Team News: Arsenal v. Barcelona

Good line-up indeed, if Cesc and Gallas are (close to) 100%! We've also got the great subs Tomas and Booboo, albeit being a bit light on the defensive side on the bench. Is anyone else a tad worried about the left hand side and hoping Nasri will play there to help Clichy, with Arshavin on the right?

Special dispensation to drop to the bench for Cesc apparently.

Good luck, fellas. For the good of English football-(for this game at least) Up the Arsenal Without Sol Campbell!

Well Cesc is leading them out. So much for the bench. Here goes.

this is desperate stuff..

We give them far too much space indeed Jaelle. Some more scary moments to come I can see. :S

Why oh why? Was Gallas rushed back?!??!??!?!!

Who is that guy in our goal and what did he do with Manuel?

Almunia: zero to hero?

I don't blame AW for taking a gamble on Gallas. You've seen how good the Barca attack is, we needed our strongest defensive lineup. However Gallas didn't look fully fit and has struggled. I think the two injuries could be a blessing in disguise and expect us to look stronger in the second half with Denilson and Eboue on the pitch.

That's it. I'm off. Can't be doing with this. Sick of the same old story :(

they are so good

i mean... they are sooooo good!

Get Thierry on in an Arsenal shirt QUICK.

Also, does this show that Almunia *****s up so much because he's out of the game so much usually? Maybe we need to let the oppenents have 10 shots at goal at the start of every game so he can always play like this?

Season over by 1st April, great. I thought we were better than this. I don't think I have the heart to watch the second half. Wolves will be loving this.

I thought the exact same thing as Rocky, we finally received some of our own medicine. People forget that Barca had the same kind of possession against Chelsea with 10 men and against United in the final last season, there is no embarassement in being outplayed by a team as brilliant as Barca. I rather be outplayed than outBoltoned Apart from being mentally scared from last year and looking very nervous ,the boys out there have done me proud so far. Nasri in particular has looked impressive on the right. Cesc is clearly not fit and perhaps Rosicky would be a good replacement but we only got one sub left and Walcott's pace would be invaluable towards the end of the game when players get tired.

....like that posistioning for example?

ALMUNIA IS SO *****

Does this referee think a slide tackle is a foul??

Oh, ok, there's Manuel. Same guy. *sigh*

Because he isn't a world class keeper. He had a world class performance in the first half, but there's a difference between a world class performance and world class performer.

Howcome, when we dominate possesion, the referee is against us, and when we get dominated in possesion, the referee is against us?

AAARRRRGGGGHHHHH We're 5h!te in the first half yes, but we're also desperately unlucky - with injuries, ref decisions and Nik's attempts!!

How come we play ***** in the first half, don't concede a goal, play much better in the second half, yet we're 1-0 down? I hate football.

How come when f***ers like Birmingham attempt a clearance and it hits the striker, it goes in the goal, but when we do it, it falls nicely to the keeper? I hate football.

Gameover.

Here's an idea Pep, why not bring on Henry to score past us, really break our hearts :(

I can't bear this anymore. Enuf.

Julie .... you're proved wrong on a weekly basis .... lol

OK, Barca are really that good. They indeed are the best team in the world. But this is NOT Arsenal we're watching. The passing is not our passing. Why do we get all starstruck seeing Messi & co?!?!

Nasri off??????? He's been our best player??????

Oh wait, it's Sagna. I do appologised. ESPN showed Nasri running off.

Barca have outplayed you guys for long periods, rather like what Bayern did to ManU yesterday. Almunia - we've seen the nest & worst of him today. I had commented on the Birmingham-Arsenal thread earlier that you guys should get a better keeper, you'll better hope Arsene can see it finally. And i agree the Ref is giving you'll some grief by getting conned by those diving b-as-t-ard-s.

THEO!!

THEOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ....WTFHJFEHASJFASJFASJA S?????????EFJHSAF ...How do you beat Barcelona? An average player with lighting speed?

Lou, if you watch La Liga regularly, we're reacting the way teams there react against Barca. // And as I type that, it's THEOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Please get two more, please.

Brilliant from the Arsenal fans. Give Henry an awesome reception, then boo his first touch. That's the way to do it.

Diaby has been awful in this game, slow and ponderous and constantly caught in posession

I expect he will grab the qualiser tho (",)

Certainly not all 5. The Refs always favour Barca. Maybe instructions from above (Platini) :-)

.........................................

...oh wow

C'MON!!!!!!!!!! ******** GET IN !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cesc injured now? ...That'd be right.

Serves that cheater Puyol right.

Come off Cesc ... it's 10 against 10.

I'm going to have a frigging heart attack this night! Come on! And get the magic sponge out!

Haha Theo, passes to Cesc who can hardly walk.

Good game Ref. Welldone.

Wow, simply wow. You'll never see another match like it

That'll give those cheating b-a-s-t-a-r-d-s something to think about next week. We can do this. 1-0 at Camp Nou. Come on boys!!!!

Lets be honest, the tie is dead. But at least we didnt lose to Barca! So thats good. I just hope Arshavin, Gallas, Fabregas et al arent out for the season..

So: no Pique, Puyol or Cesc at the Camp Nou. My heart can't take much more of this.

Tie is dead my arse. We got to the Nou Camp next week to face a side without it's first choice central defence. You saw what our boys did tonight ..... we got bitch slapped all over the park and they still couldn't beat us. For all their beautiful football it was two Bolton-esque punts up field. Our boys simply don't know when they're beat ..... and I ******** love them for it.

Why the ***** can't we go to the Nou Camp and get a result?! COME ON ARSENAL!!!

Tis is far from dead. Milito and Marquez are laughably bad.

Almunia, Nasri, Theo and Clichy deserve tremendous credit tonight also ... ******** fantastic performances. Almunia might have *****ed up for their first goal, but he made sure we were still in a position to get back into this. Theo changed the game and Sami and Gael were just ******** work horses.

Impressive stuff when you'd looked dead and buried in the first half. Conceding 2 away goals is not great, but on that evidence you shouldn't hold any fear going to the Camp Nou. Fabregas is a huge loss, but they've lost Puyol so it evens itself out. This result should give your team one hell of a lot of belief for the run in in the PL.

also, we can't possibly play worse, right?!?!?! ;-)

So no Puyol, no Cesc, no Pique in the next game? How about Diaby and Song?

What a great game! Tremendous fightback on your part.

Sajit .... Cesc and Arshavin were both ***** tonight. Cesc may have scored the penner, but neither gave much towards the performance. We effectivly did it without them today, we can do it next week. We didn't even play remotely well but still drew with the Champions of Europe .... lol .... I wouldn't belive it if I hadnt watched it. We can beat ANYONE.

Sajit, CHELSEA drew 0-0 okay. Good comeback for you. Positives are Pique and Puyol won't be there and Walcott. Negatives are no Fabregas and you are away.

Sajit, in the sense that watching this Arsenal team keeps my heart doctor busy.

Exactly TP, it can't be worse than the first half! What didn't kill you makes you stronger and all that. COME ON YOU GUNNERS! Their defence isn't unbeatable. And without Puyol and Pique, they ARE beatable!

Surely we can take heart from the fact that Barca can't play much better than they did, and we can't play much worse. We can do this. I believe it.

Correctamundo! Couldn't beat us and we weren't playing as we can? The fear bubble has been popped. I have hope and I believe. Another San Siro like performance. Couldn't be prouder!

We can take Barcelona at the Nou Camp. We won at the San Siro and even at the Bernabeu. We are not a bad team on our travels and without Puyol and Pique, we can mash them up. Theo has to start and Denilson as well.

I definitely choked up a bit as Thierry jogged onto the pitch. Wish he would have 'accidentally' tapped one in on the wrong goal.

I can't tink about this game anymore .... I need a rest. Nighty night.

Great observation ajwb. Even in a game in which he was a passenger for most part, Cesc made a telling contribution. Us facing a makeshift centre back pair at Nou Camp while being even on goals is his gift to us. Hope we value that gift.

What worries me is how many of our players looked like the walking wounded...

Punting the ball for both our goals?? What are u guys smokin? The buildup was good for the 1st one.decent for the 2nd.

Makes no difference that Puyol and Pique are out because the thing with this Barca team is that they're as vulnerable defensively as us but they just don't let you get near the back four, they keep possession ridiculously and then win it back high up. It's a masterful template. Note the difference in workrate between a Messi and Arshavin. Can't see us winning the return leg without the calming influence of Cesc. The only glimmer of hope is that, having been overawed, we can now come out of our shell and go for it. I thought Clichy and Cesc's spirit was amazing tonight.

Exactly right, Fabby. Cesc scored that penalty, grabbed the ball hobbling and immediately focused on getting his troops to resume playing and try to score another one. That kid's god massive cojones! :-D And he's a true blooded gunner!

Man, I almost died tonight! And after 60mins, I thought we'd have to send the reserve team to spain and the first team to get counselling, because they were given a lesson. This must feel like a defeat to Barca. I'm sure it did something for our confidence, as we grew into the game the belief grew. We can beat them without Cesc, he wasn't on form today and gave the ball away a lot. And not having you first choice central defence unsettles any team, make no mistake. Riveting stuff!!

we have them too much respect. they were awesome today, but we made them look way better than what they really are. played too deep, too much space given in the centre, no composure in the central midfield are and surely we can only be better than this in spain. all of them need to watch a tape of this game and analyse themselves. i hope Arsene starts with Eboue and Walcott in spain, cuz without their two first choice centre backs, we are more than a match for them even without Cesc..

diaby was crap today. not seen him play so bad for a while now. need a big game from him, and id start with Rosicky ahead of Arshavin even if Arsha is fit. we need to be patient and keep it tight at the start, not let barca have too much of the ball and i think rosicky will help the fullback a lot more than arsha, also Tomas owes us a big game now without Cesc. whatever happens here, it'll be one hell of a game!!

A very interesting game. It seems to me that we saw a role reversal tonight, of sorts. Barcelona were technically the superior side, and yet Arsenal fought back and ground out an equaliser, which i feel they thoroughly deserved. Arsenal scrapped a point, if you like. And yet:how many times have we seen Arsenal come unstuck against a bunch of cloggers, who get... ahem... a rather dubious penalty? Have any of you stopped to consider the irony of that? I wonder what the Arsenal manager made of the penalty? I tell you what, based on his previous, if it had gone against him he would have been doing his ******** nut!!! So, for the forum to consider: Are you lucky cloggers, or brave warriors? I've no doubt you'll cast yourselves as brave warriors, but in the interests of balance and integrity, i feel very strongly that the inevitable rhetoric should be couched within its context etc. Your players were magnificent in defying the odds, they battled and fought as a way of coping with the deficit in class-and they deserve all the credit in the world. Do you not accept that this is what other teams do against you? Can you not understand why they get upset when you accuse of anti-football?

Dont think anyone here minds teams that play a hard fair game against Arsenal? Chelsea do it everytime we play them and we all accept what they do and how they do it. I didnt see any Arsenal players putting in knee high challenges tonight and nearly every time we fouled a Barca player we got a booking, if that happened in the premiership we would be playing against 9 men every week.

Tony, imo (and I know it's biased), in the last half hour we beat Barca at their own game. We hustled them off the ball, we passed well, the movement was good, we got into good positions and we played as a team. I think that's fantastic after the hammering we got in the first half, especially the first 20 minutes, and going a goal down after 30 sec's in the second half. That's glorious, and apart from some luck on the penalty, where did you see any "clogging"?

Gronedrone, speaking of Messi: Did he not turn up tonight, or did we actually manage to keep him relatively quiet? Is that why he got subbed?

I would actually play walcott on the left and eboue on the right as for me alves might a much better defender than maxwell but he is clumsier and always likely to be to physical for his own good which could bring him a early yellow card and then put him under pressure for the rest of the game but also because walcott running onto through balls would be able to just open his body and curl or shoot with his right foot and not his left . People might be happy with arshavin but he is a match winner in so many ways,because he can score but also create something out of nothing a bit like cesc but he has been unlucky with injuries and no one can question his cause for arsenal as he is played despite not being fully fit for a lot of this year, i would play him down the middle to not have him track back so much,you don't see barce waste messi on the wing anymore because he saves his energy to do some damage in the game. I love bendtner but damn his touch was so poor in the first half,he was one of the main reason why you were put in under so much pressure because the ball was sticking to him and marquez and milito are physical defenders who will be ready for him whereas arshavin movement and clever touches would make them more afraid of getting too close.

If you watch the penalty again Puyol clearly, slyly and knowingly traps Cesc's right leg. Fair call by the ref but it probably wouldn't get called in the PL which tells you more about officiation in the PL. Plenty of cards dished out but while the tackle count was equal for both sides the foul count was only a little more against us than Barca. The fact that the ref was willing to card tackles that would be ignored in the PL shows the different refereeing standards in Europe. Yet there wasn't anything that could by English standards be deemed careless, reckless or using excessive force. This game goes to show that those claiming clamping down on reckless challenges would stop football being a contact sport are wrong.

All I can say is we were lucky to escape real humiliation tonight. Barcelona didn't allow us to play for much of the first half and changed down to a lower gear after going 2-0 up. If we don't learn to close down teams as were were doing at the start of the season we'll be in for a right tonking in spain.

I am honestly gutted. News filtering in says Fabregas' season is over. How much more of this unfairness can we take?

There was nothing even slightly dubious about that penalty, it was a nailed on, dead cert 100% penalty ... and subsequently, sending off. With regards to the "now you know how it feels" sentiment. I completely understand now how it feels to be supporters of other teams frustrated by Arsenal's awesome possession abilities. However, we did not "get a point" by clogging, kicking, intimidating and getting dodgy penalties, we got "a point" we did it by playing football, against a far superior team. A lesson to all perhaps? Yeah maybe not.

Rocky, TRH is a media whore and we should probably ignore him. We did not play dirty, didn't do any tactical fouling, no high challenges and yet some part of the media is saying how we played like Bolton or Stoke last night. Bulls hit

Cesc scoring a pen with a broken leg? Nevermind, legendary status. Cesc has just been elevated to god-like status. Despite the crushing blow of that yellow card to rule him out of the Nou Camp game, he played his heart out for our team. Against Barca. If I hear one more idiot bang on that he's about to leave us for Catalonia, i am going to laugh in their face. THAT was committment last night of the highest order.

"Do you not accept that this is what other teams do against you? Can you not understand why they get upset when you accuse of anti-football? " -- do you understand how utterly pompous and sanctimonious you sound? do you talk like this normally? do you view yourself as some kind of professorial scold whose moral duty it is to show gooners the errors of their ways? who is it that set you up at some kind of moral scold? why is it that you can't express yourself in a way that isn't scolding, lecturing from on high as some kind of judge and jury? do you honestly think that you'll get anyone here to listen to your pompous righteousness and say "oh yes tony, you're so right, tony, we're so chastened by your great moral judgment?" and do you go thru life talking to people like this normally? are you capable of just normal conversation?

Jaelle, if you read back my statements you'll see i have roundly applauded your team. I have my faults like any human being. What i object to is the perpetuation if this idea that you must match Arsenal's philosophy aswell as keep up with the scoreline, and if you don't, they what you deserve is a slating, rather than a bit of common or garden respect: that's all.

Load of bollox that. Arrogant player-snatchers got the smirks wiped off their faces by late counter strike in London- more like.

Tony, when you stop arguing from cliches and stereotypes about us, we'll start to take you seriously.

Tony, honestly, what did you expect when you came on here? Yes, you've been complimentary up to a point but for the most part your posts have been all of one theme: trying to point out our "wrong thinking" about football (admittedly without using insults like so many do) and trying to convince us that our view of things is all wrong, that we're unfair and unjust. What YOU can't handle is that none of us accepts your stereotyped view of the way we think about opponents. As I said, your arguments begin from a cliched premise of our position -- so no one here will credit you for anything.