Do Not Sell My Personal Information
I’ve needed a lot of time to think about Wednesday’s game, because it’s one of the strangest I’ve seen in recent years.
As a gooner, I’m not used to seeing my team have so little of the ball, and it was clear that the players weren’t really used to it either. Even when we’re playing United and Chelsea, they’re usually content to let us pass it around.
Barcelona played Arsenal football, but played it better than we do. The maturity in their team showed. They don’t rush like we do, playing like every pass counts. Barca are more in control and can speed it up and slow it down at will. They use the width of the pitch better than we do, and are more patient.
Funnily enough, they also played the defensive game better than a lot of the teams in the Premiership do, which is impressive for a team that dominates most games they play. Most teams we face every week pack the penalty area, but Barca went man-to-man and made it impossible for us to find any rhythm. Before the match I hoped it would be the other way round!
Still, like Arsenal, they missed a host of glorious chances in the first half. At that point my hope was that it would be ‘one of those nights’ for them, and we could nick a goal on the break (I’ve seen it happen so many times to us, so why not?). Sadly that didn’t work out as Ibrahimovic put them in front before Wenger even made it back out onto the pitch for the second half.
Shortly after the big Swede scored another from an almost identical position. The defending on both goals was poor and I hope Campbell plays in the second leg. His communication in defence is important for Vermaelen. Song can play there, but he and the Verminator haven’t really worked up a partnership there yet, which is understandable since Song only goes back there in emergencies.
When I saw Walcott being brought on, I basically laughed and gave up, but what a lovely time for him to surprise me. His goal was excellent and his pace was the missing ingredient for us. With Barca closing us down so well we needed an option to go more direct and Theo gave us that. I think he can be a useful super sub late in games against tired defenders, but he still needs to do a lot of work on the other sides of his game if he wants to be starting more.
Of course he probably will be starting more now, with the news that Andrei Arshavin will be out for three weeks. A blessing in disguise perhaps? I’ve not been impressed with the little Russian at all recently. The way he talks in interviews and on his personal website suggest he has been playing through pain quite a bit, and that he doesn’t like the level of aggression in the English game. Some time out of the team might do him some good.
Shame about Fabregas though as we seem to have lost him for the rest of the season. Should Wenger have played him? He never looked fully fit to me, but the boss panicked and rushed him back as he so often does with players. I know we’ve coped well with injuries this season, but the lack of replacements for the first choice players when injured is an obvious problem, which leads to Wenger rushing them back, which leads to yet more injuries. Gallas was the other victim of this last night, clearly not ready to start, and now out for another three weeks.
So the big question is, can we call this a successful night? As good as Barca are, I can’t help but feel like we could’ve been a lot better. On the other hand, we weren’t thrashed, which looked very much on the cards for much of the evening, so there will at least be a game on at the Nou Camp next week.
Part of me thinks we can only play better, but maybe this is our level. Maybe we can’t compete and we got lucky when they took their foot off the gas. Last year a 1-0 defeat at Old Trafford in the semi didn’t seem so bad considering how poor we were, but after ten minutes at the Emirates the tie was over. That could be the same next week.
As ever, Arsenal are too hard to predict, so I won’t try.
Back to domestic issues, are Chelsea favourites for the title again? Arsenal slipped up last week and are without Fabregas for the rest of the season, and Man Utd just lost Rooney for a few weeks.
People (myself included) wrote Chelsea off too quickly. They could definitely win at Old Trafford this weekend and that would be huge for them, a group of players in need of a lift.
Of course here we’ll all be hoping for a draw for those two, and a convincing win over Wolves, ideally with some Barca-style football thrown in. Ouch. Too soon?
