Brian Dawes
From Avenell Road to Afghanistan, from Blackstock Road to the Black Sea, Canonbury to Canton,Drayton Park Road to Drayton (Queensland, South Carolina, Ontario or North Dakota take your pick), Essex Road to Essen, Finsbury Park to Finland, Gillespie Road to Gibraltar, the Herbert Chapman pub on Holloway Road to Hong Kong, Islington Green to Istanbul, etc etc etc
The Gooner nation celebrates a massive victory, the emergence of Jack onto the world stage and we no doubt picked up a good few thousand new fans across the globe. Those of us lucky enough to be there are still beaming from ear to ear like idiots whilst looking for throat pastels and the chloraseptic.
Barcelona had by far the most of the possession and closed us very well indeed, but football is a ninety minute game and they charged around way too much too early. No doubt they are used to pressurising Spanish sides and squeezing them to death at the same time as they steam-roller their defenders. We however covered pretty well, worked hard but didn't waste the same amount of energy. We paced our game, we were patient and only partially because we had to be. Either that or we are actually fitter which I somehow doubt. More probably we're just used to playing high pressure football week in and week out. Barca are usually able to get ahead, stay ahead and watch their opponents capitulate whereupon they can then ease off, stroll around the pitch pinging passes at will. I suspect they thought they could do that to us and to a certain extent they did. But what we didn't do was roll over and wave the white flag in the manner that Real did in their 5-0 drubbing. Our players know a game lasts ninety minutes, they know they will get chances and they now know they are good enough to match Barca move for move. They know we can turn defence into attack very effectively. They believe.
What Barca did was what Arsenal have often been guilty of in the past, they outplayed us for long spells at times but they didn't out score us. They didn't out play us in our box. We did for them when the game became stretched, when they could no longer close as quickly. We did them because we really, really believed we could. And now we know we can, the mental edge gained last night is massive. Massive. It's not just about the away leg its about what the team now know about themselves. More importantly the whole world knows we have a squad capable of seeing off FC Barcelona and that fear factor in future may well be enough in some games when all else stands equal. Certainly Barcelona could have been more than one goal up, but we too could have been ahead in the game and had that been the case I really do wonder if they would have coped as well as we did. Or would they have burned up even more energy chasing the ball whilst we pinged it about?
The core of the Barca team has peaked together to become the world's best, anyone who doubts that doesn't know football. They are still a supreme side and still favourites. Arsenal have yet to reach their peak. When our boys have been playing together as long as their World Cup stars we will be as good as Barca. This is what Wenger has believed, this is what Wenger has understood all along, this has been his game plan. It matters not what we won last season, or even what we might win this season, when you create an ultimate work of art it doesn't matter how long it takes. Michelangelo was lucky - no one was nagging him because it took him four years or more to complete the Sistine Chapel ceiling. He wasn't taunted by the media or his own followers, he knew what he wanted to achieve and he saw it through.
Arsene doesn't get it 100% right, no one does. But he has always considered the health of our Club short term, medium term and most importantly long term. His long term beliefs have been justified because the vast majority of this particular team have been at the Club for years. No matter where they may have come from: Fabregas, Szczesny, Eboue, Clichy, Djourou, Wilshere, Song, van Persie and Walcott - they are all Arsenal men now. They used to be Arsenal boys.
