Clinical majesty

And now we know. I said yesterday afternoon that it would be "spectacular", that is but one of many adjectives that might apply to Lionel Messi's display for Barcelona last night. Too late to wonder now what might have been had Diaby chosen Walcott rather than Bendtner as we broke in search of a second goal in the first twenty minutes. For what it's worth, I think that even had a second goal come our way, Barcelona would have found a way to win last night; they were good enough to do so and there should be no disgrace in losing to a team as good as they are. In Messi they have a man who, in Arsène's own words, "makes the impossible, possible".

It started so brightly for us too, Diaby finally making a clean tackle that referee didn't decide was a foul in the home side's favour, before spiriting Walcott away down the right. Walcott might have shot, he chose to pass to Bendtner and nearly messed it up, ensuring Bendtner had to fight when a tap in should have been a formality. Nonetheless the big Dane showed great reactions and desire to stab the loose ball home. Maybe that was the worst thing we could have done, I don't know. Then came Diaby's decision that... well, who knows what would have happened had he chosen Walcott again? The fact of the matter is that within a minute of a great opportunity to go 2-0 up on the night, we found ourselves pegged back. I don't know whether it's luck that sees the ball attracted to Messi as if by a magnet or just great instinct, speed of thought and movement. Possibly a little bit of both? Anyway, whilst he was very lucky to have Silvestre's wrong footed clearance drop to him on the edge of the box, there can be no argument with what he did next. His shot was so venomous that the net should surely have broken. The second goal saw Messi capitalise once more on defensive confusion, gathering a pass with one touch and burying it with his next. Whilst he was aided by more high line kamikaze shenanigans around our half way line, his chip over Almunia was a thing of beauty and within twenty minutes in the first half, Messi had done damage to our team they could never really hope to come back from.

Especially with Guardiola heeding the lessons from the first leg and effectively shutting up shop early in the second half. Even with Barca minds half turned towards Real Madrid on Saturday evening, we just couldn't get near them. The closest we came was a Bendtner header against the post from a wonderful Clichy cross. As happened in the first leg when Bendtner hit the woodwork, he was flagged offside anyway. A late Clichy slasher from way out on the left touchline betrayed the frustration he must have been feeling after an excellent personal performance, but the damage had been done.

For me, Messi's 4th goal, coming through the legs of Almunia after the Spaniard had saved his initial shot felt a bit like a piss take. But then Messi had brought what seemed like the entire Arsenal defence to their knees with the initial run he made. On Almunia, I'm not going to go on about him because I do recognise that had it not been for his performance in the first 45 minutes of the first leg, we could have been facing a cricket score, but could there have been any clearer indication of the contrast in quality in the two teams than Almunia exchanging pennants with Xavi before the match?

Probably there is actually and you could probably go right through last night's line ups, comparing and contrasting and finding overwhelmingly in Barcelona's favour. Yes, we were without the spine of our side + Sol Campbell, but Barcelona were also missing Puyol, Pique, Iniesta for the most part and Ibrahimovic. Nonetheless, the clinical majesty of Messi's game was in sharp contrast to Nicky B's performance. I felt sorry for Bendtner, I think the referee did him no favours, but unfortunately when he did get little slivers of a chance, his reactions and technique were just found wanting. Not by much, but by enough and I think that could apply to the entire Arsenal side last night.

It occurred to me last night, it probably should have done before this, that Barcelona aren't the first team to press Arsenal so vigorously, but they may be the first team to do so for so long- there was no 60 minute drop off last night- and they certainly are the only team to use the ball so well so consistently once they have won possession. Arsène places a lot of faith in those statistics of his, so I'd like to hear what he makes of the fact that we probably had about 40% across the two legs of the tie. I'm glad that Arsène recognises that we have been taken apart by a superior team, with the foremost player in the world today. I'd like to think that he now realises the vast gap that exists between Barcelona and ourselves and perhaps Barcelona's work ethic in winning the ball back will prove instructive to him and his players. I was watching some of the 2006 season higlights last night and it took me back to the fact that we had a team that, in the Champions League at least, were strong at the back, worked hard as a team and had our own magician up top. You could say, in fact, that we resembled one of George Graham's mid 90's incarnations, albeit with better footballers.

That said, that team and indeed the Graham Cup sides, were no great shakes when it came to the bread and butter of league competition and that is why I say this afternoon that any Arsenal fan calling for Mr Wenger's head is being a little, um, melodramatic, shall we say? Despite the fact that we have been dismantled by Barcelona and Chelsea and Manchester United, we are only three points from the summit of the Premier League. It is true that we are relying on at least three results out of ten beyond our control to go our way, whilst having to win our last five games, but I don't know any club that would sack a manager on the back of the season we've had. The fact that it is five years without a trophy makes no difference to me, any more than it should the manager, or the board. Which isn't to say that I don't want to win, because I do, but nor do I think that the belief that we are a big club entitles us to start behaving like Real Madrid. Not when we have got the right man in charge in the first place, this isn't to say either, that Arsène knows best, but he knows more than most of us. So, let's get behind the team in the five games we have left and see where they can take us. One thing's for certain, we won't have to play a side as good as Barcelona again this season and for that, I think we can all be thankful.

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