglary when they are on away duty. We wonder if the local thieves will be rubbing their hands with glee, and booking April 30th to clear a couple more houses when Liverpool players are in London.

In the next few weeks we`ll undoubtedly go through a painful rehash of the recent Champions League games between Liverpool and Chelsea, and the 'idiosyncratic` refereeing decisions accompanying them, always in one direction. We would use the phrase 'daylight robbery`, only the games actually take place at night.

And whilst we are on the subject of theft, can someone please return the 10 or so hours stolen from us whilst we watched the Champions League clashes between Liverpool and Chelsea these last 3 seasons? We are begging to have back the time spent masochistically viewing some of the most dire football ever seen, thanks to Tubby Benítez` tactical genius of cancelling Chelsea out.

So Arsenal, we truly feel your pain today. You have all our sympathy. We understand that it must hurt as you contemplate, with disbelief, how the results and decisions went against you.

During the game at the Emirates, a tug Dirk Kuyt on Alexander Hleb, in the box, was waved on by Dutch referee Pieter Vink. Arsène Wenger already complained that a rightful penalty wasn`t given then, a penalty that would have, in all likelihood, seen Arsenal defending a 2-1 lead going to Anfield.

And that sense of grievance was compounded by last night`s Swedish referee Peter Frojdfeldt, who gave a penalty for an identical foul when Kolo Touré held back Ryan Babel. At that point the penalty (scored by Ickle Stevie Gerrard and accompanied by his trademark mentalist berserker slalom towards the fans) brought Liverpool back into a tie which they were, by then, losing.

"The game was over so to be out is down to a dodgy decision, I believe, from the referee as much as it was a lack of concentration straight away after getting back to 2-2," said Wenger, for once justified in complaining. "Over the two games, it's difficult to swallow. All the big decisions went against us. With three minutes to go, we were qualifying against a Liverpool side against whom we'd created more chances over the two legs. Now we are out."

"For me it was not a penalty tonight. I've watched it clearly again. Last week they said it wasn't a penalty, too."

Arsenal`s feeling of injustice will merely add to the misery of the F.A. Cup in 2001, when Liverpool snatched the trophy from under Arsenal`s noses. But, in this case, a double injustice (that can be attributed to the braying hordes of The Kop bellowing for a penalty if an Arsenal player so much as exhaled in the general direction of the Liverpool bellboy) certainly stole the tie from rightful victors.

And the reward? Liverpool will have to face Chelsea, for the 4th time in 4 years. Mere words cannot describe the depths of our despair at the prospect. Hopefully, however, with the second leg being played at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea can succeed after successive Liverpool-related misery. Maybe UEFA can also brush up on referee consistency in the meantime.

But we are hoping that, for all the rivalry between SW6 and N5, we might be able to benefit from some solidarity from our brothers in misery at The Emirates. Can we ask that all of those Arsenal fans who were sickened to the stomach of a parrot by the bias last night try to find some measure of consolation by supporting Chelsea in the tie and willing that Chelsea eliminate Liverpool from the competition?

We can already count on the firm support of the good citizens of Moscow, who have received briefings from their counterparts in Istanbul and Athens as to the effects that an invasion of Liverpool supporters, few of whom have tickets for the game. In the interests of public order in Russia`s capital city, Muscovites will be willing Chelsea to win the tie.

In the interests of righting a terrible wrong, can we also call upon Arsenal to side with us?

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