CHAMPIONS LEAGUE ARSENAL v BARCELONA: Arsenal v Barcelona: Venue: The Emirates, Kick-off: 7.45pm, On TV: ITV, RTE 2:ARSENE WENGER has a clear message for Barcelona as he plots a way past Lionel Messi, David Villa, Xavi, Andres Iniesta et al in the Champions League last 16: Pep Guardiola's star turns are about to face the "real" Arsenal and not the side of inferior personnel and ability who were handed a 6-3 aggregate drubbing in the quarter-finals of last season's competition.
Tonight at the Emirates and at the Camp Nou in the return leg in three weeks Wenger will discover if this hypothesis is correct. He can call on Arsenal’s outstanding performer this season as Samir Nasri, who has not played since January 30th due to a hamstring problem, has been training since last week and should start.
“Last year was not the real Arsenal,” Wenger said. “In the first game we lost (Andrey) Arshavin after 30 minutes and (William) Gallas at half-time, so we had already made two changes. We also lost (Cesc) Fabregas in the last minute so we went into the second game with three key players not fit.”
Goals from Theo Walcott and a late Fabregas penalty answered a Zlatan Ibrahimovic double to leave the tie in the balance at 2-2 after the opening leg at the Emirates. But a glance at the team sent out by Wenger in Spain in early April shows Manuel Almunia, Mikael Silvestre, Tomas Rosicky, Abou Diaby and Nicklas Bendtner all started. This year they have either left the club or merely warm the bench when Wenger has everyone fit.
In that second leg Bendtner opened the scoring after 18 minutes but Messi soon equalised and the Argentinian went on to deliver a masterclass that featured all four of the Barcelona goals that dumped Arsenal out.
“In the first half of the home game we were a little bit spectators and a bit inhibited,” Wenger said. “I believe today confidence-wise and mentally we are a completely different team.
“We have made our way forward by challenging in the Premier League, we are in all competitions and, if you look at the predictions pre-season, nobody in England predicted we would be today where we are. We have a good opportunity to show we’re no longer the team that played against them last year. We have the belief and a strong togetherness to show this.”
Guardiola is missing only the injured Carles Puyol, Barcelona’s captain and totem, while Wenger is without the suspended Bacary Sagna, plus Diaby (calf) and Thomas Vermaelen (achilles). Despite this Wenger claims there are no excuses for his players and this evening’s match, against the team he calls the best he has managed against, will reveal how far the Arsenal project has come.
“I can say we are in an ideal condition to face them. We cannot complain, we have the belief, the confidence, the players available: 90 per cent in February,” he said. “That was not the case last year. We are in an ideal position to face them.”
Asked if last year’s defeat aided the team’s development, Wenger added: “Certainly, because we came out of the second game with a lot of frustrations (as) we missed the turning point of the game when we were 1-0 up over there. We are stronger because this team has attitude, focus every day.
“Since I am a manager for a long time I have not seen many teams with such consistent focus every day to improve. The main reason we have improved is because of the attitude of the players. We want to win this competition and we know we face the super-favourite. But the only way to do it is to knock them out.”
Wenger dismissed any notion that Arsenal may try to suffocate Barcelona like Inter did in the second leg of last year’s semi-final. Barcelona won the match 1-0, with a late goal from Gerard Pique, and completed 555 passes compared with the visitors’ 67 but lost 3-2 on aggregate .
“They won the first game (3-1 at San Siro) so in the second were able to hang on,” Wenger said of Inter, who went on to beat Bayern Munich in the final. “Their players are all 30 to 33 and they grow up in Italy where they’re educated to play this kind of game.”
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Head-to-head: key battles
ROBIN VAN PERSIE V GERARD PIQUE
ARSENE WENGER may have wanted to use the more physical Marouane Chamakh up front but with the Moroccan apparently ruling himself out due to tiredness, in-form Van Persie can be trusted to lead the line. With 11 goals already in 2011 he has returned from injury in style and should relish the less combative defensive style of Barca compared to English defences.
In Pique, he faces the man who got the better of him in the World Cup final last year when his Holland side lost narrowly to Spain.
However, he will arguably receive better service from the likes of Fabregas, Samir Nasri, Theo Walcott and Tomas Rosicky in this match than he did that night in Johannesburg from a defensive and cynical Dutch side.
CESC FABREGAS V XAVI
AS CHIEF midfield creators for their respective sides, Xavi and Fabregas – the sorcerer and apprentice of world football – will engage in what promises to be a hugely intriguing chess match of possession and passing.
Both are Catalans, Barca supporters and exponents of the club’s revered tiki-taka passing game.
Where Xavi edges his Spain team-mate in terms of vision and consistency, Fabregas is arguably more influential in the final third.
LAURENT KOSCIELNY V LIONEL MESSI
AFTER A somewhat shaky start to life at the Emirates, Koscielny has settled in well and is Arsenal’s most regular centre-back this season. In this campaign Argentinian Messi has been deployed in a nominally central role alone up front with David Villa cutting in from the left and Pedro from the right. Barca manager Pep Guardiola encourages him to play as far forward as possible but he remains prone to dropping deep, when Koscielny will happily cede responsibility to the likes of Alex Song or Jack Wilshere in midfield.
