Now all that's left is the treble

While Arsenal's men's team's season effectively finished tonight, with a dispiriting 4-1 aggregate defeat in the Champions League semi-final against Manchester United, the season is far from over for the most successful English football team of recent times.

I'm not talking about Man U. Or Barcelona, or Chelsea, or even AC Milan.

No, the team I'm referring to have won their domestic title five years running (and seven of the last eight), the last four FA Cups, and have already completed the FA and League Cup double this season.

More than that, they are the only English team to have completed a unique quadruple of league, both domestic cups and Europe's premier club competition, which they managed in 2007.

I am, of course, referring to Arsenal Ladies, who yesterday won the FA Cup, defeating Sunderland 2-1 at Derby's Pride Park. This coming Sunday, Arsenal will travel to Everton - the only team to defeat them all season - for a head-to-head title-decider, knowing that a win will clinch the third domestic treble in the team's history.

All this despite a difficult, transitional season in which the team has lost several key players, including both star strikers: Lianne Sanderson during the summer (to Chelsea) and Kelly Smith, mid-season, to the Boston Breakers of America's newly-formed Women's Professional Soccer League. In their (considerable) absence - Sanderson scored 51 goals last season, Smith 31 in just 21 games this campaign - players such as midfielder Kim Little (24 goals), scorer of Arsenal's second, decisive goal yesterday, have stepped up.

Despite the odds being stacked against them on Sunday - Everton have dropped only 2 points all season - only a fool would count Arsenal out. The team has a wealth of experience when it comes to winning trophies - both at home and abroad - over the past few years.

Which, sadly, is more than can be said for their better-known male colleagues.