We’ve heard it all before, really. This was the season where Arsenal were meant to really show their title credentials and put together a run in the cups that would see them break a six year drought without silverware in north London.
It’s a philosophy that has been built on the beautiful game and developing players to play world-beating football with a relatively young side, creating foundations for the future and a legacy should Arsene Wenger decide to move on.
Previous campaigns have often seen the Gunners play some immense stuff without having either the final product or the discipline at the crucial stages to really place themselves among the elite.
Admittedly, an era had passed following some of the best days the club has ever had which of course included that 49 match unbeaten run and time must be made to rebuild and instill a system on the new breed.
An encouraging first half of this season suggested that the time had finally arrived for Arsenal to deliver.
Wenger too, was of the belief that his team had learnt from previous mistakes, matured as players and was ready to start a new era at the Emirates with silverware.
But the atomic bomb that dropped between Wojchec Szczesny and Laurent Koscielny against Birmingham two weeks ago in the Carling Cup final once again created more questions than answers as to whether they are the real deal.
The hangover continued at home in their next appearance, a stalemate against Sunderland, far from ideal preparation for a round of sixteen tie second-leg tie against Barcelona despite a one goal advantage.
Nevertheless, the reigning Spanish champions were without Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique at the centre of defence representing a terrific opportunity for the visitors to jump on the front foot, claim that crucial away goal and avenge demons of last season’s trip to the Nou Camp where Lionel Messi scored all four to overturn the Gunners.
On a broader landscape, it marked an opportunity to show how much they had progressed since last year’s 6-3 aggregate defeat.
Much like the words that came out of Wenger’s mouth though, some things don’t change and for the second year in a row Arsenal’s trip to Spain saw them return having been completely outplayed and mesmerised by a brand of football they pride themselves on week in week out in the Premiership.
Lionel Messi was once again the star of the show and the standout performer but he was backed by a star cast in front of 95,000 vociferous fans at the Nou Camp. So loud in fact, that the game’s turning point ultimately hinged on the Robin Van Persie forgetting to put his hearing aid on and you sensed the game was done and dusted from there.
Fans of European football and La Liga will know that playing Barcelona with eleven on the field is hard enough, but with ten it’s near impossible and that showed with Dani Alves and Adriano easily exploited the wider areas as the final stages of the game became stretched.
But while the Arsenal manager and the club fans can feel aggrieved by Massimo Bursacca’s issue of a second yellow card to the Van Persie, the stats and the showing told much more of a tale than that moment of ill-discipline from the Dutchman.
Most would argue that a player would never dream of time-wasting with half an hour till to play in the match, but rules are rules though and right or wrong it was a silly thing to do at such an important time after Arsenal had clawed their way back into the contest. I’ll let you have your own opinions though.
Pep Guardiola said post-match that Arsenal “struggled to string three passes together” and his comments were far from an exaggeration as his team had over 70% possession and completed 500 more passes than their opponents.
It was no surprise therefore that Victor Valdes had one of his quietist nights in between the sticks with a spineless attack failing to trouble his goal, the crowd or the advertising board.
That must also be attributed to the impeccable work rate of Xavi and Iniesta in midfield as they played the Gunner’s at their own game, a slick and high intensity pressure game.
Ironically, on the night it was the two players Wenger was so desperate to risk (Fabregas and Van Persie) who made the individual mistakes which were the catalyst for a defeat we have seen so often in the big matches from an Arsenal team.
Tactically, the Arsenal chief may well regret some of his decisions, one being the inclusion of Van Persie, who might as well had not played for he was so isolated up top with Marouane Chamakh perhaps a more suitable option capable of holding the ball up for his midfielders to join the attack. Fabregas too, looked underdone on his return from injury while the inclusion of Tomas Rosicky on the right seemed to muddle with the minds of most watching.
For Barcelona, they now move into the quarter-finals of Europe’s top competition once again and look imperious as they look to avenge their exit to Inter Milan in 2010. We know what to expect from them now on the big stage, opposition teams do as well, there’s just not a lot you can do to overcome it!
For Arsenal however, they were in three cup competitions just 12 days ago and by the end of the weekend they could be out of them all. In this competition though, they will be ruing complacency in the group stages which saw them finish second behind Shakhtar Donetsk, hence putting themselves up against the best at this early stage.
The season still carries hope and is well and truly alive for the Gunners with the FA Cup and the Premier League still very much winnable for Wenger’s chargers.
That FA Cup game arrives on Saturday against Manchester United and if Arsenal is to stand any chance of claiming any silverware this season, the debris from the disasters that were Birmingham and Barcelona must be quickly swept under the rug as soon as possible.
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