Dear Gooners,
(please read with a dash of arsenic in your coffee and a cigarette in your eye for added anguish)
So, it wasn't to be.
The day that held the night that held so much promise for the Arsenal, and all the other acolytes of the Underdog and, indeed, of the creed of Jogo Bonito, passed without fanfare.
Messi.
The mini-magician turned the Nou Camp surface into his own flying carpet, as he tossed the rug and flicked the ball, deceiving substitute Manuel Almunia and setting the Catalans on their way. Jack Wilshere and co could still have created history after Sergio Busquets showed them the way to goal, but their captain's ill-advised trickery for the home side's opener was compounded by their talisman, who was on the wrong end of recklessness and rank bad luck in equal measure.
Was Wenger right to start Fabregas and van Persie? In hindsight, the gamble backfired. Barcelona complained before kick-off of mind games in Wenger's withholding of his starting XI, but it was Arsenal who were incensed in the evening's aftermath, as Swiss officials (who, if I name, will feel justified) were surrounded in the manner that the hosts had done while the score remained goalless.
This, though, masks their performance, and the fact that Song and Walcott were far more sorely missed than Pique and Puyol, whose understudies were rarely tested by the visitors' one half-fit striker. The statistics had a remarkably one-sided look but an unremarkable feel to them. Arsenal's allure to Barcelona's aroma has led to surrender before, even if scorelines were dressed up with late goals to disguise the mannequins beneath.
As it turned out, this game was decided by a combination of moments; some of magic, others of madness, but all accompanied by an air of predictability: Catalan quality; refereeing travesty; North London naivety; the majesty of Messi.
Was that first-leg win, in fact, a win? Or was it a tiny stumble along Pep's path to greatness? Guardiola spoke last night of playing "a perfect game". They appear to have recovered. We think they'll live.
Now we shall see if Arsenal can curtail this capitulation and salvage their season. Onto an imploding Old Trafford and then into the run-in.
Arsenal or United?
It's too close to call
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