The Goon Blog

Lionel Messi is in my opinion the greatest footballer to ever grace the game. At the Nou Camp he scored four goals to dump us out of Europe, demoralised, knackered, starstruck and probably injured just to add the cherry on top of the cake.

The starting team was the strongest it could be considering all the injuries. Almunia, Sagna, Silvestre, Vermaelen, Clichy, Denilson, Diaby, Nasri, Eboue, Rosicky and Bendtner: a team with no cutting edge quality that the likes of Cesc, Arshavin, van Persie et al. have.

Despite this we took the lead, Diaby played in Theo who did his best to make his pass to Nicklas Bendtner as bad as humanly possible, Bendtner got a shot off, Valdes saved but the persistent Dane toe poked in the rebound, game well and truly on and Arsenal ahead in the tie.

From then on it was the Messi show, his first goal was incredible – just how he hit that shot in the direction he did was seemingly unnatural, He is probably the only player that could make it look so simple and easy. His second goal was another lovely finish, he was never going to miss and Barca were back in front, you sensed it was game over. That feeling was made sure when Messi raced free and dinked the ball over the head of Almunia – he was just too good, incredible, forget Maradonna, Pele and Eusabio, Lionel Messi is not just the new king, he is THE king and there is no shame in being beaten by him all on his own. His final goal was eye of the needle stuff.

Take Messi, Ibrahimovic, Xavi, Pedro and Alves out of that Barcelona team and the sides would have been equals, football doesn’t work like that though. Its what this team aspire too, the little Argentinian is who every player aspires to be as good as, if not in real life then on the PlayStation, at times he makes it look so easy. Now can someone that small with that amount of humility be so good?

Anyway, less of the praise.

The criticism in some quarters is completely out of order, yes, some players let us down – then again these players probably wouldn’t have started had we had players fit. The players aren’t responsible for that, its the back room staff that are responsible for that and those problems need to be addressed in the summer, if it means a new medical team so be it – no expense should be spared. It also sounded like the boss is thinking he needs a larger squad, not only that, it needs to be of a higher quality too. He is going to have to pull something really special off to get the right blend of youth and experience, not just any youth, the clubs own produced youth. Is there going to be a chance to introduce all these promising youngsters? They are lauded time and time again but can they make the final step? Very few will by my reckoning.

The week off we now have is a good thing though, the importance of trying to get as many players fit as possible over-weighs the disadvantage of having a game in hand. Every game we go without losing is a season decider, win its still on, lose, its all over.

We went toe to toe with the very, very best. We lost. Nothing wrong with that, we fought for longer than many gave us credit for, we took the lead in the Nou Camp… one day we will be that good, how long away that day is nobody knows. The potential is still there, some dead wood does need cutting out though. Anyway, this is the sort of the stuff we need to sort in the summer.

Keep the faith, nobody would have beaten Barca in those two games, nobody.

Til tomorrow
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So the weekends histrionics are over, another last ditch winner from Nicklas Bendtner moved us within a point of United and three points of Chelsea at the top.

There’s only so many last minute winners you can score; there team spirit seems fantastic, the determined and never say die attitude is commendable beyond description, but when the injured list page has had to be turned over and continued everything is not looking quite so rosy. It has appeared players have dropped like flies this season – at the moment they are dropping like they have concrete blocks attached to their feet in the middle of the Atlantic.

The list in endless, Alex Song and Carlos Vela have not even traveled and Tomas Rosicky is “50-50″ to play tonight. All added together the absentees amount to pretty much half the side we fielded last week, its getting beyond a joke and something has to be done about it, its going to cost us silverware this season if we are being realistic.

The likelihood of Silvestre starting alongside Vermaelen is real. Sol Campbell has a muscular problem and after playing at the weekend too, you just cant see him starting at the Nou Camp, just another blow to a side that quite frankly is on its last legs. Its worth pointing out that Barca have a couple of missing players too but nothing comes close to the losses we have, theres no point defeating ourselves before the whistle has gone though, I believe we can win – and if its pulled off it will be one of (if not the) greatest win in the clubs history.

The team need to believe, to not let their heads drop if things don’t go their way – they have to stand up themselves, there’s no Cesc, van Persie or Arshavin to pull them out of a hole and fix everything. The players have to fight for every ball, give 100% and if that happens and we win I’ll be delighted. If we lose, I’ll be gutted but proud.

Everybody knows how good Barca are, the only good thing is they can’t be as good as last week – its nigh on impossible.

Now its our turn.

Enjoy the Barca sun all you people over there.

Whats the point in writing a match report? Everyone has seen the game – and what a game it was.

The first thing to say is I’m so proud to be an Arsenal fan, the team were dead and buried, at 2-0 down I said ‘we’re gonna get beat at least 3-0, its typical, failure against a top side again!‘ How I was wrong, I underestimated the mental strength of this team once again as they came back from the brink against the best team in the world, on their day, playing the best football their players have ever admitted to playing. That is one hell of an achivement.

It will go down as one of the very best comebacks in European history – along with one of the very best European performances, never mind even that it was away from home in a country they and their players have not enjoyed much success.

The first half was exhibition stuff, the kind of football you play with Accrington Stanley on FIFA after about ten seasons. Never have I seen a performance like it by a football team, the sheer quality of their play would have gazumped any other football team, not only did it look like Barca were finding it easy, it looked like the tie would be over in less than a quarter of the time it should be.

But, however good Barcelona were the Arsenal rearguard was something special. Almunia was a hero after the first 30 minutes with several stunning saves, has that won him the number one jersey for another season? If it did I wouldn’t hold it against him – he was at fault for the first goal but it was bound to happen with Barca having well over twenty shots on goal in the game, and the majority were on target too.

Then came the injuries…could the night get any worse?

Gallas stricken on the ground: ‘this could the the last time we see this guy in an Arsenal shirt’ – my exact thoughts

Andrey Arshavin hobbling off ‘why us? again?’ he isn’t getting much luck at the moment.

And then Barcelona scored seconds after half time.

The goalscorer, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, had had a Bendtneresque performance up to that moment but you have to admit that it was a rather tasty finish – almost like Theo Walcott’s against Villarreal last season at the same stage of the competition – and at the same end of the Grove. All the hard work seemed wasted, I really didn’t think that the team had enough in them to even really trouble the Barcelona defence, they just couldn’t get the ball off them.

What hurt the most for me was not the fact that it was a passage of beautiful play that led to the goal, I could have accepted that easier, but the fact it was a long ball over the top. We were playing Barcelona at their absolute best and we get undone by a bloody hoof over the top? Sickening. The pass was a goodun’, but you can see where I’m coming from, right?

The one bright spark going forward was Samir Nasri (more on his importance in the coming days after the Cesc injury) who had one shot go narrowly wide and was running around trying to create something. His backtracking was brilliant too, and you can tell by the omission on one fabled name so far…Lionel Messi – The combination of Clichy, Nasri and Vermaelen kept him pretty quiet after the opening twenty or so minutes.

Then it happens again 2-0 down. I thought we were onto a hiding then I have to say, game and tie well and truly over – the commentators  thought so too, one bright spark said the game at the Nou Camp would be a dead rubber. Not anymore, Einstein.

Enter: Theo Walcott – the enigma, headless chicken, speedster… [enter corny tabloid nickname here]

Boy can this guy run. You know you get those flat kind of escalator things at the airport with the path down the middle and your strolling down one of them going ‘hahaha!’ at the people pulling their heavy cases down the path in the middle? Well, it seemed as if he was on one of them each time he tore Maxwell a new hole down the right hand side. Finally, we had some end product off him, too.

He cut inside and his weak shot went underneath the ‘keeper – some say he could have done better but I couldn’t give a toss. A strange feeling came over me… Optimism? Is it really optimism?! How can it be? The team have just been battered for nigh on 70 minutes by the best team in the world with the best player in the world and we have a patched up captain (who granted, is rather a special player) and no more substitutes left because some moron has voodoo dolls of William Gallas and Arshavin with a lot of needles in both their calfs. Prick.

Anyway, there was a nagging doubt in the back of my mind about Barcelona hitting us on the counter, but in the 83rd minute of the game Bendtner laid off a cross for Cesc to finish off – only he  collided with Carles Puyol – breaking his leg in the process. The ref gave a penalty and sent Puyol off. Harsh, but did I care? Do I need to answer that?

Up steps Cesc who absolutely smegs it down the middle of the goal. He somehow hobbles back to the center circle but its obvious he isn’t gonna have much impact on the rest of the match – thats if he can continue, remember, no subs left.

Back on he hobbles, broken leg n all. 5-10 minutes later the final whistle goes. We haven’t really come back from 2-0 down against a Barcelona side playing FIFA/PRO-EVO football against us have we? Jesus…

You know what, this game has probably smashed our chances of winning something this season into tiny little pieces but how many teams could be as resilient as Arsenal were on Wednesday evening?

The latest news is that Cesc Fabregas has a cracked fibula and will miss at least six weeks, effectively ruling him out for the entire season, Gallas is missing for at least another two weeks, ditto Arshavin who’s relationship with the Emirates boo boys is starting to deteriorate at  a rapid rate of knots. Robin van Persie won’t be back in full contact training for another two weeks either.

The tie isn’t over yet though, funnily I would have taken a 0-0 in that game as it would be a straight shootout in Barcelona with the odds even – Barca at home, us with the away goal possibility. In 20 years time I will be proud to say I witnessed that game. This side are like Rocky (in fact that should be our entrance tune. not that Elvis track), pounded against United and Chelsea, pounded against United at home in the semi’s last season, pounded by a scintillating Barcelona…but the team still fight back. Legs snapped like linguine – and we still fight back. Its the stuff of well…it could only be Arsenal.

The chances of us going through are slimmer than ever now really considering the losses – but can you write this team off?

Never.

So the Barcelona tie is only a matter of hours away now and I can’t wait.

I’ll be watching the game with a Sp*rs fan so if we don’t win a torrent of abuse will be coming my way and we all know that’s never good. We still don’t know if Cesc will make the game, all other injury news apart from that is positive – even William Gallas has made the squad so hopefully the injury gods are giving us lots of healing vibes…

I would be lying if there were no nerves ahead of the tie because every top side we have come across this season have pounded us and the last thing we need is another battering, especially at the hand of the club that would sell their own testes to get hold of our captain and take him back to Catalonia to play understudy to Xavi and Iniesta – even though he is probably as good a – if not better – player.

Barca have slowed their tempo this season, they are a bit more leisurely than they were last season and that could play into our favour; but if we went at them total football v total football it could turn into a five-a-side match in goalscoring terms, that’s why we should maybe let them come at us and try to hit them on the break because a 0-0 is a better result for them than it is for us in my book. Yes, the second game is in Barcelona but if they have no away goal it puts us at an advantage.

It will be a massive night for Gael Clichy and Bakary Sagna as they have one of the best ever players to contend with in Lionel Messi. He moves all over the place, starting on the right, drifting over to the left and also cutting inside to shoot – something which he has had big success doing recently. We all know about the back to back hat-trick’s he scored the other week, sandwiched inbetween a double in the Champions League. Hes an amazing player but he can be kept quiet. We need no brainstorm moments from Gael Clichy and quick decisive defending; the boss could go for the high risk strategy of pushing him back with the pace of Gael Clichy but it wouldn’t surprise me if Andrey Arshavin started on the right so to give Clichy more protection. Its not Messi v Arsenal but he is the main threat.

The midfield will be key, we need to get on the ball and drive forward with pace and power, pushing Barca back and pressurising them, not many teams dare do that but we need to do something special to beat them. What could well decide the game is the way the teams react when they don’t have possession, Barca are famed for their hard work off the ball and defending from the very front, we need to imitate that, Diaby should start in the middle and if Cesc is fit we know he will run his legs off, Song should fill the other midfield slot and he is going to need the game of his life, he is working towards being world class and this game could really be the icing on the cake of a terrific year for him improvement wise.

Up front Niklas Bendtner will have to hold up play really well as well as drift around pulling the defenders out of position for Diaby, Cesc and Arshavin to exploit. They will need to do their share of the defending too, I don’t care how big a reputation some players have they must do their share of the graft *cough* Arshavin *cough*.

If you have tickets get to the game early and wave those red and white scarves, I always think English atmospheres are poxy compared to the Spanish atmospheres, when we score there is a cheer, when a goal goes in in Spain there is a gigantic roar, it could be something simple like the placing of the microphones but we need an intimidating atmosphere tomorrow.

And that is that… theres only one thing left to do; win the game.

Can’t be that hard…can it?

Til tomorrow! COME ON YOU REDSSSSSSSSSSS

Camp Nou...will you be there?

So, its Barcelona then. Not a bad draw for a number of reasons if you ask me: A) If we are going to go far in the competition we might as well get the big games out of the way first. B) It will be one hell of a game to watch. C) If we have to face either one of Barca or United, I’d take Barca.

There is plenty of time to chat about it in the next couple of weeks. If I had the funding, I’d be over there like a shot, flying in in the morning/afternoon – drinking, game-watching then catching the first flight home.

Are you going? What are your plans?

That was rather nice, wasn’t it? A fantastic display of attacking prowess put a hapless Porto side to the sword, it was a night where Samir Nasri found his talent, Nicklas Bendtner buried his demons of the weekend and pretty much every player played well, something we have not really had much of this season. I defy anyone to differ with my opinion that Arsenal are hitting form at the perfect time, and are really starting to purr.

The start was electrifying, Andrey Arshavin was tearing the Porto right-back a new hole every single time he had the ball at his feet, the first goal came after Samir Nasri slipped a Cesc-esque pass into the onrushing Arshavin, dividing the centerbacks and forcing the mistake that left Nicklas Bendtner with a sliding tap-in. It wasn’t quite as easy as it looked but it was in the back of the net, the tie was leveled and we didn’t take the foot off the pedal, we just kept on pressing.

It was Arshavin leading the Porto defenders a merry dance again that created the second. Dancing through three or four players then sliding a delicious ball across for Nicklas Bendtner to tap in a second. Was it tie over? No, but the hard work was done and Arsenal had seized the initiative.

After that the players took the foot off the pedal slightly and Porto did have their chances and it showed just why I don’t think we will win the Champions League this season – we give too many chances away and a better team may well have punished them, not to detract from a sublime showing of attacking football we witnessed last night though.

It ended up with us inviting pressure, Falcao had a snapshot which went straight at Almunia, either side of him and he didn’t stand a chance, they also had a header cleared off the line by Samir Nasri – we don’t usually have two defenders on the posts at corners but we are lucky we did last night or it would have been 2-1 and Porto right back in the game.

As it turned out, moments later Samir Nasri produced a spectacular solo goal – truly world-class. He picked it up on the right, twisting and turning through hapless defenders – its impossible to defend against when a player is changing direction so quickly and unpredictably, when through the defenders he absolutely hammered a shot in off the far post, it had to be perfect, an inch either way and it would have smashed the post and come out again or hit the keeper, he got it bang on and it was game over.

1 minute and 20 seconds later Arshavin broke and was overtaken by a lung busting run from Emmanuel Eboue, the Russian slid him in with a perfectly timed pass for the Ivorian to round the keeper and slot it home, 4-0, game well and truly over. It showed why we needed pace at that stage of the game and at first I was a little worried about the decision to sub Rosicky (who was very impressive) for Eboue, I thought it was a little too negative for that stage of the game, especially if Porto got a goal back, but I was happily wrong.

The last goal was created by Eboue, a jinking run was ended unfairly by some Porto oaf of a defender and who else but Nicklas Bendtner to step up and finish it off and complete his first senior hat-trick, its 6 in 5 games for the Danish international now – not bad going for a useless center forward, eh?

I watched the game via a stream on the SuperSport (or ShowSports) channel, they had two pundits – one was Carlton Palmer and the other was some old geezer who’s name I don’t know. The entire time they were slagging off Bendtner, even after the game, ignoring the goals and slating his attitude and commitment. He is probably the hardest working forward at the club and has improved a hell of a lot in the past year, if he wasn’t injured it would not surprise me if he had close to 20 goals this season, especially playing in a team as creative as this Arsenal side. Just no matter what you do, you can’t please some people. What the hell has Carlton Palmer achieved to slag off Bendtner? What right does he have to question his attitude and commitment? If I remember rightly he was a hated figure in the dressing rooms he occupied. It disgusts me.

The main talking point from this game for me is the position Samir Nasri is most effective in, and I find it no coincidence that with Cesc out the team and him slotting into Cesc’s role, we saw the best of him. It takes the pressure off the captain – even for the game at Hull at the weekend, he doesn’t have to rush back and risk a setback with his hamstring trouble.

All in all it was a fantastic performance to watch, not without its hiccups, but those aside it was beautiful football. Thomas Vermaelen is possibly the best blocker of a football I have ever seen and whilst Sol Campbell was a little sluggish every now and again he always recovered. I believe Vermaelen is developing into one of the finest centerbacks around and one day I can see him with the captains armband on his arm, I really can.

So, we are in the draw for the quarter finals yet again along with Bayern Munich. We won’t know what teams will be through until next Wednesday evening because of UEFA’s stupid publicity plans but if we get a kind draw we can make the semi’s and from there you never know… I’d take Barca though, that would be fantastic.

The focus once again now shifts onto the Premier League and the chase for the title, Hull away will be tricky so lets hope we perform as well as we did last night.

Til tomorrow.

So, after almost a month we can finally try and right the wrongs of the Porto game three weeks ago, and having not overturned a first leg deficit in Europe for over 30 years, there is a hell of a lot of work to do.

Lets put this in perspective: When this tie was drawn it was a good draw, Porto are not that much of a threat so anything but us going through tonight would be a failure in my mind. Are Arsenal better than Porto? Yes – so Arsenal should progress.

The task is made all the more tricky with Cesc Fabregas ruled out with his hamstring strain but Alex Song returns to the team after serving a league suspension at the weekend so he is a welcome return. It will be interesting to see if the boss decides to start with Andrey Arshavin after freely admitting he can’t last the 90 minutes. Will he go for it from the start to try and take advantage of the best team at our disposal and put Porto on the back foot? It will be interesting tactically.

In the Porto press conference yesterday their manager promised goals, is it a bluff or are they going to come out and attack? I think they might go for the away goal, if they get one, we need three to get through, so its vital we score the first goal to level out the tie, if we get in the ascendancy early on we can get into their heads, and when they start remembering they have never won on English soil thats when the heads could drop and we can capitalise.

In my book, Porto are not a great team so we should go through, after all we only need to win one nil, but as I said earlier, if we concede our lives are going to be made ten times more difficult.

With the absence of our top goalscorer someone is going to have to step up, be it Andrey Arshavin, Samir Nasri, Thomas Rosicky, Theo Walcott or Nicklas Bendtner – one of those players is going to have to perform better than they have all season and hopefully there won’t be too many nerves jangling come the 89 minute mark.

We need a commanding display from Almunia, Thomas Vermaelen and Sol Campbell, despite us needing goals the chances are they are going to have to mop up all the mess if moves break down and that brings me onto something else, over-comitting.

Its happened in every game against our rivals this season and we have been picked off, if Porto had an ounce of intelligence they will look to do the same. We must be careful.

We beat this lot 4-0 at home last season, they can’t have improved that much since then, call me ignorant but its my opinion.

Lets go and win this.

Til tomorrow. COME ON YOU REDSSS