Champions League final - first of many

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
17 May	7:45 PM	CL	Barcelona (N)	1	2	Lost

I had planned to write this before the finals to make sure that despair would not affect my judgement and lead me to underestimate the achievements this year if we lost the final. But I decided to be positive that we could win, so I waited.

It was very difficult to get out of bed this morning, just as it was going to be last night. I was desperately sad, disappointed and scared. It is always very disappointing to lose in the final. It feels better to lose much earlier on. This is, obviously, not logical because being in the final shows that the team has achieved a lot more.

Also I had this fear that we would never have this change again. But that is also irrational. Every team has a cycle where the team is put together, learns, performs, peaks and then goes downhill. Manchester United won the Champions League at their peak of that cycle, Milan won at the peaks of their cycles, so did Real Madrid and now Barcelona. Arsenal were at the top of the cycle in the Double year of Adams, Keown, Petit, Vieira, Overmars, Bergkamp and then again in the unbeaten season. However, this team now is very much at the bottom of this cycle and yet they made it to the finals! This team will not peak until when Touré and Hleb are around 27 and Flamini, Senderos, Eboue, Clichy, van Persie, Reyes and Fabregas are between 23–27. So I believe we will be there again. This is not the last time.

The Champions League this season has been more valuable to Arsenal as education than simply achievement in my view. In two aspects, Wenger and his young team have learnt more from the Champions League this season than they could simply be taught over 5 seasons.

The fine-tunning of the 4-5-1/4-3-3 has been achieved in the Champions League. The importance of this system has already fed into the Premiership. Even when we're not playing 4-5-1, the discipline of collective defending and high pressing have yielded better results recently in the league.

The ability to win 1-0 and manage a team that is having a go at us physically or skillfully has been learned in the Champions League and has been used in the Premiership already. It's worth noting that we went nearly 70 minutes without conceeding a goal with 10 men and that we survived an onslaught at Villareal and kept a clean sheet. This young team could hardly manage that against West Brom at the beginning of the season, let alone Barcelona.

Why are these two aspects so important?

They are important because winning teams have two crucial components – ability to control games and ability to manage games. Controlling a game is the ability to dictate the outcome when you are superior to your opponent. Managing a game is the ability to influence a positive outcome no matter how superior, physical your opponent is or if you are having a particularly bad day.

Arsenal have historically been good at controlling games, beating teams 5-0 and outclassing opponents. It is only this season that we have been able to manage games – in fact only the last few months of the season. The unbeaten side did not manage games, they controlled it and lost in the Champions League when they could not control it. AC Milan, Juventus and Manchester United could control and win games and managed and won games they could not control. The modern day Chelsea is a great example of teams that can win against superior skilled or physical opponents by managing games.

Arsenal go into next season having learned now how to cope, beat or contain better opponents while keeping clean sheets. This will not only help in the Champions League but also in the Premiership against teams like Bolton who are physical. In addition it is a young team that have learned and will develop these skills quite early in their cycle. We have gained very much this season and I think our Champions League fortunes will get better and better. We should be able to win it [the Champions League] by the time Fabregas is 23!

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