Arsenal v. Barcelona; this is the big one, Elizabeth
Revenge for the lost final, the return of the prodigal sons, 90 minutes of “pure” football, Arsenal stepping out of the shadows, Arsenal proving their credentials, Cesc fighting for fitness, Pep loves Arsenal, Wenger loves Barcelona, OMG OK I GET IT… there are a lot of angles to today’s match and for once the press are covering them all in a mostly positive light.
It’s actually kind of nice to have every newspaper in England covering every angle of an Arsenal match and saying positive things about the team and the matchup. But it’s also a bit jangling on my nerves, after all, the press love to set you up high so that they can knock you down and no matter who wins this fascinating 180 minute tie the loser will be pilloried.
Me? I think we can beat Barcelona but if they edge us then there’s no shame in that. They are widely considered the best team in the world and losing to the best is never shameful. Well, unless you’re one of the doom and gloom merchants who call themselves Arsenal fans.
But there’s plenty of reason to be hopeful, after all we match up very well to Barcelona. Here, let me break it down for you.
Keeper — Advantage Barcelona
I’m not getting into this thing where we rip Almunia, let’s just give them the advantage and move on.
Central Defense — Draw
The only two players who are certain for today are Tarzan and the Verminator. Now, if you’re like me and you take your advice from Martin Keown then the two are very equally matched. Where Barca might have an advantage there in experience, Arsenal have the advantage in speed and youth. So, between those two, I see very little advantage for either team — except in offence, where Thomas Vermaelen is a legitimate goal scoring threat. He will be getting forward on corners and looking to score on his smaller counterparts.
What will ultimately decide this category is who will pair up with Tarzan or the Verminator. For Arsenal it’s one of Gallas or Sol Campbell and for Barca it’s Pique or Milito. In Milito, Barcelona will be giving up a lot of size and that could prove a huge boon to Arsenal’s bigger players like Bendtner and Diaby. If it’s Pique then they have their strongest defense and they could frustrate Arsenal on set plays.
For Arsenal, Sol is a massive defender but there are questions about his ability to keep up with the slippery Messi. Gallas would be better at keeping up with Messi, if he’s 100% healthy.
So, like I said, it’s a draw.
Full Backs — Advantage Arsenal
I’ve heard a lot about how good Dani Alves is and I’m here to tell you, both of our fullbacks are as good if not better. Plus, we have depth in right back and can bring on Emanuel Eboue if more attack is needed.
Maxwell is a bit of a threat at left back but again, we’ve got Gael Clichy and I’m confident that if Arsenal defend as a unit Clichy will not be exposed. Remember that hungry, pressing defense we played in the first half of the season.
Yeah, we need that and then we’ll have an advantage here.
Midfield — Draw
In a sense, much hinges on who plays here. If Cesc plays and we can move Nasri up front then it’s a huge advantage for Arsenal. Toure and Song are basically equals and Diaby is much better in attack than Busquets (though Busquets is a better defender) so that leaves Cesc v. Xavi in the midfield maestro role and I wouldn’t be an Arsenal fan if I didn’t pick Jesus!
If Nasri or Rosicky play there then you have to give an advantage to Xavi, but don’t forget… Nasri scores amazingly great goals so the advantage is very slim.
Forwards — Advantage Barcelona
Messi, best player in the world. Pretty much all that’s needed to be said, but I would like to add just one thing… Arshavin has made noises about wanting to play for Barcelona in the past and it would be nice if he really stepped up and canceled Messi out with a masterful performance.
From what I can tell, Arshavin has been resting the last couple of weeks so he should be bright eyed and bushy tailed for this match.
Manager — Advantage Arsenal
Pep Guardiola has won, but he’s won with an embarrassment of riches in a two team league which basically allows him to rest his players for the season and keep them ready for the Champions League.
Meanwhile, Arsene Wenger has been slogging out a decent record over the last 4 years while trying to rebuild Arsenal on a budget. He’s done this in the toughest, fastest, most barbaric league (how many broken legs have Barcelona suffered in the last 4 years?) in the world playing against top teams who’s owners can pay any salary on top of eye popping transfer fees to gather the best talent in the world on their team.
Not only that, but Wenger’s been doing this at the top level for many, many more years than Guardiola. He’s got a bench that includes Eboue, Rosicky, Eduardo, and many more who can come in and make an impact. Hell, we may even have Cesc on the bench!
Conclusions
So, you see we match up very well against Barcelona and given our similarity in both styles and footballing philosophy, it’s going to be a great match. The match is going to be live on Fox Soccer Channel here in the States and kick off is going to be somewhere around 11:45am PST.
Unfortunately, I have to watch it on tape delay because I have a meeting at 1pm — so, you won’t be hearing from me after about 10am this morning. See you all after the match on either Twitter or here.
Don’t despair, it’s going to be a great game!
Comments
Things had been going so well for United recently, right? Almost too well? Well, Bayern did them in and now Rooney’s out for 2-4 weeks. See how it feels, United?
We’re going to do a Buster Douglas on the Mike Tyson that is Barcelona. Early KO, 3 goals minimum to have their heads spinning.
Believe.
I dont even think their advantage in attack is that great. Yes messi is the best but that is 1 player. Arshavin and nari are both dangerous and as much as I love the man id rather have both of them than henry out wide for this game. And beleive it or not I would rather have super nick than Ibrahimovich who I think is an average player
Sorry but who is Tarzan? And why Tarzan?
@Marty McFly, Ever seen Carlos Puyol?
http://images.football.co.uk/Dynamic/News/400×400/1250717627_spt_ai_barcelonavmancity_07.jpg
@Tim, I look at that picture and all I hear Tarzan screaming like he did in that cartoon from the 70s (yes I’m old).
We will need to win two nil tonght to have a chance of going through to the next round,we are more than capable of doing that,Barca are good ,but not invincible.come on you Gunners
I think as long as we are not down by 2 we will still havea shot. We will score in the nou camp
For all the attacking prowess the two teams have, the key for today will be defense. What’s funny to me about this analysis is that a few months back, you picked the spud’s fullbacks over ours however now you are picking our fullbacks over barca’s. Make up your mind man! Do you rate our fullbacks or not?? I am half joking ofcourse – I do remember you saying after the spuds match that you would never make that mistake again and it’s good to see you sticking to your guns. Their right back may have some awesome attacking prowess, but they are more vulnerable in defense than us. Much will depend on which Gael Clichy shows up today. He has been talking the talk before the game and I would love to see a game changing performance from Clichy that favors us for a change. We will need to play at a fast tempo because a slow tempo game will favor barca. Moreover, we will need Arshavin to work hard on defense when Alvez gets fwd and we have to be able to exploit the spaces behind their full backs. C’MON YOU GOONERS!!!!
I really believe that unless we see a blow out today either way this tie is wide open even back at the Nou Camp. Wide open football. I cannot wait. I’m getting nervous already.
On a sidenote, early speculation has Rooney out for 2-4 weeks…
http://www.irishtimes.com/sports/soccer/2010/0331/1224267461514.html
@Patrick, I don’t wish injury on any player… except Rooney, Drogba, John Terry, Ashley Cole, and there are probably a few others.
BUT THAT’S IT
Tim, you should add Fletcher. He is getting more and more
loathing…
Fuck im excited. 90 mins to pub. 165 mins to ko
barca don’t scare me
the wait is killing me. this is incredible. i cant believe this feeling!
and i also dont wish injury on any players except the mentioned above. the beauty is we actually dont like them! i dont want messi to be injured. i want him to play. these other mugs are just waste of football and super arrogant and just think they are gods gift to us. well they are not!
over the last few months i hate watching others play [ man , chelsea ] . of all the clubs i like bolton play these days! before with ronaldo trevez there was something happning on the pitch. lately its become so dull with man u in which they just hope to cross and pray for own goals and deflection goals.
anyways all this pre match hype on attack. goals. etc etc. i would take a goalless draw today! dont mind it one bit!
My thoughts on Alvez after watching him closely for the past few years is that he is the best “attacking” RB in the world and we will need someone to keep him contained. Also, if he attacks too much this should leave their right flank open for dangerous counter attacks.
Arshavin will be our wild card in this game. If he decides to turn up with his shooting boots we have a great chance to nick them. my feeling is that scorer of the first goal wins the game.
Flip a coin to pick the winner, but even if we lose I want to see us fighting to the last drop and put on a credible performance.
I think it is high time we start to get people informed that Farbregas join barcelona at the age of 13yrs and we got him at the age of 16yrs so he is Arenal trained player as there is no justfication that he learnt the trick of the game in just 3yrs of tender age at Barcelona compairing that the most crucial learning stage of football is btw 17-22yrs and he is at Arsenal at those years and still there now to develop further.
I predict Clichy as MoTM!!
HERE WE GO GUYS!!
We’re getting hammered. We’ve got to settle down a bit.
These guys are good.
Can we live without tragedy? wtf! gallas injured and cesc misses next leg. The team is clearly nervous. If we advance this stage, I wont bitch about almunia ever again.
I can only follow the ‘live’ text.
What I’m reading doesn’t read so good for Arsenal. 2 injured and 2 booked (including Fabregas who now misses the return leg).
We are like Mike Tyson against Buster Douglas and we need the bell to regroup and get our sh*t together before we are gutted.
My net connection chooses today to have a frainbart. I’m hearing scattered reports we’re getting hammered.
Poor Cesc. That’s an awful shame. Can he appeal that yellow? It was a bit harsh. He got all ball.
With Gallas off, I ‘m assuming that Song drops in at CB and Denilson in at DM.
I’m also assuming that Eboue will stay on the (L) in place of Arshavin (what the hell was he thinking or not as it turns out)and Nasri who seems our most effective player will stay (R).
Oh, I forgot about arsha, but actually I’d rather Eboue play there. More defensive grit.
WTF was Alumnia doing? *sigh*
If we are going to lose and at 0-2 it would appear so, don’t lose in a poor way.
@ctpa, Not today, we don’t. Barcelona will live to regret this!!
WOW 2-2. Now that’s what I’m talking about. Arsenal fighting until the very end. At 0-2 it was getting unbearable reading that ticker. Even with 2 away goals, we have a chance, slim (I’ll admit) but that’s better than none.
2-2!!!!
Un-freaking-believable. I don’t have the words.
@Patrick, agreed. Now I have to try to get some work done and my nerves are COMPLETELY shot. No focus whatsoever…
WELL DONE LADS!! It was a matter of belief. If a 2-0 comeback against the champions doesnt instill belief, nothing will. 2nd leg it’s up for grabs!:-). Proud to be a goonah!
YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS
LUCKY, THEO!
okay, let’s sit down and do some second leg math.
cesc – out
theo – in
diaby, song, eboue – in
iniesta? iniesta?
wow.
i don’t know. i sort’ve fancy the arsenal. i wonder what messi has in his bag.
@dooley, I wonder what Nasri has in his bag!!
@Akash, you missed a couple of subtractions:
cesc – out
theo – in
diaby, song, eboue in
iniesta – out
puyol – out
pique – out
Barca still have Messi but they have their 3rd and 4th string CBs (Marquez and Milito maybe?) at best. We’ll miss Cesc but I like our chances against their back line. We don’t have to play crazy-open attacking football to try to make up any goals. 1-0 will be good enough (which should give the kids a bit of confidence).
COMPLETELY OFF TOPIC – I just saw a CSKA defender (can’t even begin to spell his name) make an incredible goal-line save. Check for it on highlights tonight.
Anyway, we have go to attack in Camp Nou!! We cant do what we did in the first half. We have got to be nipping at their feet and play with belief.
I think Song, stepping into the center back role again, was huge.
Almunia needs to learn to concentrate. But the conceded goals were almost like a boon. We started playing freely instead of trying to soak up the pressure!!
A young Arsenal team, despite key injuries, fought back to tie one of the greatest teams in the history of the game. How do you like that?
Tim. Take a breather before you write this one up.
What a game! What a fightback!
Every Arsenal fan should be proud, though we can see clearly that Arsenal are still far from an ordinary Barca team without Iniesta and Messi playing like shit!
this game also proves how useful Denilson is by not losing the ball in midfield. In the first half, our midfield simply cannot string 4 passes
together….
Walcott is very useful with his speed. If he can grow into another Pires, or even another Ljungberg, Arsenal will be great!
And our Jesus–what can we say about our Cesc?
What a captain! Tony Adams should be proud of him.
There are so much to talk about this game. Let’s take a rest and talk about it later!
We are proud gooners, no matter we advance or not!
I dont know how we are still in this tie. It looked really bad for us at one point but somehow we have managed to hung on and we should give credit to the boys for that.
Wow, any Arsenal supporter will take that result after the full on assault Barcelona laid on us for the first 60 minutes of the game. They were toying with us, passing with ease. If not for Almunia’s first half, we’d have been down a few goals at half. Obviously we gave them back.
Not sure about you guys, but the difference in the match was in midfield where we got absolutely ruined. If we tried to pass it around midfield, we’d pass it away or they’d take it away. For some reason, they could get right up on us, but with them, we couldn’t get anyone with 5 yards of them seemingly. What’s worrying is that our midfield general will be out next match, which I think is a far bigger loss than Barcelona being with out Puyol and Pique. One guy Wenger needs to play in the next leg is Rosicky. Really, against a team like Barcelona, Song and Diaby in midfield don’t really give us much. Both of those guys are physical, but you just can’t wrest the ball away from such a good passing team. As such, we should opt to try and put our best passers and best pace in the midfield, rather than the muscle that we’ve been employing against our EPL foes. Clearly this isn’t a team we can beat with hundreds of jabs. Rather if we’re going to beat them, we’ll have to do a much better job protecting the ball, and try to land some big knockout punches occasionally (to further the boxing analogies today). Proud of the lads for not raising the white flag in the face of Barcelona’s early dominance.
Based on today’s performance, Diaby should clearly not be playing the next game. He was the worst player on the pitch today by a mile. Who knows though? Maybe he was still struggling from the injury he picked up against Birmingham or maybe he was just way too nervous for this tie. We have come to expect a lot more from Diaby this season. The Diaby that showed up today was the Diaby from last season. Assuming we leave him on the bench and Gallas is still out, we would have to go with a MF trio of Denilson, Rosicky and Nasri. Problem is we dont know how bad the injury to Arshavin is – and we wont have too many options out wide if Nasri plays CM. So I think we are stuck with Diaby unfortunately. Wenger needs to slap the nervousness out of him.
Agreed, he may have been nervous. With Barcelona’s quality, unfortunately our midfielders just don’t have the time to sit on the ball before directing passes. That’s where I thought we missed Little Mozart today.
Did anyone else notice that the game turned in out favor after we.. I mean Barca sub’d in Henry?
@nycgunner, I’m not into all this Henry returns to the Emirates sentimental crap. Icon, yes. Great servant for the club, yes. Best striker that will ever play for Arsenal, yes. Time to move on, yes.
@nycgunner, It did seems to me that the minimal time Henry had on the ball was awkward, almost like he didn’t want to go full force and was reluctant to mount anything resembling an attacking move…I would go so far as to say that he may even want the CL title more for Arsenal than for Barcelona, but nevertheless, I would never dare say he is so un-professional to let it show in an actual match.
Top, top marks to Sagna and Clichy for eliminating Messi almost entirely.
Niavety in defense allowing them to long-ball and score. But, I guess that’s what happens when you have a make-shift central defense.
Well played Denilson, did a job and did it without fuss. Able to draw the fouls, and build up those simple passes to get a rhythm going.
Almunia is scizophrenic, awesome in the first half and just hopeless in the second.
Nasri and Theo both positive. Sharva was uh… spritely at first, but the injury was random. Eboue was good. Nicky B with 2 assists, well 1 for theo and the set up that lead to the penalty. Good show.
The yellow to Cesc was harsh, but so was Puyol’s red. So a bit of balancing out there. Despite them having 2 away goals I fancy our chances. We are fitter than this Barca side, they faded in the last 20, which surprised me. And in the second leg they will be missing their best cbs, Milito and Márquez are both experienced, but not exactly spritely. I can see Theo tearing them to shreds!
Enjoyed, a third would have been nice, I think we would have if Cesc hadn’t been injured. We need to be tight, disciplined and organised in the away leg. And never give up.
I thought Puyol’s red was just. Cesc had a clear goal opportunity and Puyol’s leg hit Cesc’s leg to thwart the chance. By the rules, it’s a clear red.
Do we even dare talk about injuries? Gallas will likely be done for the year. Cesc may be out weeks. Arshavin’s calf? Who knows. When will this bad string end?
As for Puyol’s red, Wenger says it might have been harsh, so what do I know?
Red card AND a penalty is very harsh. FIFA needs to revisit that rule.
Maybe they can have Tommy Vermaelen testify.
Fabregas has a broken leg? What!!!?? How did that happen?
Alright, whoever put the curse on this team, please lift it, for the love of….
Denilson was my MotM. Before he came on, everyone was ball watching and when we did get the ball would give it away immediately. After he came on we were much more composed and had a lot fewer stray passes.
@Chad, Are you crazy? Denilson has been the worse player to ever wear the Arsenal shirt
I’m joshing you of course. Denilson played the kind of game that shows supporters why Wenger has belief in him and why we should too. You could almost say that he actually maintained the steel we now take for granted from Song. I said almost because I don’t want too get carried away.
How do I get a little picture next to my name on here?
@Patrick, http://en.gravatar.com/
@Tim, cool. I’ll be Brady.
Look at that! Oh look at that!
Fabregas fears he broke his fibula. Remains to seen. That’s not something you need to wait overnight to xray to find out. That’s the same injury Nasri had after a clash with Diaby. The bad news is he’s done for the season and the World Cup. The good news is that he’ll be fresh for next season
Almunia is my MOTM. Without that 1st half performance, we’d have been embarrass in our own house. We’d be the laughing stocks of the CL. The pundits would have had a field day and they’d never ever let us live that down. We have now seen that Almunia strength is his quick reaction saves. His weaknesses are his poor decision making and poor positioning.
Walcott came good today. He’ll be on that plane to South Africa.
Nasri was the only midfielder who could consistently hold his own against Barcelona.
Fabrgas put in a heroic performance against a team that knew what he was about and wanted to limit his options.
Bendtner had some chances but didn’t get down and kept his head in the game and played his position superbly.
Our back line especially Clichy was just excellent today. Sure we got beat with the usual over the top ball, so what’s new in that. We are talking Barcelona and we are talking damage limitation against a team that had a 71%-29% possession advantage on us. That’s 71%! They kicked sand in our face. They knock us down and took our lunch money. We didn’t give up. Do not say Barcelona took their foot off the gas at 0-2 up. They just ran out of gas plain and simple and they couldn’t keep up. We do our last minute voodoo that we do so well.
I’m very proud of this team. I’m very proud of Cesc Fabregas because I know the pain of playing with a broken bone. That pain paralyzes your mind and even if the body is willing.
Somehow I hope Fab will play again this season.
But if he is out, I hope he misses the World Cup.
We don’t need Cesc’s star growing any bigger in South
Africa & attracting outlandish transfer offers. And heeds needs some time to Rest up for our big run again next season!
*#* BIG NEWS!!! *#*
EMANUEL PETIT IS THE NEXT COACH OF THE FRENCH NATIONAL TEAM!!!!!!!!!!
WOW!
GO GUNNERS!!!!!
not.impossible as he say thousand time he dont want comeback in football in any form .april fool work only if it s believable.FAIL!!!
We need to play sol in the 2nd leg. I love song and he played well in MF but cost us the 2 goals when he went to CB. This tie is still alive. Bring on wolves
Anyone want to take a crack at our lineup with Cesc, Arshavin and Gallas all out? Here’s my take:
Eduardo and Bendy
Rosicky Nasri Denilson Eboue (Walcott off bench)
Clichy TV5 Song Sagna
Almunia
Sucks we have to wait til Tuesday; I’d like to run it back again.
Id go
rosicky bendtner walcott
Denilson song nasri
clichy tv sol eboue
Almunia
The post match quote that says more than enough:
Xavi: “We played well, we dominated. If only we could play like that all the time”
We’ve all seen Barca play plenty of times this season, and yesterday was their best match of the year. That was the best, and we were able to draw. We need them to slack off a little as they have in other matches and we can nip this one at the Nou Camp. Come on Arsenal!!!
Can a loan deal be terminated prematurely?? Does this apply to every kind of loan? Why dont we get Senderos back? Its not like he’s getting first team football there. His chances of first team are probably better at Arsenal!! And God knows we could do with some backup in that position!!
I wonder what Gallas’ injury does to the contract discussions. Maybe Arsene feels guilty for rushing Willie back to the pitch, and will at least give him a 1-yr deal.