HOW can it be a level playing field when Tottenham only have two days to prepare for a major cup final and Chelsea have four?


THIERRY Henry? He's past it ... just don't tell Celtic fans


GROW up Adebayor - you blew it for Gunners

A showpiece game, expensive tickets at the national stadium, live TV on Sky and delayed highlights on ITV. Even for Spurs new slim Jims, Jons and Jenas's, they are going to be knackered.

• Yesterday's HATCHET MAN

Cup finals are supposed to be played on even playing fields, not with one team having an advantage. How has this been allowed to happen?

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Richard Scudamore might want to play one extra game abroad but we can't even sort out the fixture list as it is now.

Chelsea played in Athens on Tuesday, were back in London and tucked up in their beds by the early hours of Wednesday.

Spurs are at home for their second leg of the UEFA Cup tie against Slavia Prague on Thursday. It will be Friday before they are sleeping and then they'll be on the road to Wembley before they know it.

Could Tottenham have switched their Euro game, or was it a clash with the Champions League and the prospect of a live game on ITV4 that forced them into Thursday?

They may have a new fitness regime, Juande Ramos might ring the changes, but Tottenham already have an excuse to lose to Chelsea.

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As I was saying yesterday about that Thierry Henry bloke. He's past it. Er ... ball to feet, cutting in from the left at speed, opening his body, curling shot into the far top corner as well as an outstanding all-round performance of pace and direct running.

Where have we seen that before? Well, I can't be right all the time. That's 45 goals in the Champions League for Henry now, only 15 behind all-time record goalscorer Raul.

Let's hope the English teams can avoid him in the next round.

Perhaps there is life in his legs yet ... When he's not sulking, he has some power and grace and, it's easy to forget, he is probably the best foreign import we have seen in the Premier League (2nd Cantona, 3rd Zola, 4th Bergkamp, 5th Schmeichel).

• POLL: Who is the best overseas Premier League player ever?

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Here's an idea for Celtic the next time they get the chance of beating one of the great powerhouses of European football. Stop keep giving the ball back to them, or else you get hurt and you go out.

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After the first-leg matches of this last 16 stage, Chelsea are in a precarious position and, I predict, could still go out. A 0-0 draw away from home is no longer a good result.

English clubs have drawn 0-0 away in the Champions League four times and only one team has gone through.

One gift of a goal for the Greeks at Stamford Bridge and there is trouble ahead. By the same token, 0-0 for Arsenal at home is no reason to think that tie is over, either.

No English team has ever won away to AC Milan in the Champions League but Arsenal scored five at the San Siro against Inter before.

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Death threats for Avram Grant is no laughing matter. His team won't always play this badly, you know.

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Paolo Maldini, the legendary Italian defender, talked up the qualities of Arsenal's Emmanuel Adebayor and discussed his "growing maturity" before the game.

Adebayor is a beast of a striker who can dominate defenders but maturity requires calm heads and cool finishing when it matters.

When the deep delivery arrived at the far post in the closing stages, with Milan's defence static, Adebayor moved in for the kill but allowed the ball to hit his head, rather than using his neck muscles and guiding a deft and simple finish into an empty net.

Watch the replays. The ball came on to him quickly but he missed an open goal, because he was too complacent, laid-back and it looked all too easy for him. That's not maturity. That's a need to grow up.

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It's Thursday and so it must be WAGs Day – and Hatchet Man's choice for this week is Joe Cole's lady, Carly Zucker. Watch out for her at Wembley on Sunday. She'll be the one looking bouncier than tired Tottenham.