Today's disciplinary hearing into the events after the 0-0 win at Old Tartford handed out a £175,000 fine to the club for failing to control their players.

But now for the bits we care about...

Lauren: 4 match ban + £40,000 fine.

Keown: 3 match ban + £20,000 fine.

Vieira: 1 match ban + £20,000 fine.

Parlour: 1 match ban + £10,000 fine.

(see here for the (revised) list of charges which the players pleaded guilty to).

See Arsenal.com for more, including an official response from the club. It reiterates the club's and players' apologies and acceptance of the charges, but also adds that "As far as the penalties are concerned, the Club is currently considering its position". Presumably, they are looking at whether the bans are sufficiently out of line with previous punishments to be worth appealing against.

The bans for Lauren and Keown for their "violence" were inevitable. But, following the unexpected leniency shown towards Sol Campbell over his kick at Djemba Djemba in the Charity Shield, we had been hoping that the same would hold for the Arsenal players who had similarly pleaded guilty to improper behaviour. This does however seem to apply to Ashley Cole, who has not received a ban but only a £10,000 fine.

The bans come into effect on November 17th. So all 4 players will miss the away game at Birmingham, Lauren and Keown will also miss the away game at Leicester and the home game with Fulham, and Lauren will miss the visit of Wolves in the Carling Cup.

Keown may well not have played anyway, assuming that Kolo and Sol are available. And if they aren't then Cygan and perhaps Senderos can provide some sort of cover (we haven't seen the young Swiss yet, but Cygan has responded to his demotion well so perhaps we'll see better from him this year, if needed.

We're quite experienced at having to cope without Vieira (who might not be back from injury by then anyway) and Parlour doesn't always play anyway.

So that leaves the one that's most worrying. Who comes in for Lauren for those 4 games? Will we see a centre-back used at right back, Cygan perhaps? Will Wenger have the balls to bring in a youngster? (Justin Hoyte had a good game there against Rortherham the other day). Or will Moritz Volz be coming back from Fulham? He's been doing well there, and in their win at Old Trafford at the weekend he not only had a good game going forward but also kept Ronaldo quiet. The Cottagers have confirmed that Arsenal have a 24hour recall clause.

The exoneration of the Man Utd players charged (note: Giggs and Ronaldo, not Fortune and G Neville who were caught being violent on camera), who have both pleaded innocent, has presumably been left to a later date so as not to draw attention to the FA's double standards.

Bitterness? On Arseweb? Not really. It's all quite amusing really. And let's not forget, with all this, and the size of our squad, we're going to have to be twice as good as the rest if we're going to win the league this year. But Arsenal can do that.

The £275,000 the FA will be receiving from Arsenal will presumably be used as a down-payment towards the larger fine they will be receiving from UEFA for failing to control their players in Turkey.