Intimidated, outclassed, injured and fought back!

Results

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

Barcelona are very much like Arsenal, only better! Much better, in fact. They were wearing yellow so sometimes I thought it was Arsenal were playing away after suddenly becoming very hot!

In a game where Arsenal had the chance to play free-flowing football with their twins, it was ironically a good old fashioned fight back that delivered a lifeline.

Arsenal get bullied physically on the pitch in England. This time they got bullied in a much more elegant way. From the first minute, Barcelona painted a picture to Arsenal of what would happen if they lost the ball. That frightened the life out of Arsenal players so nobody wanted to lose the ball. If you play fearing to lose the ball then you don't take risks. If you don't take risks you cannot be creative. If you can't be creative and you are Arsenal whose game depends on it, you are screwed. And so it was.

Arsenal were destroyed for 20 minutes and Almunia's wonderful saves only seemed to be postponing the inevitable. At half-time, I exchanged the following text messages with a friend.

JC: Phew!

RB: First 20 mins were brutal. Were completely intimidated and dominated. Amazing we didn't concede. Nasri and Almunia were great. Others still gaining confidence, but still looks bad.

JC: Nasri, Clichy and Song want to play. The others are still trying to figure how to play against a team so good. I hope we don't miss Song in midfield and I hope he doesn't get sent off in defence.

The inevitable happened early in the second half. When Zlatan showed Bendtner what Bendtner is convinced will be his future. By this time, Arshavin was off and Gallas was off and Fabregas was not going to the Nou Camp. Song moved to centre back after a fantastic performance in midfield and was struggling for quite a while to synchronise with the rest on the offside line. Before he acclimatised, Arsenal paid for it and Barcelona was 2-0 up. Tie over I thought.

Tie over the Arsenal players thought so they decided relax and start playing.

Barcelona was very offensively aggressive from the start. Barcelona are known for their attacking game but they are actually a very patient side who pick their moments. Against Arsenal they were incredibly aggressive in attack and had realised it would be the best way to stop Arsenal. It worked! But Walcott is great as a sub in Europe because European defenders will tug and hassle you when you are close but they will not dive in when you are not. Theo got a goal back and in so doing, told the watching Capello that he may not be effective yet as a player but he is extremely useful to have against certain types of opponents.

Arsenal now woke up and realised that if only they can relax and play, they will compete with Barcelona. The high pressing took on a little more urgency and risk and we started winning balls. The hungrier players like Nasri, Clichy and Song won more and did more with it so others like Diaby and Denilson believed more and Cesc starting seeing the ball that had evaded him for an eternity. The effect was visible very quickly and kept the belief. Nasri conducted, probed, fought and finally Fabregas got infront of the Barcelona defenders for the first time in the match. Good ol' Cesc was acknowledged by his old colleagues for how dangerous he could be so his good friend Puyol went in illegally gave Cesc the chance to speak or to cry.

When Cesc stood over the ball for the penalty, the moment was too big for me. The Barcelona kid who left home and is daily being reminded and provoked that his future is not at Arsenal stood with what I imagined was a huge weight on his shoulders. At that moment, it occurred to me how young he is. He is just a boy. Good young Cesc. But good 'ol Cesc slotted it away like the man he is.

Even when he was crippled, he hobbed to cover spaces that slowed Barcelona's passing and organised himself and the people around him with respect to his reduced mobility. He nearly got into a goalscoring chance in that state. What Champ! He has done his bit and Nasri reassured us that he can handle Barcelona. Nasri is welcome to be the conductor from the centre at the Nou Camp. I have every confidence in him. He has shown that he is good enough.

I had already made peace with us finishing our journey against Barcelona after 10 minutes of the game. It was so deep that I still believe it. But at least the boys played in the end and know that they can play against the best. Barcelona are just so good and a lot better but when the Arsenal players stepped up and played, they got something. They could compete. They can compete.

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