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| Simply too good for the Arsenal. |
Last night Arsenal were defeated 3-1 by Barcelona. To begin with Barcelona were simply the better side and fully deserved the victory and Arsenal didn't deserve to go through to the quarter finals. Barcelona were at the top of their game at the Nou Camp and were completely unplayable. The way they kept possession and pressed Arsenal to win the ball back was incredible and they fully deserve to go on and win the Champions League hopefully beating Tottenham on the way to the final. It is clear to see for everyone that Barcelona were superb, but no matter how good they were it is no excuse for how poor Arsenal were at closing Barcelona down and trying to create chances. We did not have a single attempt on goal and that one stat sums up Arsenal's night perfectly.
Wenger took a huge gamble by starting both Robin Van Persie and Cesc Fabregas. Neither of our star men were at their best and they both appeared to be unfit. I can fully understand why Wenger started both of these star players as we wouldn't have had a chance without them but they didn't play well at all and hardly touched the ball. Robin Van Persie was however involved in the major talking point of the game when he was on the receiving end of maybe the most stupid sending off I've ever seen. Van Persie described the decision perfectly as 'a joke' and his post match interview is simply a must see. I'm not blaming the poor refereeing for Arsenal losing but I'm pretty sure that Robin Van Persie would of easily scored the chance Bendtner got at the end to send Arsenal through to the quarter finals.
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| Wilshere getting stuck in. |
The match began poorly for the Arsenal with Barcelona dominating possession and creating an array of chances. Jack Wilshere saved the side early on with a superb interception to keep the tie at 0-0. Then in the 18th minute nightmare struck for Arsenal as Wojciech Szczesny saved a Dani Alves free kick and injured his finger in the process. He immediately knew he was injured and on came the fans favourite Manuel Almunia, who has always been awful against Barcelona. For example the Champions League Final and last year when Messi scored four past him. In all honesty he went on to have a fairly good game which was a huge surprise to me. The first half continued with Barcelona in total control and Arsenal rarely got into Barcelona's half. Then disaster struck in stoppage time as Cesc Fabregas gifted his hometown club with the chance to take the lead. It was a stupid moment for the captain as he tried to back heel the ball to Wilshere on the edge of the box, Iniesta took full advantage weaving through the Arsenal defence, providing Messi with the chance to take the lead. It was a truly world class goal as Iniesta danced through the Arsenal defence and then Messi finished superbly.
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| 'A JOKE' |
The second half began in much the same fashion with Barcelona continuing to dominate the game and close down Arsenal at every opportunity. Then Nasri did brilliantly to win Arsenal a corner which Sergio Busquets superbly scored in his own goal. At this point in the match it was vital that Arsenal scored and were well and truly back in the game despite being made to look like non league players by Barcelona. However shortly afterwards Van Persie received a very soft red card. He was flagged offside but still took his shot, the ref saw this as him kicking the ball away and sent him off. Now Robin claims he didn't hear the whistle, in all honesty he probably did but he had already started to strike the ball when the ref blew the whistle and he simply didn't deserve to be sent off. From here on it all went wrong for the Arsenal, Iniesta set up Xavi to make the score 2-1 and then Koscielny gave away a penalty which Messi scored comfortably. Manuel Almunia didn't make any effort to save the penalty and it was an embarrassing attempt to stop Messi from scoring, he simply just stood in the middle of the goal, letting Messi score easily. Arsenal were now 3-1 down but we still only needed 1 goal to go through on the away goal ruling. Wenger reacted by bringing Bendtner and Arshavin on to try and win the game but nothing was created until the very end of the match. Wilshere played an outstanding pass to Bendtner who was through on goal and he should have scored the winner. But of course this is Bendtner so he obviously messed it up, and let the Arsenal fans down once again. For someone who says he 'is the best player in the world', he should have scored with ease but he fluffed his big chance and will now be even more disliked by the Arsenal fans. I guarantee Van Persie would have scored but he had been stupidly sent off. However if we had scored a late minute winner it would have been very unfair on Barcelona, who over the two legs were the far better side and deserved the victory.
All in all Arsenal defended superbly despite letting in three goals and can be proud of their performance. Especially the likes of Wilshere and Koscielny who once again proved they are good enough to start for the side every game. I believe Barcelona would have beaten anybody, considering how superbly they played last night and Arsenal shouldn't be too down over the loss. They lost to the best team in the world and in my opinion they are the best team of all time at keeping the ball and pressing the other team to win the ball back.
At the end of the match Wenger told the referee exactly what he thought of him and has been charged as a result. I believe Wenger had a right to have a go at the ref, and in a way it made the loss more bearable seeing Arsene nearly fight the referee at the end. Van Persie's interview was also brilliant, its not often a footballer says exactly what he thinks and I congratulate Robin for being honest on his opinion on the Swiss referee.
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| Go on Arsene |
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