Alright, I know he scored four goals of great individual skill and single-handedly dumped us out of the Champion’s League, I know he’s the new Messi-ah and he’s going to light up the World Cup this summer, but bloody hell, didn’t Messrs Gray, Tyler and Keys have the hots for young Lionel? By the end of the game I was gagging on the great dollops of statistics they’d been shoving down my throat about the wonderboy; four hat tricks since January; Fifa world player of the year by the tender age of 22; already Barcelona’s equal highest goal scorer in the Champion’s League.  At any moment I was expecting Tyler to tell us that he is now officially the most famous person ever to have been called Lionel:

Tyler: “Surely the best Lionel of all time, would you agree Andy?”

Gray: “Don’t get me wrong. I loved Lionel Blair in Give Us A Clue and as for Lionel Richie, well… he could do it All  Night Long… but this little Argentinian – he’s something else.”

And he was. But that’s going to be documented just about everywhere else today, so I want to talk about the Arsenal.

There’s no getting away from it, we were well beaten over two legs by a team that is superior to ours. Yes, we were missing Cesc, Robin, Arsh, Gallas, Song and the rest, but even if we had had every member of our squad fully fit we would still have been beaten. Barcelona are a team who play football the way Arsenal play it, but do it better.  Strangely, I don’t find this depressing, I find it encouraging. The fact that the best team in the world plays our type of football is a vindication of what Wenger is trying to do, albeit with fewer resources and in a more hostile environment  (if Barca played in the Premier League I wonder how many broken legs they would have suffered over the last couple of seasons).  I believe it will fire up Arsene to move us up a level in our team play and we will reap the benefits next year. And we may even reap some of them this year if the players show the same positive reaction to this setback that they did to defeats this season by Chelsea and Man Utd.

Despite the 4-1 scoreline we put in a better overall performance than we had a week ago when we drew 2-2 at the Emirates. This time we didn’t stand off the Barca players and admire their pretty passing patterns, we chased and harried them from the off, with Nasri in particular putting in an almighty shift.

Messi gave an early warning of his menace with a snap shot that was going wide but was sensibly turned round anyway by Almunia and followed up a few minutes later with a shot that dipped onto the roof of the net, but those chances aside it was a cagey start.

And then, on Oh My God! We’ve scored – we’re one nil up at the Nou Camp. Great determination by Diaby to win the ball in midfield and release Walcott running in behind the Barca defence. Theo did his best to mess it up with a lame pass to Bendtner but when his shot came back off Valdes, Bendy was first to react and poked it home – a finish of great determination.

I’m sure all Gooners really started to believe at that point, but the euphoria was cut cruelly short.  A quick Barca attack, the ball rebounding perfectly to Messi off  Nasri and Silvestre and it was 1-1.

To their credit, the lads kept battling, although every tackle seemed to bring a foul to Barca (Denilson was hard done by to get a yellow for a great ball-winning tackle on Messi). Then the Argentinian struck again on 36 mins, Abidal sending a low cross in from wide left and the ball again falling kindly for Barca. Pedro helped it on to Messi who took a lovely touch before placing it past Almunia.

At this point you’re thinking – if we can hang on at 2-1 until half time we’re still in it, but it wasn’t to be: Messi charging through a massive gap in our defence after Vermaelen was caught forward and dinking a sublime chip over Big Al.

The second half was a less spectacular affair.  We continued to chase but our final ball usually let us down and Barca were fanatical in their attempts to win the ball back when we had possession. On a couple of occasions where we were stringing passes together we ended up going backwards towards our own goal, such was Barcelona’s pressure.

Pep Guardiola, keen not to repeat the mistakes made at the Emirates, brought on Yaya Toure to keep things tight and for most of the second half Barca played at a slower tempo, keeping the ball.

We had a couple of half chances – Bendtner’s touch letting him down in the box, Rosicky firing high from the edge of the area and Bendtner hitting the post with a header (which wouldn’t have counted as he was flagged for offside), but it never seemed likely that a goal would come.

Eboue came on for Silvestre, with Sagna moving to central defence; Eduardo replaced the tired-looking Rosicky, but nothing really changed and Barcelona’s and Messi’s fourth goal was not a big surprise. He did well to hold off Vermaelen in the box, but when Almunia saved his shot the ball again fell kindly for the Argentine and he slotted between Al’s legs.

Full time 4-1, aggregate 6-3 and you couldn’t disagree when Arsene said Barelona were better than us.

But this team can push on and get better. We clearly need a world class finisher – let’s hope Chamakh is that man (if the rumours are true) and some of our young players need more experience, but if we take one lesson away from these two games it’s that pretty football is not enough on its own. Barcelona play like thoroughbreds but they work like shire horses – and we need to start doing the same.

Next stop, the terrible Totts. A win there will soon put this honourable defeat into perspective.

Player Ratings:

Almunia: Can’t fault him for any of the goals (he was particularly unlucky for the fourth) and he made a couple of decent stops.   He kicked long too many times when he could have played it to one of the defenders, thereby ceding possession to best ball-holding side in the world. 6

Sagna: Worked hard, made a couple of good forward breaks with little end product. 6

Clicy: Good game, constantly trying to get forward and coped moderately well with the waves of Barca attacks. 7

Vermaelen:  Was stranded up field for Messi’s third. He and Silvestre struggled with Barca’s movement (but so would most defenders). 6

Silvestre: Did OK. Unfairly blamed by some for Messi’s first (check out the replays: it bounced off Nasri an instant before MS played it). 6

Denilson: Worked hard, but was occasionally caught in possession and final ball not great. 6

Diaby: Much improved performance compared with his showing in the first leg. Battled hard and set up Bendtner’s goal. 7

Nasri: It didn’t always come off for him and his final ball was sometimes wayward, but he worked his socks off, closed down the Barca players all night and was involved in some of our better forward moves. MotM (for us – there might just be a different candidate for overall MotM). 7.5

Rosicky: I thought he was our best player on Saturday, but looked leggy in this game and was responsible for a lot of lost possession. 5

Walcott: Started brightly but faded. 6

Bendtner: Never stops trying and took his goal well, but just lacks that bit of class in games like this one.  6.5

Subs:

Eboue: Did his best but the game was already lost when he came on. 6

Eduardo: No real chance to get in the game. N/A

By our guest writer RockyLives