Morning all from a tired and somewhat voiceless me. Two nights in Barcelona have taken their toll somewhat but dammit it was fun, despite the result.
What can I say about the game that hasn’t already been said? The players we had missing were too important for us to really challenge on the night, nevertheless there was that glorious two minutes when we were beating Barcelona. The rendition of ‘1-0 to the Arsenal’ had barely begun before we were drowned out by that Spanish ‘Woooooooooooohhh’ as Messi’s first goal went in, but those two minutes were absolutely fantastic.
After that it was the Lionel Messi show (and he’s easily the best Lionel since this bloke). We had to admit, some time later having had a few post match beers, that he was probably a bit good really and might just get a game should any of us need a player for our weekend 5-a-side teams. Every time they scored the Barcelona fans chanted his name and did the ‘we’re not worthy’ arm waving thing. And while Arsenal fans would probably be worthy they’re definitely not. At least they knew it.
The boy is a sensational talent and to see him do that at 22 is just incredible. The range of finishing we saw on the night shows exactly why he’s being lauded as the best player in the world right now and potentially the greatest of all time. While you wouldn’t ever say it was privilege to see your team take a spanking like that, I’m glad to have seen him play and I’m not too churlish to admit he’s right up there with Chris Wreh as the one of the best players I’ve ever seen.
From our point of view it was always going to be difficult. A team shorn of five starters and reliant on squad players would have had to have played out of their skins to even get close to that Barcelona team. I’m sure Arsene Wenger will have looked closely at not just the quality of the opposition but the way they perform when they don’t have the ball. They work so hard to get it back and unless you can match that and move the ball about quicker than they do then it’s going to be difficult. Remember this, they did exactly the same thing to Man United in last season’s final. United were quite brilliant against us in the second semi-final, they had Ronaldo at the top of his game, Rooney, momentum and experience, and Barcelona destroyed them to all intents and purposes, so for me there’s no shame in going out to them.
I’m sure this off the ball workrate will come up as a topic in the coming days because Arsenal did exactly the same in the early part of this season. We battled to get it back and got the results that hard work merited. As time went on though it disappeared from our game and we weren’t able to do to Barcelona what they did to us. In conversation with Goodplaya yesterday for an Arsecast which is sadly not happening today, we spoke about Colin Lewin’s piece on the official site where he blamed fatigue for some of our injury problems. Goodplaya was a bit dubious, suggesting that this is a team that can fight till the end of games and score so many late goals so the fitness was obvious. My suggestion was that because we’ve had to keep going until very late so many times that we haven’t enjoyed the rest you get when you’ve got a game won with twenty or thirty minutes to go.
I just don’t think the team was phyiscally able to work that hard against Barcelona. There are countless opinions about what we should do now. Some might say we need to increase the size of the squad so we can better cope with injuries and fatigue. Others that we should maintain the size of the squad but replace certain players with ones of better quality so rotating doesn’t affect our chances of winning games as much. The summer will tell us exactly how we decide to do things but as we sit here we still have a chance in the league, we’re still challenging, and while it might be an outside chance you can’t tell me it’s not an improvement. With 5 games to go last season we were well and truly out of the title race so I’m not prepared to use a Champions League exit as an excuse to go through the squad player by player and list their very worst qualities to suggest we need to buy 12 new ones in the summer.
There’s no doubt in my mind that the squad must be strengthened, I think we all know where we’d like to see new players come in, but as I said that can wait until the summer transfer frenzy takes hold. We’ve got plenty of time to speculate over all that.
Going back to Barcelona finally, it was a pleasure to spend time in a great city with some great Arsenal fans. The atmosphere in the city was great, the locals friendly albeit a touch bemused at some of the singing (especially this reporter, heh) and I’d do it all again in a heartbeat. Perhaps it would be best to hypnotize me though so I forget the hangover and the sweaty flight back to Dublin. It was a challenge not to throw up. Not because of a bumpy flight or a fear of flying, but I think I was sweating rum at that stage. All good fun though and cheers to all involved.
Also, a big thanks to Tom for his top blogging in my absence. I know there are those of you out there who think he is a jinx and every time he blogs we suffer poor results. I think that too but let’s not blame him too much. As my next trip over is for the Man City game at the end of the month I might try to spare him, and us, by getting hold of a laptop for the weekend and blogging myself. That way we can find out of he’s really to blame! I kid, of course, thanks again Tom.
Looking around at the other news Andrei Arshavin seems to have torn two muscles. His calf and his abductor and it means his return this season is doubtful. He says he hopes to be back for the Man City game and I suppose it’ll all depend whether he’s needed for that game. If we’re still in with a shout for the league he might well be brought back, if things have gone off the boil by that stage we might as well just leave him recover fully.
Carlos Vela – what can you say? We found on Tuesday afternoon that he’d missed the game not because of ‘competition for places’ but because he’d misplaced his passport. I can’t be the only who thinks that if it were some meaningless friendly for Mexico he’d have had no problem locating his documents. It pretty much sums up his season really, he’s had little impact, and while not writing him off he’s got to improve in a big, big way to have any future at this club.
Due to Sp*rs involvement in the FA Cup this weekend our game against them has been moved to Wednesday night. Maybe not a bad thing. It gives the manager more time to get his players in the right frame of mind although I don’t think there’s going to be a hangover comparable with previous European exits. There’s no real injustice, no if-onlys, just an acceptance that over two games we were beaten by a better team. It shouldn’t cause anyone to wallow in misery, only work harder to try and get close to the level they’re at. More on that game in the days to come.
As mentioned above there’s no Arsecast today. Firstly because I’ve got no voice to speak of, I think ordering all those beers is to blame, and secondly having just arrived back in Dublin yesterday lunchtime I didn’t really have time to prepare. Apologies again to Goodplaya who did give his time for a little blogchat but I didn’t want to put out a ‘cast just for the sake of it. Maybe, depending on various things, I might get something out pre-Sp*rs, so we’ll see.
In the meantime, thanks again to Tom, I’m going to have my breakfast which will consist of more coffee and a couple of those horse pill sized painkillers I brought back from Spain’s wonderful pharmacies.
Till tomorrow.
