The Turning Point

First things first. Barcelona deserved their victory in this enthralling Champions League encounter at the Camp Nou. Over the two legs, Barcelona had more possession of the football and also kept passing the ball at higher success rate than Arsenal did. Hence I dare say that we were better in any department compared to Barcelona. At the time of the draw, everybody had written us off to compete against Barcelona. The fears grew stronger knowing Barcelona had thrashed Real Madrid 5-0 at their home ground. So Arsenal had very little chance, but the boys stood up to the task and with some luck could have also managed to cross this hurdle.

Now I come to the If's and But's that changed the whole context of the match. Arsenal v Barcelona was always going to give a lot of talking points, but there was more of a breaking news when Arsenal announced Robin van Persie to start the second leg against Catalonian giants.
Inclusion of RvP was meant to bolster the attack in a match which we were supposed to defend deep and defend all the time. In that case, the inclusion defies logic. Secondly, How Rosicky still makes to the starting 11 is beyond my imagination, frankly it has touched my nerves now. He should be sold off this summer with immediate effect. In his 6 years at Arsenal he has never helped us win a major trophy. Even yesterday, when the whole team was back tracking defending in numbers. Rosiccky just failed to impress, he hardly has any pace nor did he show desire to win the ball. He fell on the ground very easily and made Sagna's life on the right wing difficult. A total contrast to what we saw on the left wing where Nasri was coupling with Clichy to shut down the attacking threat of Messi and Alves.

Now who are the two most experienced players of the squad? Who would you look upto in the match of this intensity to give fellow players confidence to play at their top of the game? And what happens when those 2 players end up making stupid mistakes? Yes, just when it seemed like Arsenal defenders and our two goal keepers had ensured a clean sheet for first half; Cesc Fabregas tried his cheeky back heel assuming Wilshere to get on the end of it and make a surging run forward. The back heeled pass rebounded and Messi's feather touch control over ensured ball found the back of the net. Arsenal's resistance was broken. And before this happened Arsenal has already lost Scezeny, Abidal had held RvP's throat and our defenders were all on first caution from ref and had to be extremely careful for second half.

There was one bright sparky moment in second half as Nasri ran pitch length on left and won a corner for self. His corner was floated up in the box and Diaby's leap left Bussquets heading the ball into his own net. At 1-1, Arsenal were going through to quarter finals, unexpectedly. But more was to come and RvP did the cynical act of taking a shot after being whistled for offside by the line ref. Did he hear the whiste or not - only he and players can tell? I personally think he saw the flag raised but didnt hear the whistle. Hence he took a shot with his wrong foot in frustation. Had he not seen the flag and not heard the whistle - he would have tried to place the ball in top corner with his left foot rather than blaze away wide of the camera person behind goal. The Swiss ref was to hear no explanation from any of the Arsenal players and he rightly by the letter of the law showed red card to van persie. 11 v 11 was difficult, 11 v 10 became impossible. A classic Xavi goal and Messi penalty sealed the game in Barca's favour and then onwards it was just playstation stuff. Jack Wilshere had plans to disrupt the Barca party but Bendtner had other plans. Big Dane might boast and say all the crap he thinks about himself but he is a nobody when it matters the most. How he failed to control the ball on first touch and take it away from goal only he can explain? Anyways what has happened has happened and we cannot change the result now.

The turning point in this game was most definetely the Cesc's back heel rather than RvP's red card. Again as I said, at the time when draw was made I did not expect us to go through this tie as winners over 2 legs. But just the manner in which it unfolded, we had a chance and we blew it.

Now we have to wake up again and be focussed solely on the Premier League. Hope the players can give us one trophy atleast this season to savour the memories.