In between the two legs against Barcelona, Arsenal are imploding.
They beat Barcelona 2-1 on Wednesday, February 16 and will play them again tomorrow night.
The second leg is 20 days later.
So one game dominates the thinking of the Arsenal players for 20 days. A week longer than it ever did before.
Why is it 20 days? Because Uefa sold out to TV by spreading out the fixtures to ensure bigger audiences for each game. What once took two weeks now takes forever.
Since the first leg, Arsenal have flopped in an FA Cup draw at Orient, lost the Carling Cup Final to Birmingham in the 89th minute, and failed to score at home against Sunderland, a team that had lost their four previous Premier League Games.
If that\’s not implosion, I don\’t know what is.
At home to Sunderland on Saturday, Arsenal were robbed.
They didn\’t play in the first half but they were robbed.
It WAS a goal and it was a penalty.
But they also missed three good chances. First half, Arshavin hit the keeper when he might have scored. When Wilshere crossed beautifully from the left, Chamakh jumped and headed away from the keeper with plenty of power but the ball came back of the crossbar. From five yards, from that cross, Chamakh should score.
When Nasri released Arshavin with a fantastic pass from inside his own half, the little man skipped past big Titus Bramble, who panicked and pushed him in the back with both hands as he was about to shoot.
The ref was 40 yards behind the play, being unable able to run as fast as Nasri\’s firm pass. Arshavin stayed on his feet and tried to score but he fired well wide with his left foot.
Replays showed that that stocky Russian had done well to remain as balanced as he did. Arshavin is good enough to score from that angle if he isn’t pushed. And he thought he was good enough to score even after he was pushed, so he didn’t dive.
If he\’d dived, a penalty might have been given.
If the ref isn\’t sure it\’s a penalty, he can\’t give it. But his assistant has to see the push by the desperate defender.
Then Szczesny saved well from Danny Welbeck and Jordan Henderson.
Then Bendtner released Arshavin again on a cleverly-timed run that beat the offside trap, and he rounded Mignolet and slotted. But the flag had gone up.
A classy goal was wrongly disallowed.
As I say, it was a penalty and it was a goal.
Having said all that, Arsenal were dismal in the first half against the enthusiastic pressing of the visitors. Denilson had his worst game ever, although some thought Diaby was even worse.
Yes, two mistakes by officials cost Arsenal the game. But a home game against Sunderland would have been over by then if Arsenal had played in a first half that was everything that Gooners didn\’t want see : a Carling Cup hangover, a tentative Saturday showing just before a big Champions League game.
Great teams play one game at a time.
Champions play one game at a time. Win the next game, that\’s your job. Defenders, keep a clean sheet. That\’s your job, that\’s how you win the next game. Forget about everything else, win the next game. When you\’ve won that game, then win your next game.
Best thing about this game for Arsenal was the clean sheet. That was worth a point on a weekend when Man United lost at Liverpool.
On Friday the manager said, “Sunderland is the big game.”
No, it isn’t.
No, it wasn’t.
His squad lives for the Champions League.
March is a month that often contains big weeks and this is a big week.
Is the team imploding? If so, how long will the implosion last? Will other teams keep doing Arsenal a favour? Could the return of Fabregas end the implosion?
BTW, I gather that Vermaelen\’s op was a success and he\’ll be back. But the scar tissue has caused problems.
Next Saturday it’s Man Utd v Arsenal in the FA Cup, three days before United play Marseilles.
If he plays Almunia or Denilson or Diaby, switch it off.