Benjamin Cullen
"Just like last year, we leave here with a bittersweet taste in our mouths, said Dani Alves after Wednesday’s game. For the second year running ‘The Emirates Stadium’ servedBarcelona the ‘sweet’ first, and some London pride inspired ‘bitter’ afterwards.
Nicklas Bendtner suggested that the reason behind Arsenal’s late come-back was that Barcelona had “got a little bit tired”. Which led many journalists to question whether Barcelona actually struggle to keep pace with Arsenal’s youthful squad. Xavi Hernández was quick to dismiss these suggestions, however, saying “there's no problem physically – I think we're in good shape."
And Xavi is right of course, Barcelona are undoubtedly in great physical condition: week in, week out they press and harry their opponents from the first moment to the last ( something an out-of-shape team could never dream of doing). But it’s arguable that in Arsenal Football Club, Barcelona encounter a rival that stretches their resources and defences maybe that bit further than they’re accustomed to, or comfortable with even.
Barça, according to UEFA, had 61% percent of the possesion in last Wednesday’s game, which at first glance suggests Barça were able to play their normal ‘keep possession’ game. However, although Arsenal had less of the possesion on the night. Importantly, in achieving almost 40% possesion, Arsenal managed to ‘up the ante’ 10% higher than Barcelona are used to in their league games (on January 21st 2011 Opta Stats revelaled Barcelona were averaging 72% possession.) and a massive 16% higher than any of Barça’s other Champions League opponents: Barcelona averaged 77% possession in matches in the group stages of the Champions League !
But Arsenal didn’t only force Barca to chase for longer than they’re used to; but chase faster too! Arsenal’s fast passing style of play, and wealth of quick, athletic players ( not least Theo Walcott ) enable them to play at a pace few clubs are able to emulate, and possibly one that Barcelona struggle to keep up with.
Because although Xavi doesn’t think it’s ‘a problem’ he does say that ‘in the last minutes, their counter-attacks hurt us’, which in itself suggests tired legs, as does Dani Alves’ admission that Barça ‘suffered on the break’ (an interesting choice of words?).
But Alves also described Arsenal as ‘very intense’ by which he was likely to be referring to that other facet of Arsenal’s game which put further strain on his side. José Mourinho often talks of ‘resting with the ball’ which is something Barcelona are usually able to do for long periods of the game. But on Wednesday night, Arsenal pressed Barcelona every bit as hard as they themselves were pressed, meaning that Barça were never able to drop their intensity or work-rate, neither with the ball, nor without it.
But whereas Barça faded in the final moments, Arsenal seemed to go only from strength to strength. Perhaps playing in the Premiership-and maybe even Arsenal’s own difficulties in killing matches off- have prepared Arsenal better to ‘go the distance’.
Whether they’ll be able to go the whole mile and go through, well, we’ll just have to wait and see. But the evidence of the first leg suggests, the longer they can hold on, the more the odds will swing in their favour.
Twitter:@benvenceremos
