45 minute episode of Fawltless Manuel saves Arsenal. Report and player ratings
ARSENAL 2 BARCELONA 2
FROM GOODPLAYA AT THE EMIRATES
After the game Pep Guardiola said: “The first 45 minutes was the best my team has played.”
Well that’s some comfort I suppose, so long as they don’t surpass it Usain Bolt style in the second leg.
You don’t need me to tell you it was brilliant stuff. 75% their awesomeness and probably 25% us in awe of them and giving them far too much time and space. You might well argue the former pre-empts the latter.
That said, I’m not sure you can call us fortunate as such. Fortune is when only chance or the failings of others stops you from conceding. You can argue Xavi should have done far better with his headed chance in the second half, but other than that I can’t remember one instance where we were actually that lucky. I do however, remember many a time when our last line of defence defended very well.
So take a bow Manuel Almunia. Nobody calls Chelsea lucky when Cech digs them out of a hole and so I don’t see why Manuel’s brilliance should be put down to luck.
Indeed, you could even argue (don’t laugh here) that the only time a keeper was beaten in that quite extraordinary first half was when Nasri’s shot flashed wide of Valdes’ post.
I readily acknowledge Barca’s brilliance but I do think too that we gave them far too much space at times. Take one short corner, where we declined to send over two men. That’s basic, nothing to do with playing Barca. In the second half the likes of Gael Clichy snapped in on them and while they still, frankly, were bloody good on the ball, we did get a lot more joy.
Off the top of my head I can count three great saves early on from Almunia and for not once you could any great issue with the Barcelona finishing.
Arsene has previously admonished himself for rushing players back to fitness and yet miraculously all those with fitness doubts were ready to play. Brilliant as Cesc is, him at half pelt doesn’t really work. Equally, were Gallas and Arshavin so crucial to our plans that there were no alternatives?
But it’s difficult. In hindsight you could argue that we should have started with Walcott’s raw pace because trying to out trick Barcelona was never going to happen. And yet how many of us would actually have plumped for Theo? You can argue quite fairly that Eboue should have started in midfield and yet who would have dropped Arshavin or Nasri?
I think it worth noting too that we’ve been notoriously slow starters this season. Were our first 15 minutes goalscoring replicated across the 90 minutes we’d have 12 odd in all since August. In fact we have around 106 in total.
And we also seem to have, as I’ve noted before, incredible stamina that still largely goes unnoticed. I think you can argue, with some justification that it was hardly unlike us to finish last night’s game strongly when maybe, just maybe, Barca were beginning to finally flag a little.
When it came, their opener was shoddy from our point of view. The defence getting split is understandable when you’re up against Barca but Manuel Almunia really achieved nothing by charging out – except giving their man a chance to apply a not too difficult finish. Don’t get me wrong, he did far more good than bad last night but that was a bad misjudgement.
The second was brilliantly taken. Great stuff. Except not for us.
You looked at the bench and our one remaining substitution opportunity and really you couldn’t see Eduardo or Rosicky adding anything we didn’t already have. You had to go for the Theo wildcard because at 2-0 it was dead.
Before long it was 2-1. Great pass from Bendtner and Theo hit it hard and low. Not great keeping maybe but it was low and on target from close range.
And then 2-2 followed. I haven’t seen the replay of the incident but we deserved something off a ref who really was winding us up. As I’ve said before, Puyol’s punishment of a red card and suspension on top of the penalty seems incredibly harsh.
At 2-2 we will probably have to win in the Nou Camp. Had we notched one more in those closing minutes, Barca would have had to beat us in the second leg.
So, conclusions:
- We were either incredibly unfortunate with injuries or else players wrongly declared themselves fit and or the manager wrongly decided to play them.
- Barca were beautiful on the eye on the night but also worked incredibly hard. I know it’s easier done when you’re chasing far less often, but it was notable.
- Moving Song to centre-back was an interesting call when Gallas went off. Not sure it worked but you can see why he went for it.
- Great goalkeeping is not lucky.
- We also put in a couple of very decent blocks.
- We did either score or come very close to it four times.
- We showed tremendous character.
- The fans played their part in lifting the team.
- We will miss Cesc in the Nou Camp but a half fit Cesc can sometimes upset our balance a little. They will be missing their central defensive pairing.
- So now we know a little bit what it’s like being any one of a number of teams playing against Arsenal: great football, loads of chances, somehow missed etc etc etc…
I’m hesitant to give player ratings because I’m not certain about all of them, so forgive me if any of these stink.
Almunia gets 9 because the error that led to the goal wouldn’t have mattered without him saving us with three really top, top saves early on. Sagna (6.5) ploughed on and I do detect a slight crossing improvement. Vermaelen (6) looked guilty on the goals, Gallas (6.5) fine while he lasted, Song (6) never at his best in either midfield or defence and Clichy (8) excellent taking us forward and upping the pressure after the break. Really good performance from him.
Cesc (6) was quiet, Diaby (6) was not as bad as some have said to me but did give it away a lot, while Denilson (7.5) I think actually did pretty well. One arch critic of his even described him as “outstanding”. Eboue (6.5) struggled initially I thought to have his usual impact but grew into the game. Arshavin (5.5) it didn’t happen for at all, Nasri (7) looked dangerous but did leave Clichy very exposed at times and Bendtner (7) had a very decent second half and was not really that much at fault for the header he saw saved.
Theo (7.5) scared Barca.
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