Joseph Winter
I genuinely believe the Barca defeat may be the best thing for Arsenal, giving us a far greater chance to go on and win the league and maybe the double. Obviously, in an ideal world, we would have beaten Barca and gone on win the Champions League at Wembley. But that was always a dream. And the quadruple was never really going to happen.
We have looked exhausted - mentally and physically - in recent weeks because we have been playing so many high pressure matches in the four competitions. As a consequence, our players have been dropping like flies - one or two serious injuries to key players each match. Had we got through in Barcelona, that would have been at least two more huge matches, which would have meant we'd be distracted the league match before and knackered the match afterwards.
Now, we have ten games left - with just one or two in midweek. Win those and we are champions. Simple. Alright, not simple but doable - it's in our hands. And more likely without two, or even four, massive Europeans games in the middle.
And the priority is obvious - no more messing about with which players do we rest for which games - we play our strongest available team at all times. It could be argued that this is what helped the Chavs win the double last year - they went out of the Champions League earlier than the Mancs and were fresher in the crunch game at Old Trafford which decided the title. It also means we can take the FA Cup seriously - get a result at Old Trafford and we've got a massive chance to win the thing.
Equally, tell all yours Spurs mates, they may have beaten Milan but they'll win nothing this year and won't even qualify for the Champions League next season - partly because it is so hard to fight on two high-pressure fronts.
Yes, the team will be feeling down now but in the cold light of day, a narrow defeat to the best team in the world is no shame, or reason to lose that brittle self-confidence of ours.
Especially when we can blame the ref.
Over to you Arsene.
Stop moaning, take the positives from the result and let's go and win the league.
Then the season will have been a massive success.
(Ed’s note, recently we ran a piece on a charity auction to win a place in the starting XI of the Arsenal Ex-Pro and Celebrity match taking place at Bushey Sports Club on Sunday 27 March. The auction ends this Saturday at 6pm and if you are interested in turning out for Arsenal, there’s still time to bid. Full details (and also details of how to get in to watch free) can be found here. All for a great cause. Plug over!)
