Posted Feb 27th 2007, 5:43pm

In the media today ..

The furore rolls on from the Carling Cup Final with the Football Association charging both Arsenal and Chelsea with misconduct.

Of course, we all know that these charges (and the financial penalties that will result) will act as nothing more than a kind of public hanging for the clubs, only with the noose very loose and with little chance of tightening by talking points deductions.

If the FA were really serious about matters such as this they'd hit clubs where it really hurts - and that's not in the pocket.

Having said, that how far do you take it when players are obviously fired up for what is an important Cup Final.

We'd hate it more if we were asking the players to inject a bit of passion and none was forthcoming.

More crucial to today's proceedings may well be the suspensions that have also been confirmed for Mikel, Adebayor and Toure.

These could have real implications over the closing weeks of the season, even though it appears that Chelsea are destined to fail to recover the gap to Manchester United, and Arsenal will surely scoop either the third or fourth Champions League spot.

It remains a sad indictment of football and the Carling Cup in particularly however, to think that Arsene Wenger is probably stewing more about the loss of two players than he is the chance of silverware from Sunday afternoon.