So 4-1 against the best side in the world with the best player in the world in top form at the Nou Camp whilst we were without these first team players:
Arshavin, Van Persie, Alex Song, Gallas and our talismanic captain Fabregas.
THAT'S HALF A TEAM.
And yet still I think we performed pretty well all considering. Yes, the score line is unflattering but that was down to Messi's unquestioned brilliance and for his first and second we were unlucky in how the ball fell in the box and perhaps just victims of his inhuman finishing. Well beaten but nothing to be ashamed of IMO. Messi fashioned chances out of nothing and it would have been a different result without him...obviously. Just like having FIVE of our first team playing would have probably ended in a different result. Troll away on this one all you want because we lost, and lost well but I was actually far more impressed with our game than I was in the first leg that we drew.
We will rebuild for next season, welcome Marouane Chamakh in to the Arsenal family and hopefully have V. Persie back with all cylinders firing without being crippled in a fucking friendly at the start of the season (name one team who wouldn't struggle without their star striker for an entire campaign) whilst our incredibly young team just get better and better. I will not begrudge you to gloat now but it's only a matter of time before we rise from the ashes. But before we do that we're STILL going to have a decent crack at coming from behind to steal the Prem Crown.
For now its hats off to the remarkable Lionel Messi. As hard as it was to watch his master class as an Arsenal fan tonight it was still a sight to behold for the FOOTBALL fan within me.
