On Thursday the mainstream media reported that Arsenal drew 2-2 with the best team in the world.
It was a thrilling game in which Wenger’s youngish team was almost annihilated. But they fought back from 2-0 down.
Unfortunately, it looks like the manager’s last hurrah.
He has no squad, no cover. Down to the bare bones, Wenger had to pick three crocks for his biggest game of the season. Gallas and Arshavin were not fully fit and Fabregas was playing on one leg.
Now Fabregas has a cracked fibula and that takes six weeks to heal. Gallas and Arshavin are out for at least three weeks with calf injuries.
Pep Guardiola’s game-plan was to overwhelm Arsenal with ferocious pressing, taking the ball off them in their own half.
He turned on a whirlwind machine that generated 11 shots in the first 29 minutes. Barcelona tried to blow Arsenal away and almost did. Nasri had Arsenal’s only shot in that period, a bender than fizzed two feet past the post. That 23rd minute effort gave Arsenal a lift they needed.
Swiss referee Massimo Busacca was clueless and missed a clear penalty for a foul by Clichy on Messi in 27 minutes.
Almunia made five good saves and somehow half-time came with the score still at 0-0.
Barcelona are dazzling with the ball but the way they played without the ball was outstanding. They hunted in fours and tackled in pairs, won the ball back, and pinged it around in varied triangles to create incisive attacks.
For the 20 minutes they gave an astounding display of the football that Wenger thinks his team plays. That was a big statement that no other team could have made. No other team in history has ever outplayed Arsenal at home with such high-tempo pressing and passing. Pressing is attacking when you don’t have the ball and this was a phenomenal demonstration of it.
MESSI was little seen after the first 20 but played quite busily within the team pattern, roaming in centrefield, making decoy runs, leaving the right flank to the indefatigable Dani Alves, who is not as fast now as he was at Sevilla .
Barcelona are a team of smart footballers who play in dynamic triangles. Their 4-3-3 template is unique and has been developed over decades since Johann Cruyff was the coach in 1988-96. Their style is made possible by smart players applying their skill to a very efficient but flexible team pattern which now gives a roaming central role to Messi, with Pedro and Ibra interchanging on the right side. Their collective intelligence can be applied to every game and every phase of every game. Xavi is the kingpin, the playmaker, a scrum-half in an eleven man sport.
William Gallas had been out for seven weeks and only had four days training, so he was playing from memory.
I read that his warm-up did not include kicking the ball. How could he be out there? He hadn’t played since February 10 but he was suddenly ready for a quarter-final against the world champions. How could that be? Does Gallas have a clause in his contract that he has to play all Champions League games?
His calf injury recurred after 40 and it took four minutes to get Denilson on and during those four minutes Fabregas tackled Busquets and got the yellow card that put him out of the second leg.
Arshavin didn’t fancy it and made an untypically gross tackle on Busquets and limped off soon after. The Russian has looked disillusioned for the last two months. He was one of the world’s finest players but has become ordinary.
Diaby was bewildered and out of his depth, the worst player on the field.
Second half, Denilson, on for Gallas, was tenacious and tidy and had his best game for Arsenal.
He should have started, not Diaby. He could play in La Liga.
It’s a game of partnerships and Song and Vermaelen do not have one. They are strangers. No communication. Only Sol talks.
So the Arsenal defence parted like the Red Sea to allow Ibrahimovic to run onto Pique’s long pass and lob over Almunia, who came, stopped and tried to go back. If you come out, keep going, try to put the striker off, don’t freeze in no-man’s land, you berk.
Second goal, Song didn’t react at all to Xavi’s crafty, flat aerial pass as Vermaelen inexplicably stepped closer to Messi. Amazingly, Song stood there for an eternity of seconds, as if Ibra was nothing to do with him, moving at last for a closer view of the Swede smashing his shot inside the near post. Ibra’s goals came in 46 and 59.
Song did all his best work in the box at the other end, as a midfielder helping out his defence.
That’s what he’s good at. He can cover you, react to tackles and mop up. A centreback is a different animal to a midfield workhorse because he has to see a bigger picture, to anticipate danger, to react to spaces and movements, to make a big decision before the ball comes. Song can’t do that yet. He might be able to do it in 2015.
At 2-0, Barcelona relaxed and were punished when sub Theo Walcott raced inside Maxwell for Bendtner’s pass and side footed low past Valdes to make it 1-2.
Bendtner had missed at easy header at 1-0 but now, in 84, he headed square to Fabregas, who read the situation cutely, won a penalty off Puyol. The quick-thinking captain put himself where the other captain had to clatter into him. A clumsy challenge, a tangle of legs, a clear penalty. The red card for Puyol was harsh.
Fabregas composed himself and smashed the penalty past Valdes. I knew he would not miss. He has a level of determination that is comparable to Graeme Souness, a European champion. But he should be playing in team that knows how to defend and employs a proven international goalkeeper.
Does this 2-2 draw keep alive Arsenal’s hopes in the Champions League?
Not really. Barcelona will win in the Nou Camp on Tuesday night. Everyone knows that, including Wenger.
Was this, at last, a Big Night at the Emirates?
Well, it was a pulsating quarter-final first leg and a comeback that left most Gooners quite happy, relieved and proud. Their team had held the world champions to a 2-2 draw after staring into the abyss. They had been humiliated for 20 minutes and had gone 2-0 down after 60 .
When the European champions started to cruise, and stopped pressing in pairs and trios, sub Theo Walcott changed the game, scoring in front of Fabio Capello to ensure his place on the England plane to South Africa. He will be England’s supersub. Walcott has only played 90 minutes twice this season.
Pep gave Henry a tiny cameo of 15 minutes.
As I say, Wenger has no squad, no cover. He doesn’t have enough players to play Birmingham on Saturday, Barcelona on Wednesday, Wolves on Saturday, and Barcelona again next Tuesday night. His season looks almost over now, following the 1-1 at Birmingham and this 2-2.
SUMMARY OF 2009-2010 : Wenger’s actions have told us that he could only compete on two fronts, not four. He knew he didn’t have the depth for four competitions, so he chucked the Carling Cup and the FA Cup to concentrate on the CL and the EPL.
But he did not give himself enough bodies to fight for those two. If he played Sol Campbell at Birmingham, he couldn’t play the 35-year old against Barcelona. And if he plays Sol against Wolves, he can’t play him in the Nou Camp. He has no cover. He has no squad. End of story, end of season.
A few weeks ago Wenger told us that his side have been written off by the media but have “over-achieved this season.”
Over-achieved? He is managing London’s biggest club and he thinks no trophies for five years is over-achieving?
In 2009, Barcelona won La Liga, the league cup, the Kings Cup, the Champions League, the Super Cup and the World Club Cup. Six trophies in a calendar year but their team can still play as hungrily as if they’ve won nothing.
Barcelona’s desire, the collective appetite that won those six trophies, is still there. It’s not as strong as it was, and they show some signs of burn-out, but there are still big prizes to motivate them. No club has ever retained the Champions League. To do that Barcelona might have to beat Inter Milan and Manchester United.
I bet Pep Guardiola never tells his team they’ve over-achieved.