Arsenal Pay the Price for Attempting to Emulate Barcelona

Arsene Wenger claims that the inspiration for his 4-3-3 formation he has adopted this season is not Pep Guardiola's Barcelona, but the Dutch national team of the 1970s. It is difficult to believe that Wenger was not influenced by the Spanish side's success using the the formation last year en route to winning both the Spanish League and the Champions League.

Wenger's switch from a 4-4-2 to a 4-3-3 has been relatively successful this season, but against Barcelona's 4-3-3 the limitations of his young team were painfully apparent. Arsenal went man for man against Barcelona, and came off far worse than the scoreline suggests. Quite simply, Barcelona have the better men.

Arsenal may use the same formation, but on last night's evidence the similarities start and end there, they were a pale imitation of the Spanish side. Wenger's team were unable to wrestle possession from the Catalans in the first 45 minutes, and on the rare ocassion they did, they were unable to retain it.

It was the consummate performance from the Catalans, and the only thing missing was the finishing. Chance after chance was created and spurned with Ibrahimovic the main culprit, the Swedish striker providing a blunt edge at the tip of Barcelona's attacking triumvirate. Arsenal were also grateful to the much maligned Manuel Almunia who made a string of fine first half saves to keep them in the match.

The passing and movement of the Barcelona forward line, with Pedro preferred to Thierry Henry, sliced open a hapless Arsenal back four seemingly at will. A bemused Pep Guardiola was left to wonder how Barcelona had failed to take an early lead after spurning a series of glorious chances in the opening minutes. With half an hour gone Barcelona had already had 12 shots to their name, Arsenal only one.

Barcelona right back Daniel Alves was given the freedom of the Emirates, and at one point ran almost the entire length of the pitch unchallenged before putting in a dangerous cross which resulted in Lionel Messi blazing wastefully over. Arsenal's fullbacks by contrast offered zero attacking threat in the first half. They have the ability to pass the ball out of defence, but Barcelona gave them neither the time nor the space.

Disaster struck for Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas just before half time when he received a yellow card for a sliding challenge, which halted Sergei Busqeuts surging run. Fabregas played all of the ball but his follow through took him through the back of the Barcelona midfielder. With referees increasingly likely to reach for their whistles at the slightest suggestion of physical contact, the last ditch tackle is in danger of becoming a dying art, and Fabregas will now miss the second leg through suspension.

The half time statistics told their own story, Barcelona had spent 75% of the match in possession.  It would have been to Pep Guardiola's consternation that for all his side's superiority, the one statistic which counted still read Arsenal 0 Barcelona 0.

Barcelona had failed to find the net in the opening 45 minutes but it took less than 45 seconds for them to do so in the second half. A long ball from Alves found Ibrahimovic in space and bearing down on goal. Almunia's heroics had kept Arsenal in the match up until this point but the Spanish goalkeeper's judgement was again called into question as he charged off his line, inviting the onrushing Ibrahimovic to chip the ball into an unguarded net. The Swede duly obliged with Almunia's recklessness, rendering the presence of makeshift centre half Alex Song, who appeared to have Ibrahimovic covered, superfluous.

Worse was to come for Arsenal and they got their offside trap all wrong and Ibrahimovic showed the sort of finishing that inspired Pep Guardiola to hand Inter Milan a big bag of cash and the prolific Samuel Eto in exchange for his services in the Summer. Thomas Veremaelen pushed up, but everyone else stood still allowing Xavi to loft the ball into the space the Belgian defender had vacated. Ibrahimovic made no mistake atoning for his first half profligacy by bursting into the penalty area and slamming the ball decisively into the roof of the net.

The 2-0 scoreline was probably a fair reflection on the game, and meant Arsenal realistically needed to score twice within the 90 minutes to keep their Champions League hopes alive. With Fabregas starting to take a grip on midfield, and substitute Theo Walcott causing carnage on the right hand flank, Arsenal began to make the game into more of a contest.

Expectation rose when Walcott pulled one back after cutting inside from the right and firing a shot through Victor Valdes. Given Barcelona's blatant superiority the prospect of a draw would have delighted Arsene Wenger, and it moved a step closer when Carlos Puyol was harshly adjudged to have fouled Fabregas. The contact was minimal, the penalty debatable, but the subsequent red card rules Puyol, along with fellow centre half Gerard Pique who had already been booked, out of the second leg.

It gave Cesc Fabregas the opportunity to leave an indelible mark on a tie in which he knew he would have little further involvement and he did so with aplomb, burying his penalty to give Arsenal an 85th minute equalizer.

Arsenal's captain appeared to badly injure himself in the process, and joins William Gallas and Andrey Arshavin who had already limped out of the game on an extensive Arsenal injury list. It is testament to how far the balance of power had shifted during the course of the match that Arsenal's tormentor in chief Lionel Messi was withdrawn soon after, as Guardiola sought to shore up his depleted defence.

Given the manner of the match, Arsenal will be by far the happier of the two sides, but the scoreline does not reflect the reality of this most anticipated of Champions League ties. Arsenal's attempt to beat Barcelona at their own game was not successful, and while hope may linger a little longer at the Emirates, the reality is that a 2-2 away draw solidifies Barcelona's status at the favourites to progress from this tie.