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.