Hail The Messiah & An Ode To My Beloved Arsenal
By DariusThere’s absolutely no way out of the need to acknowledge and bow down to Leo Messi for what you can only describe as genius and magic.
Edson Arantes do Nascimento (Pele) and Diego Armando Maradona must be wondering if their legacy as the 2 best players of the last century is going to be surpassed by this 22 year old magician.
While the world ponders that thought, I must say it was a privilege last night to watch a play station footballer come to life. I have no complaints whatsoever about Arsenal’s defeat to Barcelona, for doing so will diminish the rightful acknowledgment of the diminutive magician.
I so look forward to the World Cup for this boy’s magic deserves recognition with the Coupe du Monde
As for Arsenal, we shall discuss where to go from tomorrow. The Champions League was not to be for this year, and the boys need to hold their heads up high for they have served the faithful well this far.
For now, here’s an ode to my beloved Arsenal.
If you think you are beaten, you are,
If you think you dare not, you don’t.If you like to win, but you think you can’t,
It is almost certain you won’t.If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost,
For out of the world we find,
Success begins with a team’s will,
It’s all in the state of mind.If you think you are outclassed, you are,
You’ve got to think high to rise,
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win a prize.Football’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man,
But sooner or later the man who wins,
Is the man who thinks he can!
I shall never forsake my beloved Arsenal!
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Tue 13th September 2011; 19:45, Dortmund
That was Beautiful – brought a canon shaped tear to ones eye!
Victoria Concordia Crescit
We shall return next year !!
Great article
Decent performance from Arsenal considering the players we had out..Arsenal fans should stop criticising Wenger…its been frustrating for him as well having half his team injured all the time…Im so proud of the arsenal lads…they did the best they could considering the curcumstances…
lets show our love and appreciation for the lads at the next game at the emirates…
proud to be an arsenal fan
Thanks Darius.
Messi is a very special talent & Barca are a once in a generation team, on this showing.
Not too disappointed because it was always very much odds against. 2 injuries too far against this class of opposition.
We had a couple of opportunities at 1-3, which could have changed the direction of the game but didn’t find the right pass.
No need for witch hunts, we were not humiliated, tried to play good football but they were collectively & individually better than us, giving a tough benchmark to aim for.
What has struck me about the better teams than us, this season, is the way they channel their hard work consistently throughout the game.
Nephew of Rocky and Nick.
We shall soldier on as they say.
Worry not to much about those who choose to take the easier path of criticism than the courage to recognize something special. And I’m talking both about Messi and this Arsenal team who have something special in very different ways.
Those who choose to criticise willy nilly have bigger issues than Arsenal can help them solve.
Flint, I saw enough yesterday from our boys to know that they will have learnt from the experience of the two ties. Frankly speaking, I fail to see any team in the last 8 who would have survived such a galactic performance from Messi and Barca. It’s certainly no shame losing to them.
A day off for the boys is deserved and then back to the preparation for the usual suspects and the now heated race for the EPL.
My main concern is that during the summer, the team builds on what we have achieved this season and press on again next season.
This was a learning experience for the boys. We have now seen the level we need to play at to be considered the very best. If our players are as strong as we think they are then this will (in time) become the watershed moment in our team’s development. I honestly believe this was a good experience, indeed a necessary one. Unlike the ManU and Chelsea matches, we have no excuses and can only look inward for solutions. This will force the players to become better, and those who cannot will simply fall by the wayside.
I am however deeply angered this morning by the media. Its like all they want to do is gloat at the Arsenal and say stuff like “you claim to play good football but see what happens when you come up against a side that REALLY play good football. Ha ha ha!”
And therein lies the issue with English football, indeed with England as a nation. If there’s someone who does something really much better, don’t even bother trying to improve or catch up. Its much more fun to take pot- shots at the ones who are brave enough to try and when they hit the inevitable bumps in the road to betterment, make sure to rub as much salt into the wound as you can. Completely pathetic and cowardly attitude, IMHO.
Thanks to Barcelona for teaching us where we need to be to be the best. You can be rest assured that the next time we meet we will be the ones teaching the lessons. That is how much I believe in this squad.
lets build on this year, and keep building, and in the next 4 or 5 trophy laden years we will see a team that will be better than that of barcelona
Knee jerk reaction rantings after this defeat are unnecessary but it really is time that the repetitive mistakes & weaknesses were once & for all addressed. It’s pathetic Arsenal are in a situation where the useless Silvestre (Fergie would NOT have sold Arsenal an asset !!) is deputising for the old free transfer who at this late stage in his career (Well though he has played in his appearances) is unable to play 2 games in a week. He himself is deputising for a player who has been unable to have a lengthy injury free spell since arriving at the club at 16/17 years old & who is at such a young age is ridiculously so fragile he has several times withdrawn from the team/squad during pre-match warm up. A PATHETIC situation !!
Fantastic blog!! And nice to readthe opinions of true Arsenal fans. All I’ve read this morning is the usual ‘sack wenger’ and ‘sign blah blah blah’ ( probably the funniest and equally ridiculous was the lengthy debate on the possibility of us signing Gerrard AND Torres as apparently if one came the other would surely follow as it seems they couldn’t ever play without each other lol )….. Anyway, there was no shame in going out against Europes current best team containing arguably the best player in the world at the moment and playing with half of our first team out through injury. Signings need to be made, dead wood needs to be sold ( we all know there’s at least 5 who should be for the chop ) but for now let’s concentrate on firstly stuffing the spuds and then more importantly romping home in the EPL and showing the media and the likes of fat nose Phil T who are the only team close to Barca in this country!! Come on the reds!!!!
Great to read positivity to cure an Arsenal Hangover. Thanks again Darius.
Let’s not be downbeat. It was not all a defeat. We should take positives from experience gained. And a few performances that stood out against great oposition. For me NB and Almunia have proven themselves against high quality players.
I’m proud of how they played. And glad to be an Arsenal fan today!
Anybody that gives you grief today. I’m sure that our team has something that there team does not, so have great pleasure lettingt hem know.
Good Verse, Darius.
It put me in mind of one in an old Arsenal programme I’ve got somewhere from the ’30′s. I can’t remember all of it but it goes something like:
“Oh, how the mighty have fallen and bitter their defeat,
they have fought and fallen to better men,
who played them off the ground”
If I remember, it was written in the aftermath of an Arsenal defeat by a lowere league team in the FA Cup. Flint might remember!
All in all, I prefer yours.
The Title’s still there for the taking.
No shame in losing to barca at all.
the biggest disappointmet was we didnt get to play our natural game cause barca swarmed us when we didnt have the ball, their pressing was almost as impressive as their pass and move game.
It looked to me like their players had better touch and technique which again was very supprising as some of their one touch made us look amatuerish last night.
got this quote from oliver kay -
“The statistics at the end showed that 95 of Xavi’s 105 passes had found their target. Samir Nasri, his closest equivalent in the Arsenal team, was successful with 20 out of 31.”
that shows how comfortable xavi was on the ball in finding teammates.
Forget messi their support cast is that good.
whats pathetic as you say is being pissed off with ur manager/team for getting beaten by the best team in the world in the quarter finals (they got trophies to prove it), with arguably the best player of a few generations, when they are in a position of being 3rd in league with 3 pts behind the leaders and 1 point behind the current champions. that is truly pathetic!!!!!!
Not having Sky, I have not seen the game, hope to catch some highlights later.
4-1 sounds like a bit of a tonking, but reading some reports suggests that the margin between success and failure may have been quite small. According to the BBC report, there was another Arsenal attack straight after Bendtner’s goal, where Diaby’s pass failed to find Bendtner again, when Walcott was the easier pass and better placed to score. Whether I will ever get to see this, I don’t know, but can you imagine the effect on a team, any team, that dominates for nearly 20 minutes without scoring then concedes two in a minute? I also read that, at 3-1, we had chances. Had we taken one, it may have changed the psychology of the game, a case of “here we go again”.
None of this is an excuse, our injury ravaged team was beaten by the best team in the world, led by the best player in the world, who was on fire. Hardly a disaster. What I am trying to say is that, with maybe a bit more luck, a couple of better decisions at some points in the game, we may have sneaked it.
Let’s look back and enjoy the glorious European nights. Our fightback against Liege, our mauling of Porto, themselves former Euro Champs. And our first leg fightback against Barça. We have nothing to be ashamed of, and plenty to be proud of.
As the stadium debt reduces, perhaps Arsene can build on what we have, but I will not be joining any knee-jerk clamour.
No team could have sustained the injuries we have suffered this season. Yet we got this far in Europe, it took the world’s best to beat us, and we are still clinging on to a breakaway group of 3 teams in the EPL who have far greater resources than us, and far fewer injuries. Is that Failure? No. Arsene’s only “crime” is to have raised expectations, by making us a team that is expected to win.
Some of our more ignorant fans perhaps would prefer a return to the days when we expected to win nothing, at least in those days the team delivered exactly what was expected of them!
If we have failed, then so have Man City, Tottenham, Liverpool, Aston Villa, Everton, Birmingham, Stoke, Blackburn, Fulham, Sunderland, Wolves, Bolton, Wigan, West Ham, Hull, Burnley and Portsmouth. Simple as.
Great comments and thoughts about the game yesterday.
Also a good response from all about the need to build on what we have instead of the knee jerk reactions to pick holes left right and centre.
No one argues that there’s work to be done, and I’ve always said that perhaps the biggest danger is the fact that Arsenal has fans who are not capable of understanding the vision the club is aiming for and being patient to get there.
My sense is that our bigger priority is that a good proportion of so called fans need to manage their own expectations.
BigDave, if you can, make sure you watch the game because it is one of the best games you’ll ever see with a combination of top class team performance and a heavenly individual performance from Messi.
He was the difference, and onestly speaking, it’s hard to see how he could have been stopped, even if we had our first choice central defence and midfield.
We could have changed the match by taking our chances e.g. the Diaby to Walcott ball instead of the Diaby to Bendy ball, but that happens in a game. They also missed great chances that we dealt with well.
I always find it useful not to come out with raw thoughts after such an emotive experience, but unfortunately, there are elements within the blogosphere who would rather shoot from the hip in a good old fashioned knee jerk reaction.
The truth is that it is so much easier and cowardly to point fingers, lay criticism, and pick out deficiencies, as opposed to standing up courageously in times of difficulty and supporting the team through a rough patch.
Mikey, don’t worry about the media, they thrive on reading out Arsenal’s obituary whenever they get a chance.
Barcelona would have done worse to any other team – and for those pointing fingers, at least Arsenal earned the right to face Barca rather than throw stones from the comfort of their air-conditioned studios.
Well done Darius.
Going into the game, i was thinking that we had no chance. But B52′s early goal chamged the complexion. If we were able to keep the momentum on, i feel we may have been able to pull it off.
But alas, it was not going to be. We were not good enough. Messi has one of the best conversion rates in Europe, no wonder he scored all 4. As an Arsenal fan, it is disappointing and a hard to digest loss.
Atleast i can say to myslef, we lost to a team that plays proper football. Focus back to EPL now, we can start with Spurs.