Ok… That was a lot to take in. I’m still having a hard time realizing what I witnessed last night. Football, if anything, is sometimes like a roller-coaster. The spectrum of emotions through twist and turn was complete: despair, rage, hope, elation, joy, sadness… Apart from marriage and parenting, what else can elicit such? I know not.

If Barcelona set out to send a message, it was well and duly received from the first touch. They attacked in waves… one after the other, ceaselessly. After ten minutes, despair set in. There was simply no way that my side could withstand this for another… eighty minutes? The first ten felt like an hour. Our spotty defense this season simply could not withstand such. Ibrahimovich, Messi, Busquets, Xavi… it would be a shorter list to name the Barcelona players not taking shots on our goal. But… we held. Manuel Almunia did more in that first half than I’ve seen him do since he first pulled on Arsenal strip. His efforts were positively heroic. And he was in good company, as it seemed our entire squad were on defense, struggling against the onslaught.

It took about 23 minutes to start showing some edge on offense. Samir Nasri nearly curled one in from the left at 23′ and Niklas Bendtner, although offside, again nearly opened the scoring at 37′. The match began to open, and both sides were showing threat. That we went off the pitch at the half with no score, either for or against, was utterly unbelievable. People who doubted the pre-match hype now stood slack-jawed, as did I.

War wounds. Andrey Arshavin, then William Gallas, both went off the pitch with injuries. Gallas is now officially out for the season. Emmanuel Eboue and Denilson came on. Thomas Vermaelen went down in the area with what looked like a knock to the head, but being as tough as he is, he recovered. Five yellow cards handed to our players, the worst to Cesc Fabregas which would have ruled him out for the second leg. The official certainly did not seem to be having a good match, and we were taking the brunt of it, physically and mentally. Allow me to crank up my broken record player: officiating in this sport is killing it for me.

In the second half, the tide turned… and slammed us in the teeth. Not thirty seconds in, and Ibrahimovich came up the right and lobbed the rushing then retreating Almunia to get Barca’s first. It seemed to be a poor decision on the keepers part, or yet another breakdown in defensive communication. The look on Almunia’s face after the goal could melt steel.

At 53′ Niklas Bendtner missed an excellent chance to equalize by heading directly at the keeper. Somehow, it felt like we could still claw our way back into the match. But then, Ibrahimovich put in the other half of his brace at 59′ and  the rage set in. In all honesty, I lost hope at that point. The battering we took in the first half just seemed to be justified by these two goals and I simply gave up… for the first time this season. I resolved to sit back and watch, and just let it happen.

But then, substitution of the season, Theo Walcott came steaming up the right, took a brilliant pass into the box and slammed a shot in off the keeper to put us back in striking distance. That brought the hope back. The tide felt like it was yet again going to turn. And it did. At 84′ Cesc went streaming into the box to get us an equalizer, got entangled with Puyol and went down. The official pointed to the spot and produced a red card for Puyol, elation and joy respectively. Little did we know that we were both going down to ten men in that one stroke. Cesc took the PK and leveled us, but that may not just be his last contribution to the tie, but his last of the season. Scans aren’t in yet, but he suspects he has broken his fibula, either in the collision with Puyol or striking the PK thereafter. I really do hope he’s wrong in his self-diagnosis. I’m not sure if it was the opposition or the pain, but I took notice that Cesc did not celebrate his goal. Seeing him limp around the pitch the rest of the match brought on the sadness. Our captain may be gone for the rest of the campaign.

Update: Dr. Cesc was right. It’s a fractured fibula.

Still, hope remained. Arsenal seemed to be in ascendancy. If we had another five minutes I think we could have actually won. Whatever becomes of this team this season, whatever they do or do not win or lose… I can always point to this match and know, believe… that no one else could have done it. No one. No other team could have withstood that sort of beating, and have the heart and the desire to come from behind and get the draw. Limping, bleeding, staggering… but not down. I’m saddened by our lost players, but I couldn’t be more proud of my Arsenal today.

Not quite the double digit goal-fest that some were expecting, but a good solid performance from the squad, a fair scoreline and the required three points. I wasn’t quite comfortable throughout the match, even at 2-1, with Chris Eagles on the pitch. When the ex-Manc is on his game, he can cause problems for just about any defense. How funny is it though,  that his name is Eagles, he has sharp angular features like a bird, and went so far as to underline these facts by doing a bird dance of some sort with Nugent and Co. after their goal? Squawk?

Speaking of their goal… whiskey tango foxtrot, Defense? It was a great header from one of their boys to put our clearance right into Nugent’s path. His shin pad chip over the Spanish Mule Deer in the headlights Manuel Almunia was well played, but I don’t think even Nugent thought that ball was going in. Almunia seemed to be calling for offsides for some reason, spent a crucial second waving his arms around, then reacted far too late to do anything about the shot. He seemed to leap for it long after it went in. Not that he got any help from the central defense on that one. They were merely bystanders. So, yet another stupid goal leaked when we should have had a clean sheet.

No matter, because we still managed three excellent goals, each one quite fun to look at in replay. I wound up finally getting a copy of the match at nearly midnight. It was decent quality, but the commentary was in Russian. Interesting, I have to say. I was my own commentator in my head. Cesc’s goal was a thing of stark elegance. It started with some excellent footwork by Samir Nasri, who then had the balls of stainless steel prerequisite to then chip not one, two or three, but five Burnley defenders and drop the ball in the one and only place where that play could have worked: exactly in front of the right foot of Cesc Fabregas, who made the ensuing nutmeg of their keeper look like he does this each day. Lovely.

Theo Walcott answered his critics of late, with an overall excellent effort throughout the match, but capped with a lovely little run from the right corner of the 18-yard box, dancing along the line toward the center to shake off the defense and powered  left footed shot into the far side of the goal. Professional. He did some sort of gesture pointing to the empty place on his wrist where there’s usually a £25k watch as he ran over to one of the trainers. Not sure what that meant. It’s “Theo Time”? I sure hope so. More of that, please.

Andrey Arshavin, who came on late in the match, was disappointed that he was not able to make goal any quicker than 30 minutes on the pitch. But when he did, it was a doozy. While his teammates seemed satisfied to jerk around with the ball near the Burnley corners to burn off the clock at 2-1, Andrey simply wasn’t having that shit. He plowed in, stole the ball from that mess, powered toward goal and positively threaded a fucking needle at the near post. I’ve watched the replay several times now and I still can’t see how that ball went in. It seems to go through the post. Accuracy. His celebration said it all. “2-1 isn’t enough, 3-1 is better. 20 more minutes on pitch, I make goal maybe three more times.” Please see out your career with us, Andrey, you Lilliputian beauty.

Niklas Bendtner… yes, he missed a lot of chances. But, man… do I ever like this guy’s work ethic. He is reallly putting in the effort out there. He could have put five goals in yesterday if the winds were blowing in his favor, but alas… it was one of those days. It was nice to see that the fans recognized him for that, too. I think we have yet to see the best from Nik, so I hope he stays in an Arsenal shirt so we get to watch him bloom. He’s close.

Speaking of fans… those banners for Aaron Ramsey were a matter of pure excellence. The Setanta feed I had started a good few minutes early, even before the Elvis song, and they kept showing close-up shots of the One Aaron Ramsey, the Arseblog Do It For Aaron and the other Do It for Rambo banners. And, the players walking from the tunnels in the Get Well Soon, Aaron shirts was a nice touch of class. Well done, Gooners. Well done.

The only other downside of the match is that they took Cesc off pretty early with a potential hamstring issue. I sincerely hope it was a preventative measure, with one eye on the Porto match. I suppose we’ll hear by Monday if he is to play. To lose Cesc for any length of time now would be awful, but the boys carried on quite well without him yesterday. All in all, a great showing by the Gunners. Let’s keep that momentum going and force the other two horses in this race to be on their toes (hooves?) in they want to keep us from overtaking them.

As far as the performance goes from last night, well… it’s all been said. Our goalkeeping situation is nothing short of shocking. I know for a fact that both Almunia and Fabianski are better than what they’ve shown of late, but for some unknown reason… neither of them are stepping up. Can Arsenal afford to wait any longer to do anything about it?

As for the shit officiating… are we surprised? I’m not. At least he was consistently bad on both sides of the ball. And, have you ever seen so much diving? It was worse than playing a pack of Italians. I don’t believe that video review during a game would be a good thing. It would slow the game down. But, why can’t we have post match reviews for blatant cheating? We have some review for spurious goals and such, so why not video review after the fact when someone dives? Fucile could be given a nice three game ban for trying to deceive the official.

But, there’s another situation brewing that concerns me deeply. Cesc Fabregas. As a player, I love him. He’s not on his absolute best form just now, but as an attacking midfielder, there’s very few who could fill his shoes. My concern is over him as a captain. I get the feeling it’s not going so well. I was as happy as anyone when he was given the armband, and I really do want him to stay and be successful with the club. Yet, on several occasions now, I’ve seen him show his displeasure with the team in a most un-captainly way. Of course, the team has given him plenty of reason to be upset of late. But to me, an extremely important quality of a captain, in my opinion, is to inspire. And a side being beaten and making mistakes all over the pitch needs that inspiration more than anything. Yet, I don’t see it coming from Cesc. Actually, quite the opposite. The latest example was last night, after a blown corner from the left, Cesc’s reaction toward Bendtner said it all. Did he offer advice? Did he try to encourage? No. He berated Bendtner, who I might add probably had a better game than Cesc, like he was a child. And the manner in which he did was the furthest thing from inspirational. He was petulant, derisive, condescending, even insulting. Those are not good qualities to have in a captain. You’re certainly not going to get your best performance out of your players that way. Especially not when they’re already on the backfoot. And, Bendtner is one of the few players out there who seems like he really wants it! He’s running his ass off trying to make something happen, and he gets shit from Cesc. Where was this sort of reaction when Wutang popped two goals into our own net for Porto? Maybe he just doesn’ get on with Bendtner? Perhaps it’s a sign of his own immaturity? Perhaps, and rightly so, he’s a bit frustrated and dreaming of his triumphant return to Barcelona. But, why belittle your teammates? By all means, get angry at them, show them how pissed off you are and how much you require them to turn things around. But condescension and schoolboy reactions won’t get that out of anyone. Lead by example, and grow up a bit first.

It’s going to be an interesting summer. *sigh*

So what started out to be quite the tussle, ended in a rout. And a more deserved rout I’ve never witnessed.

I’ll start with what pretty much every other blogger is talking about. Was it worth the risk Cesc Fabregas to bring him in? When I first saw him limping, I thought no. But in hindsight, I think it was. That being said, I also feel that we were probably on our way to scoring had he remained on the bench. We had the momentum. You could see a massive improvement after the break. Was it another pep talk from the boss? From the captain? We may never know. But we transformed from a side that played well in the first half, to one that played great in the second. The attacking on the ball was just ruthless. As in, completely without Ruth. Whoever she might happen to be.

Aston Villa had their share of threats in the first half, but we pretty much shut down their efforts in the second. Manuel Almunia, when he had something to do, did it well. The back four were a wall. Not the tallest wall in the league, but a wall just the same. Andrey Arshavin was having a somewhat subdued match, but still played well. He doesn’t seem to have bad days. Have you noticed? He’s either good or great. Abou Diaby put in yet another very impressive performance. Could he be the next on the team to completely revamp his outlook? He’s certainly on his way. On that note, we’ve come to expect excellence from Alex Song, and once again, he did not fail to deliver. He will be sorely missed when he’s off to the ACN next week. I wish him success there as well as good health, but secretly hope his side get dumped as soon as can be managed. Come back to us soon, Alex.

At 57′ Cesc Fabregas came on for Denilson, who also looked pretty decent. He immediately made an impact, simply by being on the pitch. He’s a defender magnet. Within seven minutes, he was fouled about seven yards outside the area. He stepped up to take the shot, and curled it over the wall and into the left side of the net past Friedel at full stretch. 1-0 to the Arsenal. The celebration in the corner with the fans was a thing of beauty. At this point, Song seemed to be playing forward a bit more, with Cesc hanging back. I’m wondering if this was intentional to minimize risk of re-injury to his hamstring.

At 81′, Milner dumps the ball directly to Armand Traore, who decided to pop a huge diagonal up to Theo Walcott on the right side. Theo outstrips his man, as he’s wont to do, and slides the perfect pass in front of the onrushing Cesc Fabregas who simply belts it into the right side past Friedel, yet again. Job done. But… Cesc is now limping. He put a lot into that run to get into position and looks to have aggravated his hamstring at the least. Hopefully it’s not serious and he’ll be back soon. Luckily, the upcoming fixture schedule is somewhat kind to us, so hopefully he can find the time to heal up. No offense to Portsmouth, West Ham et al, but these are definitely the fixtures we want to have in light of our over-crowded treatment room.

Cesc goes off at 84′ for Aaron Ramsey to come out and Aston Villa appear to have been stunned. The defense is positively knackered as Abou Diaby takes the ball in the center circle at 91′, dances his way up to the area and puts in our third. A lovely shot from a man who is making his case to be included in every start. 3-0, match over.

It felt good beating Villa after recent experience with them. It felt good knowing they were beginning to fancy themselves giant killers, having done in the rest of the supposed Top Four. It felt good beating Martin O’Neill after his shenanigans last time around. He’s a fun character to frustrate. Aston Villa had previously scored in nearly every match since the season began, but left Ashburton Grove with nothing. No goals, no points… nothing. Apart from a sore ass, that is. An ass that, I’m quite sure Rafa Benitez and his men will enjoy taking up the task of plugging, when they come to visit Villa Park later today. Big fun.

So, we’re off to Fratton Park tomorrow. Given the travails of Portsmouth lately, it’s reasonable to expect full points from the match. Especially given the high we’re riding and the 2-0 whipping they took from the Hammers recently. And, if Wigan somehow pulls off a draw or even *gasp* a win over United, we may find ourselves in second position by 2010. Imagine that. At the very least, we should only be two behind United and four behind Chelsea. I like our odds… I do like our odds.

Come on, you Gunners!

Well, as I mentioned yesterday, it’s now been confirmed that Cesc Fabregas will be out for four months due to medial ligament damage to his right knee. This is, in effect, an end to his season. I hope I’m wrong, but I think it’s optimistic to suggest that our physio staff will have him back in the first team before the very end of the season. Cesc tells us the injury will not require surgery. And knowing him, he’ll be pushing to get back in ASAP. And while that would certainly be welcome, I’m not sure how fast even a young fellow can get back to 100% from an injury like this. All I can hope is that he tries to put this out of his head as best as he can, enjoy some holiday time with his friends and family and rest up.

And of course, this situation has sparked the finest in transfer window gossip this season. Even Arsène Wenger has admitted that this changes his approach to the transfer window, saying “Yes [I am more likely to buy], but we also have internal solutions so we are not desperate because of that.” Which, for him, is akin to saying something along the lines of “Oh boy howdy, are we ever fucked now if we don’t snap us up some talent.” At least, that’s how I read it.

But… who? There are the usual names being tossed about: Alonso, Arteta, Arshavin, et al. But that’s never been Wenger’s MO, has it? He almost always brings in the lesser knowns from unknown clubs. You can’t deny he has a knack for spotting upspotted talent. But will he, in this time of need, abandon that approach for the big name signing? Many blogs are calling for two to put in central midfield. Some suggest he’ll bring in another winger and slot Nasri in for Cesc until he’s better. I’m not sure that’s the way to go, but I have to admit it’s interesting. Nasri is quite the talent, and I’m willing to bet he’d do some pretty interesting things as an attacking central midfielder. He certainly has an eye for goal and can be quite creative. But what’s Wenger to do? One thing we know he’ll do is be coy with the media throughout the window and probably (although hopefully not) wait until last second. I’m going to guess that he goes with one fairly big name, although not as big as most would like, and another lesser known player. I think the blockbuster pair signing is a bit too rich for Arsène.  But one thing is for sure… this transfer window is sure to be more interesting than any we’ve seen in the recent past.

Finally, from everyone here at The Scurvy Syndicate (read: me), I’d like to wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah or whatever holiday you might be celebrating this season and a Happy New Year. COME ON YOU GUNNERS!