Arsenal Tried To Get A “Hand” On The Situation

Let’s just clear one thing out of the way first – the better team won. Over the two legs, Barcelona were the better team. Congratulations to them and good luck on the rest of the tournament. Let’s also face this fact shall we Gooners, there is no harm in losing to a good team – as long as there was effort and dedication by the team. It’s when we don’t show the desire or will that we can all agree – criticism is well deserved.

Arsenal’s plan was clearly evident to me from the simple fact they selected Rosicky to play rather than Arshavin. We were going to play defencive. The plan as I believe it to be was for Arsenal to take a 0-0 draw in at the half.  Barcelona would likely begin to press more and open up spaces in the second half. At that point Arsene would’ve brought in Arshavin to take advantage of it. It was all working quite well up until Cesc got fancy and tried to backheel the ball – I screamed just before the goal – NO NEED TO BE F***ing CUTE (just ask my mates at the bar). The defence up until that point had been resolute and committed – with only one real shot given up. Until the goal I was really proud of the way the boys had played. 

Hmmm how many referees in this picture?

Now that’s an odd thing to say because we played so anti-Arsenal. But I am a believer you have to do whatever you can do to win. Och well. Anyway, the half comes and it is 1-0. Barcelona come out and again we are sitting tight with a high line and a defencive committment I’ve not seen from a Wenger squad in a while.  Then Nasri sees his opportunity and gets us the corner. Abou Diaby distracts Biscuits through his height and the OG is in. I am screaming with joy and my Barca loving mates are all looking at me with contempt.

The next few moments are a discussion of them telling me they now fear the worst. Barca they say doesn’t have to deal with something like this too often. They are not sure how they are going to handle it. In the build up to the worst call in history Barcelona look suddenly fragile. They certainly weren’t expecting an OG. The build up to Van Persie’s offsides shows this. He is whistled offside (which looked sketchy to me) and kicks the ball – it goes wide, bounces back to Valdes with force. It clearly was not any attempt to waste time or show some sort of contempt. It was a player who had his shot going and let loose on it.

The pandemonium and confusion that reigned after that call was evident on the pitch as it was in the bar I was in. Noone, nobody, nada, zilch knew why the yellow had been given on Van Persie. It was then that I knew our run was over. Sure I held out a faint hope. But Barca are tough enough with 11 men but 10. It was really only a matter of time.

But the defence really held for a while. Again, everyone was committed to the defencive plan. I was surprised. It was Sparta vs Xerxes all over again. Wave after wave of Barca attack came, we repelled and finally through a back valley (namely a good or questionable call by the ref again – depending on who you ask) that was the Koscielny penalty. It seemed at that point the flood gates were opened. But the team held firm even after the PK. It was not to be though as once the back way in was found out, the Cules kept coming in only to make it 3-1.

Still oddly enough Arsenal had everything to play for and the inclusion of Arshavin and Bendtner nicking one more away goal was still a possibility and if it wasn’t for Nicky being Nicky that could’ve happened – I said to myself – van Persie drills that shot. 

picture courtesy the Daily Mail.

Well that’s it. Its pretty disgusting that a call so blantantly bad had an affect on the outcome. If you don’t think it did, you are only deluding yourself. When is kicking the ball after the whistle blows an offence and grasping someone by the throat not? There were two times when a Barca player had their hands around an Arsenal players neck in the early scrum that cost us our focus briefly, Abidal grabs Van Persie by the neck – right after Valdes gives him a hand wash (twice). After that as the picture right shows, Nasri is choked as well right in front of the ref.

Then there were some of the tackles we got called with yellows for and Barca got away with. When you have four yellow cards and one man sent off and the other team doesn’t well it is very hard to play any sort of match in that.

Look there is no saying we would’ve won 11 v 11. Barca are a good team. Probably the best assembled talent of this era. Teams like this you have to wait 20 years or so to come around. They will in all likelihood win the Champion’s League. I really don’t see any of the teams remaining that can hold a candle to them right now. But I would’ve liked the chance to have seen what would have played out – all things being even.

I always talk about my love of Hockey. One of things I like in Hockey is that refs try very hard not to have an undue influence on the match. Sometimes they do, most time they don’t. In the big games we often hear they’ve put their whistles away. They are letting the teams determine the final outcome of the match. Too often in football, it is the ref who has influenced the outcome of the match. From missed blatant penalties, to wrong offisides calls and various other egregious errors, football refs  out of any other professional sport have more influence on the outcome of the game.

So that’s it we are out. Now we focus on our domestic campaigns – the EPL title and the FA Cup. How this team responds I really don’t know. My hope is the anger and frustration I heard and saw from the players and manager post-match are leveraged into a renewed focus. Or, it could be what some corners fear the start of a collapse that results in us missing any tangible success for yet another season.

I really don’t know. I will just saddle up in kit again this Saturday and root for the team as we take on United in the FA Cup quarterfinals.

See you on the flip side.