The full extent of the damage done in Barcelona has now come to light, Cesc Fabregas irritated his hamstring injury after just 15 minutes and carried on playing, Wojiech Szczesny also looks set for at least a month on the sidelines with a dislocated finger. Luckily, there doesn’t seem to be any tendon damage.
This comes after charges for Samir Nasri and Arsene Wenger for using inappropriate language towards the match referee and duly hurting his most fragile feelings. No holding the ref to account for his mistakes, oh no, lets go and slap a ban on the people that his mistake affected the most. UEFA are a bunch of ignorant fools, just like most of the football governing bodies.
Plus, the ref swearing back at Arsene Wenger will go unpunished?
Of course, nothing has been done about the images of Abidal grabbing van Persie around the neck, Adriano and Valdes doing the same to Samir Nasri, or Sergio Busquets pushing van Persie in the face whilst our captain just stood there and didn’t react. Any other team and he probably would have.
I think Fabregas’ decision to play on could be a very costly one, he has been plagued by chronic hamstring problems for a few years now and this is something we will have to watch out for with Jack Wilshere as well. If you carry on playing until 60 odd minutes with hamstring trouble you will only do more damage and no matter what game it is you have to come off and allow a fitter member of the squad to take your place.. it is just plain irresponsible. It is even more angering when you consider we play United on Saturday in a game that is arguably more important than the Champions League tie – which whilst it would have been nice to win, we are one game away from another Wembley semi-final in the FA Cup and have a chance to knock out the favourites.
The issue isn’t with Cesc declaring himself fit because he was fine to play against Sunderland last weekend, he was just not risked. The issue is with him not putting his hands up and accepting that he wasn’t fit enough to carry on, I don’t think a lack of fitness played a part in the back-heel that led to the first goal but he was only damaging himself and the team.
Moving on from the bad news, the good news is that Robin van Persie is fit to play against United, if he was fit to start against Barcelona then he must be fit to start against them at the weekend, I suspect Andrey Arshavin will return to the left with Samir Nasri playing on the right – I could also image Rosicky being used on the right to try and nullify the threat of Evra with Nasri in the center replacing Cesc’s creativity.
We will also be in the market for a short-term loan signing next week to cover the injured Fabianski, Mannone (Hull), Szczesny and Martinez – the only fit goalkeepers we have are third choice Manuel Almunia and James Shea who has never played in a professional match.
The chances of any loan signing getting time on the pitch is minimal but it would nonetheless take the pressure off Shea if Almunia was to pick up some sort of mystery injury again.
It is vital we get a win now to get our season back on track, going out of the FA Cup would be disastrous considering that only a couple of weeks ago we were on track for a quadruple.
Time to prove them all wrong, again.
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How can we prove people wrong?As you rightly said,2 weeks ago people and AFC employees were spouting we were on for the quadruple now we are down to two at best…I think AW has been proven wrong again as every man and his dog knew in January this squad wasn’t good enough and we needed strength in depth, so if anyone is proven wrong it is AW…
It’s pretty easy to take pictures out of context. No idea what Abidal was doing, but a few of those pictures were taken after Barcelona made a fair (yet very English) tackle and all of the Arsenal players rushing the Barcelona players and the ref. Arsenal made aggression and time wasting their Mo in this match, especially the first half. So they have to sleep in the bed they made.
Actually it was the Barcelona players accusing Jack of time wasting whilst on the floor that kicked it off. Iniesta tried to drag him to his feet.
Francis onyiso anyone?
Football has never been fair and never will be. Football is never won by the team that creates the most chances, and it is never won based on statistics. If that were so, then Arsenal would have trounced Chelsea last season and beat them twice this season.
No one claims that a team should have won simply because they deserved to and that same logic applies to the Arsenal vs Barcelona tie. Sadly few people realize this fundamental truth in football.
Football fans don’t watch the sport to get justice. They don’t watch the sport because they want the deserving team to win. They watch it because it is highly unpredictable, it can be decided with a single shot, and that could have happened had Nicklas Bendtner finished his shot properly.
At the end of the 90 minutes only one thing matters, the final score. No one bothers about the possession, the shots each team got off, no one cares how many passes Xavi and company completed.
Following Arsenal’s elimination from the UEFA Champions League, many have criticized Arsene Wenger and his team, and some fans have even boldly stated that it is time for Wenger to be ousted.
Had Bendtner finished off his shot, or had the referee used common sense and not followed the rigid and inflexible rules, then these same fans would be proclaiming Wenger to be a visionary and a genius which he is and remains irrespective of this result.
Do Arsenal deserve the criticism they have received?
Yes No They deserve criticism but not so much Submit Vote vote to see results
Do Arsenal deserve the criticism they have received?
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Yes
12.5%
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No
77.1%
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They deserve criticism but not so much
10.4%
Total votes: 48
Much of the press have criticized Wenger for “betraying his style.”
These “geniuses” feel that Wenger should have stuck to his style, and in the process, lost in similar fashion to last year.
Last year, when Arsenal struggled to beat the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United, these same people called for Wenger to change his approach, but when he does it, they say he has betrayed his style.
Arsene Wenger never betrayed his style; all he did was go for the win, and it almost worked. When teams like Manchester United adapt a different strategy on the big occasions, it is applauded and all the critics have to realize that Arsenal too can adopt any strategy to suit the occasion.
Many have criticized Wenger and his side for not getting a single shot on target and have stated that since they failed to get any shots on target, combined with prolonged spells of possession for the opposition, they deserved to lose
At the end of the day, all these statistics count for nothing. After 53 minutes, the game was tied at 1-1 and Arsenal were ahead on aggregate. At this point, despite the statistics being in favor of Barcelona, they were behind.
Only this counts. Despite playing worse than Barcelona, Arsenal were ahead and that is how football works.
On the night, and currently, Barcelona are a better side than Arsenal. They dominated, overran and tormented the Arsenal defense. Yet the most important stat read: Arsenal 3-2 Barcelona.
This is something that always happens with Arsenal. They normally dominate possession, create plenty of chances, and despite all this they find themselves trailing or level with their opponents.
But when this happens, then everyone starts to criticize the Gunners and go on a tirade on their profligacy in front of goal and state they don’t have a killer instinct.
But then in the 56th minute, the referee, Busacca, sent off Robin van Persie. Until this point Barcelona did not have anything to show for all their domination. Following Van Persie’s dismissal, Barcelona went onto score two more goals and advance to the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
Of course Barcelona were the clear favorites to win, especially with the numerical advantage. Even Arsenal have thrashed top teams like Manchester City with the numerical advantage. Until the numerical advantage kicked in, Arsenal were ahead on aggregate.
Now I’m not saying Barcelona were lucky to go through, or that Arsenal should have gone through, but the statement that Barcelona deserved to go through because of their statistical domination is completely absurd.
Had Bendtner scored in the 87th minute, then Barcelona would have been eliminated, and rightfully so. They were profligate in front of goal and failed to convert their statistical domination into real substance until the sending off.
No team can claim they deserve to win because they dominated possession.
None of us know how the result would have panned out had the referee been watching the same incident we all did, but the fact is that until the 56th minute, Barcelona had nothing to show for the statistical domination.
Amidst all this criticism, people have failed to applaud the performance by Arsenal’s defenders who put in a great display that exemplified tenacity, perseverance and fighting spirit.
Now I’m not trying to state Arsenal should be immune from criticism, but the level of criticism they have received in some blogs and in the press is totally uncalled for.
Arsenal were getting the job done, the only thing that counts until the referee made a mockery of himself, and they don’t deserve the scathing criticism being hurled at them.
well said Arsenal. A man of true intelligence. Most of the people asking for Wenger to be ousted were the same ones saying he was great not too long ago when we smashed Chelsea and beat barca in the first leg. Most of the people asking for Wenger to be ousted are too young to know any better or are new fans. Probably never even seen the team lift a trophy.
its not fair to the team, if Fab said he is fit, he play, so where is the médical team, Fab, and Van should never play against Baca thier contribution was Zero, And now they Will miss Few coming importants games, this not professionnel from the coach and these two stars players, and not good for the sipirit of the team, Arsenal play more games this year without these Two, and they done very well, if you Can not shine, please leave a chance to some body else to shine, and Fab you are not bigger than a team.
@ Zizou …..The problem is who can replaced Fabregas.
Maybe Ramsey in the making and he is not in this competition. RVP is our best striker and Chamakh is our next better striker and Bednter the most our 3rd striker and above average not great.
Arsenal play a game of almost the same intensity and tactical game and players like Rosicky, Diaby and Denilson cannot cope with the technicality play of Arsenal and naturally loses his team shape both in defence and attacks. Unless you are ignorant our back 5 are excellent including the goalkeepers. Agreed Fabregas should not play on when he is injury but who can step up and transit between defence and attacks….I really don’t want to be harsh to pick up any players but Rosicky and Diaby as well as Denilson needs to pack up. Wenger needs to either promote quality reserve players able to step on the plate or buy in the end of season.
I don’t think arsenal should be criticized because wenger actually got them to the carling cup final and beat on of the best in the world at home it didn’t matter if it was at home or away they did the impossible and they are very strong team with potentiall to do better but better than pat years BPL
Diaby should not be playing in the holding role.He is a natural attacker.Besides he is error prone.As u know errors in Defensive areas are costly whilst in attcking it is not that much.
Cesc decisionmaking when it comes to Barcelona keeps dissapointing me again and again. hed gladly let all his loyalty and thougth of the future campain of arsenal go out of the window if only Barca wins the CL.
The reason we lost to barca was down to cesc not Denilson. He cannot be blamed here for this loss. Non of the other players gifter barca with a heel kick just outside the box did they?
now he will jet off to barcelona to “rest”his hamstring, hanging out with his chums in barcelona. the same guys taht tried to strangle 3 arsenal players and after the game mocked and riduculed the team, taking the piss out of the “weak arsenal”. Way to go captain!
Even if you think the barca players is right. Would you have liked if NAsri went up and hung out with Evra after he lalbled arsenas players kids when tyhey lost to United? nah did not think soo…