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Barcelona 4 Arsenal 1 - Welcome to the Messi show.
well okay, we won't be making champions league history this year but it's not all doom and gloom is it?
last night proved to that even in the most difficult circumstances and regardless of the situation, we're up for the fight. i mean barcelona are the european and world champions. some teams would have gone there trying to play for the 0-0 for 89 minutes and then nick a goal at the death and if we had have done that, us arsenal fans would have no complaints cos a clean sheet and that one goal would have been perfect. come on though, this is my arsenal fc who i adore and know so well, we can't play for 0-0, so i pretty mich knew we'd go there goal hungry.
only a few minutes in, we were showing that barcelona aren't only ones who can play beautiful football and then i can't believe my eyes, i see theo sprinting with the ball and then giving it to nicklas bendtner and then.. and then.. BARCELONA 0 ARSENAL 1 if i'm dreaming, don't wake me up.
for three minutes, i was living in a fantasty world. i wasn't quite prepared for this and an even bigger surprise was that we had added an extra physical element to our game. we were no longer the pushovers or the soft lads from london. we were actually tackling! (not always succesfully though) not something i'm used to if i'm being honest.
for a short perioid of time, our attacking players were bossing the game and looking alive, whereas the defence were beginning to lose the plot. for the last 25 minutes of the first half defended poorly and without giving our players excuses, did you see who we playing against?!
adjectives fail me when it comes to messi. sensational? world class? execeptional? all these and more. as i'm watching, i find myself holding my breath and waiting to see what magic he creates next. i wouldn't say he's the best player that ever lived because i think it's incredibly hard to choose out of plauers of such quality but he's up there for sure.
our wounded defence had to deal with bojan and pedro who are very promising and quick young players, as well as the brilliant messi. the quality of the barca forward three illustrated that this year, at this moment, we're not able to compete at that level, we don't have the options available that they do.
they coped with their injuries and suspensions by bringing in extremely talented replacements, we did not, we couldn't cope with the loss of so many players.
as the match carried on, their attacking players shone and our faded into the background and at times, became spectators like the rest of us.
on occasions, we did show promise but unfourtunately those moments were far too rare. an excellent and exciting run by gael clichy, my heart started beating a bit faster but the thought of a comeback was destroyed just 30 seconds after it was born.
nicklas bendtner was getting as frustrated as the arsenal fans at the nou camp and back home. the midfield weren't creating anything for him. maybe we could have swapped midfields at half time to give us a chance?
even when the barcelona players were more relaxed, they still looked so comfortable in possesion, i was green with envy.
so in simple terms, we were outplayed and outclass. they were pretty damn brilliant and we were nothing special. what really hurts is that i know we're capable of so much more and that our performance at the nou camp doesn't reflect all our efforts in the competition this season.
i'm praying now that we can build on this defeat and hopefully, we can take our frustration out on tottenham hotspur.
yes i'm upset and heartbroken but football has broken my heart on various occasions and i'm not dead yet and neither's our season. we're not dead or finished either.
even though tonight we suffered a heavy defeat, my lads never gave up and they'll have no idea how much that means to me.
so come on the arsenal, the premier league could still be ours, so lets not this slip away from us. a nice 5-0 win against spurs will mend my broken heart ♥
so maybe if we do go another season without a trophy, people will give up on us. but don't you worry arsenal fc, you're not getting rid of me. you're pretty much stuck with me FOREVER.
