Why drawing Barcelona is great for Arsenal

Results

Date	Time	C	Opponent	F	A	R	S
31 Mar	7:45 PM	CL	Barcelona (H)	2	2	Draw

In the quarter-finals of the biggest competition of all, it is good to get tough opponent. The quarter-finals come at the same time as the run-in in the league so if you are good enough to beat a top opponent then you will benefit from that confidence to take you all the way, if not then you can go out quickly and concentrate on the league. Crazy logic?

When anticipating this draw, I tried to consider it from three different perpectives. First on our priority this year, second on the draw's impact on our mental state and lastly, on its impact on our form. Why these three? Well because of the answer to the first perspective of priority.

We are closer to winning the league than we are the Champions League. The Champions League has 8 of the best teams in Europe. In the league we face 8 tough games but they are more manageable and I believe there is room to recover from a loss or draw in one of those league games. Not so in the champions league – at least not easily. The Champions league is also a cup competition so there is no predicting what might happen.

So if we agree that our priority is the league then our form and mental state (the two other perspectives) become hugely important.

Arsenal have drawn Barcelona, a team that will give Arsenal an open game rather than a brutally tough team that will shut their game down. Psychologically, a loss to Barcelona will not be as terrible as a loss to Man Utd, Lyon or Bordeaux in the Champions League. Few teams expect to beat Barca and few people will expect us to win. As bad as that sounds, that means a loss is not going to have as huge an effect on our form and mental state. With Ferguson or Mourinho, the game would take an unwarranted significance. With any of the other teams, Arsenal will be favourite and the expectations and downer from losing will be huge. So Barcelona works for me win or lose.

But don't think I am not expecting us to beat Barcelona because I am. I will get back to that.

Before and just after both legs of the quarter finals, we have Birmingham, Wolverhampton and then Spurs after the second leg. If we lost to Barcelona, we will concentrate on the last 5 games without the distraction of the Champions League. Remember that Chelsea will be free of these hassles if they don't suffer loss of form – unlikely against Blackburn.

But we can beat Barca. They are not used to playing teams that can maintain possession as nicely they do. Barca defend by having the ball and are dangerous from exactly the same situations as Arsenal apart from that their wing backs are more dangerous than ours. Barca's midfield and forwards can hurt Arsenal but Eboue, Arshavin, Nasri and Cesc can also hurt Barcelona pretty bad.

When Barca has faced the top teams, their opponents have had one of two problems. Some opponents like Real Madrid had enough to cause problems but did not play as a coherent team. Arsenal does not have that problem. Other opponents capable of beating Barca have been too intimidated and conservative. This was the case against Man Utd. Man Utd could not transition quickly between defence and attack (their most lethal weapon) because they were too scared of what might happen if they lost the ball. Arsenal should not have such problems because Arsenal can hold possession.

We can look at Stuttgart. They attacked Barca athletically and should have won 2-0. Then in the second leg, they were conservative trying to play for a low score and got thumped. It is exactly what happens when teams adopted the same approach towards Arsenal. If we don't freeze in intimidation (I know Cesc won't) then we can beat Barca.

I hope the games work out as I imagine – wonderful play, open, Eboue on the pitch – that's important to keep their wing backs busy, Arshavin showing some much needed motivation and also support defence, Cesc on form, Song and Diaby trying to force mistakes in Barca's midfield and Eboue or Nasri winning a penalty from Carlos Puyol.

The game is a fantastic gate keeper. I won't have wanted to face Inter or Man Utd now but it will be great to meet them if we have beaten Barcelona because we can outpass and outwit them and we will have the confidence then to do it. But if we can't beat Barca then it's better that we had them now and stopped chasing the Champions League sooner. If I were to choose our opponents from between Inter, Man Utd and Barcelona, I would choose Barca. If I had of any, of course I would choose the French teams or the Russian. If I had the choice of who lose to right now, I would prefer Barca. As they say, you have to want who you get. This is my way of wanting who we have.

We have to get past West Ham and not let the game distract us from Birmingham. If we screw up any of these games then the Barca game would become the only route to a trophy and then take on greater significance which might not work to our advantage.

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