Arsenal exposed as a pale imitation of Barcelona

Though he may not admit it publicly, it is clear Arsène Wenger has tried to model his young side and academy on Barcelona’s. After all, who wouldn’t want their team to be incredibly successful and play exciting, passing football as a means to achieving great things?

Though he may not admit it publicly, it is clear Arsène Wenger has tried to model his young side and academy on Barcelona’s. After all, who wouldn’t want their team to be incredibly successful and play exciting, passing football as a means to achieving great things?

However, the reigning European champions showed just how far Arsenal need to come before they can be considered legitimate challengers to Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering team. The Gunners were subjected to a footballing lesson over both legs of the quarter-final, save a crazy 30 minutes at the Emirates stadium, as Barça ruthlessly exposed their offensive and defensive deficiencies. Indeed, the first 30 minutes at the Emirates has since been hailed as possibly the greatest 30 minutes ever played by a team in club football, with Barcelona bombarding the Arsenal goal by playing an incisive, hypnotic passing game.

Offensively, Barça were irresistible, and they were able to retain the ball unbelievably well. A possession stat of over 70% against Arsenal, themselves a team who keep possession well, was incredible. All their players are comfortable on the ball, never taking longer than they need but still taking care to make the right decision. Off the ball, Barça are just as effective, using a tactic of suffocating pressing high up the pitch to hurry the opposition into mistakes. This system relies on everyone, including the 3 forwards, doing their job. If even one player doesn’t put in the required effort, huge holes can be created, which the opposition can take advantage of.

Wenger has tried to copy this pressing system, but with limited success. During the games against Barcelona, the contrast was clear to see. Barcelona’s pressing was far more intense than Arsenal’s, helping to maintain the astonishing possession ratio.  The key man here is Sergio Busquets, ostensibly a holding midfielder, who is capable of expansive passing and is still proficient defensively. But in a team full of top class performers, 2 stand out over the rest: Xavi and Leo Messi.

Xavi is the heartbeat of Barcelona, the conductor of their sublime orchestra. He is the one who dictates the play from midfield, the one who sets the tempo, the central hub around which the likes of Messi, Iniesta and Ibrahimović can revolve around. He is one of the best passers of a football in world football but what stands out is his awareness of everything around him. He is able to see the run that nobody else sees, the opposition player closing him down, where the ball will be in 3 passes time. Without him, Barcelona would not be able to produce the same startlingly effective possession game. And then there’s Leo Messi. The best player in the world. He does things others think are impossible, things that are impossible for everyone else in the world. He scored 4 against Arsenal (definitely not impossible when Silvestre’s playing) but it was his third hat-trick in 2010. He could become the best player of all time and he is still only 22. Sid Lowe from the Guardian explains here and here.

Such praise should be mitigated by the fact that Arsenal were without 5 of their starting XI for at least one of the matcvhes: Cesc Fábregas, Andrei Arshavin, Robin van Persie, William Gallas and Alexandre Song. In a hypothetical match between the best XI’s of Barcelona and Arsenal the outcome of the tie may very well have been different but this demonstrates the gulf in resources available to both managers.

Wenger has been financially hamstrung while the debts for the new stadium are still being paid off. So last summer, he sold Emmanuel Adebayor for £25 million and replaced him with Nicklas Bendtner, an academy graduate. Meanwhile, Barcelona got rid of another world-class African footballer and disruptive influence in Samuel Eto’o and swapped him and €40 million for Zlatan Ibrahimović. Detractors of the Big 4 often say how unfair the current system is for distributing wealth and so the Big 4 become even richer and therefore even more dominant. But the Premier League negotiates TV deals as a whole and then splits income. In Spain, clubs are allowed to negotiate their own TV rights, making the supposed inequality in England look like full-blown communism. In fact Barcelona and Real Madrid make around €120 million in rights per year, compared to Sevilla’s €20 million. Further distorting the playing field is the prohibitive 50% tax band in England, which is notably higher than the soon to be defunct “Backham tax” which allows high-earning foreign nationals to pay just 23% in tax rather than 43%.

So Wenger has decided to grow his own players. This is far cheaper than importing expensive fully-developed players, and has the added benefit of imposing a style from an early age so integration into the first team is theoretically much easier. Indeed, Wenger has attracted numerous plaudits for the way he has run his academy, producing players such as Ashley Cole, David Bentley, Gael Clichy, Jack Wilshere, Kieran Gibbs and Cesc Fábregas. The team currently has 3 academy graduates in the starting lineup: Clichy, Fábregas and Bendtner. Buying players young and developing them also is a money-spinner for Arsenal. Wenger has made millions from the sales of Nicolas Anelka, Patrick Vieira and Emmanuel Adebayor to name just a few.

But Wenger can only dream of having an academy like Barcelona’s. La Masia has become a production line for top class players over the years. Some of the players to pass through it include Iván de la Peña, Mikel Arteta, José Reina, Guardiola himself and erm, Cesc Fábregas. Their first team squad is full of players who have passed through La Masia, like Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, Carles Puyol, Gerard Piqué, Sergio Busquets, Víctor Valdés, Pedro and of course Messi.

Just 2 weeks ago, Arsenal had a legitimate shot at 2 trophies and many people, including myself, were starting to believe that Wenger was right, and they are finally becoming a major force in world football. However, the meeting with Barcelona shows just how far Wenger’s men have to go before they reach the top.

The Malaysian Grand Prix!

We spent this weekend in Sepang for the Malaysian Grand Prix (thanks to Uncle Eric for the tickets). On Friday, there were 2 practice sessions in which Lewis Hamilton came out on top. The McLarens were fast throughout Friday, as were the Mercedes. Sebastian Vettel showed the Red Bulls were still competitive, although their reliability issues were again highlighted when Mark Webber was forced out with an engine problem.

From our seats, you can see the second half of the lap, bar the final corner. We were sitting on the back straight, on the second tier, which provided a great vantage point. I have to say, the most surprising thing was the noise. F1 cars are loud! They also sound a bit different to when they are on TV, the engine noise seems deeper than on camera and you can really feel the sound through the seats. Be sure to bring earplugs, a decent camera and a list of the driver numbers. Also try to be near a screen during qualifying otherwise you will have very little idea of what’s going on!

There was a lot of action on Saturday during qualifying, which took place during (very) wet conditions. McLaren and Ferrari tried to play games with the weather, sending their cars out late in the first session. This backfired as the track became progressively wetter, with none of their cars making it out of Q1. Hamilton and Alonso both spun, while Jenson Button beached his car in a gravel trap. Q2 was relatively drama-free, as the teams seemed to adapt to the track. After Q3 was stopped briefly for a heavy thunderstorm, Mark Webber took pole, with Rosberg second and Vettel third. Michael Schumacher qualified disappointingly in 8th. Both Force Indias and Williams also made it into Q3, as did Kobayashi for Sauber and Robert Kubica for Renault.

On Sunday, we got upgraded to corporate seats on the pit straight, next to the second half of the grid. From there, we were less than 20 metres from Buemi, Kovalainen and Button! They also had loads of food inside the box, unlimited drinks and TV screens. Needless to say, it was pretty sweet. We got to the final preparations for the race and even Martin Brundle doing his pit walk for the BBC.

As for the race itself, Vettel overtook Webber on the first corner and never looked back. The Red Bulls managed to ease away from the field for a 1-2 finish. The real action came further back as the Ferraris and McLarens sliced through the field. Lewis Hamilton was particularly impressive, starting from 20th and finishing in 6th. His battle with Vitaly Petrov provided some of the tastiest action, as did Jenson Button’s duel with Fernando Alonso. The World Champion was going nowhere fast on degrading tyres and Alonso, even with a broken clutch, drove all over the back of the McLaren for about 10 laps. However, he couldn’t find a way past, as he was hampered by the clutch problem, and his engine blew up on the penultimate lap.

Overall, it was an unforgettable experience, and the race was surprisingly exciting, thanks to the ‘false’ qualifying positions of the McLarens and Ferraris. I can’t help thinking there wouldn’t have been nearly as much drama had qualifying been unaffected by the weather. That’s probably a topic for another day though.

We also got to go to the concert after the race, featuring the talents of Wyclef Jean and Fatboy Slim.

UPDATE: More videos can be found on my YouTube channel.

This week in sport: 22-28 March 2010

It was an entertaining week for football fans all over Europe with exciting action in England, Germany and Italy. The Australian Grand Prix was one of the best in recent memory but it was overshadowed by off-track activity.

GOOD WEEK

Chelsea and Frank Lampard: The Blues started the week 4  points behind Manchester United but a scintillating run which included 12 goals for and 1 against (including 5 for Frank Lampard) meant Chelsea are very much back in the hunt. A 5-0 drubbing of Portsmouth was followed by a 7-1 demolition of Aston Villa showed that the previous week was very much a blip. The game away at United now takes on even more significance as a possible title decider with Chelsea just 1 point adrift of the leaders.

Schalke: Felix Magath’s side took advantage of another catastrophic Bayern home defeat to climb to the top of the Bundesliga. This was achieved by a win away at fellow challengers Bayer Leverkusen, with Kevin Kuranyi grabbing a brace.

Robert Kubica: Even though the Australian Grand Prix was won by Jenson Button, the Polish driver Kubica must take enormous credit for hauling his Renault into second place for 18 World Championship points. Qualifying in 10th position, Kubica drove flawlessly to take the struggling Renault onto the podium.

Honourable mentions: Spurs, Manchester United, Ernie Els and Jenson Button.

BAD WEEK

Lewis Hamilton: Topped the timesheets after Friday practice but it all went downhill after that. He was arrested by the Australian police and his car was impounded after he was caught driving in an “over-exuberant” fashion. Then he failed to make it to Q3, and got taken out by Mark Webber with 2 laps to go. He recovered to finish 6th but later slammed the McLaren team for making him pit a second time. Speaking at the launch of a road safety initiative, Aussie roads minister branded Hamilton “a dickhead”.

Arsenal and Manuel Almunia: The Gunners squandered a lead in stoppage time away at Birmingham to lose ground in the title race. A long punt was cleared into the face of Kevin Phillips, who deflected the ball towards Almunia just above head height. The Arsenal keeper made a hash of the attempted save and virtually threw the ball into the net to deliver a killer blow to the Gunners’ title chances.

Inter Milan: The Nerazzurri’s dreadful run in Serie A continued this weekend with a 2-1 loss to closest challengers Roma. The Giallorossi are now just one point behind Inter, with AC Milan just 2 points further back. It looks like being the closest run Serie A in some time and Inter may be further distracted by the upcoming Champions League quarter-final against CSKA Moscow.

Honourable mentions: Andy Murray, Novak Djoković, Portsmouth, Sebastian Vettel and West Ham.

This week in sport: 15-21 March 2010

It was a busy week in the world of sport with the Champions League round of 16 and 6 Nations rugby concluding. Masters tennis and the return of Tiger Woods to our tv screens give us plenty of talking points.

GOOD WEEK

Fulham: The Cottagers overcame a 3-1 first leg defeat to progress to the Europa League quarter-finals against a very average looking Juventus side. They certainly didn’t make things easy for themselves on the night, falling a further goal behind in the opening stages. The storming comeback was completed with a delicious chip from outside the area by Clint Dempsey.

UEFA and the Europa League: This week’s round of games provided no end of drama (see above) and an absolute bucketful of goals. Valencia and Werder Bremen ended 4-4 and Hamburg progressed, despite losing 4-3 on the night against Anderlecht. Even Liverpool got in on the act, putting 3 past Lille. The Champions League draw produced a couple of mouthwatering ties, with holders Barcelona taking on Arsenal and Bayern Munich against Manchester United in a repeat of the 1999 final.

Ivan Ljubičić: The big-serving Croat finally won his first Masters tournament at Indian Wells at the grand old age of 31. En route to the final, he defeated Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal before beating Andy Roddick to claim the title.

Honourable mentions: Arsenal, France rugby team and Leo Messi.

BAD WEEK

Chelsea and Carlo Ancelotti: Dumped out of the Champions League in midweek by José Mourinho’s Inter, Chelsea were looking for a strong response against Blackburn to keep pace in the title race. Unfortunately for them, a stale display meant they left Ewood Park with only a point, losing ground to Manchester United and Arsenal.

AC Milan: The geriatricos of Meelan started the week without 2 of their more senior players Alessandro Nesta and David Beckham due to season-ending injuries. Having watched Inter only manage a draw against Palermo, the Rossoneri knew that a win at home to Napoli would see them supplant their city rivals at the top of Serie A. A comical mix-up between Massimo Oddo and Christian Abbiati allowed Napoli to take the lead before Pippo Inzaghi levelled matters. That turned out to be the last goal of the game and Milan had squandered their opportunity to go top.

The FIA: The ban on refuelling during races has led to the excitement being sapped out of races according to many observers. Drivers adopt a more cautious style, looking to conserve tyres and fuel and the cars all adopt the same homogeneous strategy. The rule change has meant Q3 has lost the element of surprise, when a lightly-fuelled wildcard could charge to the front of the grid. High-profile drivers including Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher have spoken out this week against the rule changes, causing much embarrassment to the FIA and Jean Todt.

Honourable mentions: Phil Brown (told you so!), Iain Dowie, Juventus and Tiger Woods for a cringe-inducing interview on ESPN.

This week in sport: 8-14 March 2010

I’m going to do a good week/bad week format for those blogs when there’s just too much to talk about. With the football, 6 Nations, IPL and the return of Formula 1 adding up to a total of roughly 20 hours wasted watching sport this weekend, I will take you on a whirlwind tour of the sporting happenings of the past 7 days.

GOOD WEEK

Arsenal and Nicklas Bendtner: A 5-0 hammering of Porto and a last minute victory against 10 man Hull meant that Arsenal continued their good form of late. Some people might point to this being a season-defining sequence of results for the Gunners as they showed their mental strength to overcome potentially tricky opponents. After being roundly criticised for his performance against Burnley a week ago, Nicklas Bendtner scored 4 times in 2 matches, including the crucial injury-time winner against Hull.

Ferrari: The Ferraris of Felipe Massa and Fernando Alonso were widely tipped (not least by myself) to be contenders from the beginning of the new Formula 1 season and they did not disappoint, producing a 1-2 finish in the season opener in Bahrain. After qualifying in 2nd and 3rd behind the Red Bull of Sebastian Vettel, they reeled in the German slowly after the pit-stops. Had it not been for a suspected exhaust failure, Vettel may have been able to hold them off, but in the end Alonso stormed to a win on his Ferrari debut.

Marc Lièvremont: The French rugby coach has been responsible for a remarkable upturn in French fortunes. The team are playing fast, expansive rugby and are sitting pretty at the top of the 6 Nations table, with the title all but guaranteed. They now have the Grand Slam in their sights, which would be achieved with a victory over a mediocre England side in Paris. The coach may also have unearthed a new star in the pint-sized winger Marc Andreu, who was involved heavily in 2 tries, scoring one, on his first start for Les Bleus.

Honourable mentions: Scotland rugby team, Wolves, Tottenham, Jessica Ennis, Arjen Robben and Alistair Cook.

BAD WEEK

Sulley Muntari: Came on as a sub during Inter’s 3-1 loss to Catania in Serie A but was sent off within 80 seconds of taking the field. He gave away a free-kick on the edge of the area and then handled the resultant attempt at goal, resulting in his second yellow and a penalty that was duly converted Panenka-style by Giuseppe Mascara.

Liverpool and Rafa Benítez: The Reds continue to have a miserable season and succumbed to two 1-0 away defeats at Wigan and Lille. Rafa’s two-man team will have to do much better if they are to steal fourth place away from the likes of Spurs(!) or Manchester City.

Martin Johnson: The England manager has come under heavy fire after an unconvincing start to the 6 Nations tournament, with his team playing uninspired, kicking-oriented rugby. After their narrow win against Italy, England were looking to lay down a marker against Scotland but ended up falling flat on their faces as a turgid affair ended 15-all. No tries were score by either side and England displayed an alarming lack of creativity and penetration even though the onus was on them to attack.

Honourable mentions: Real Madrid, Fulham, Inter Milan, Hispania Racing and Phil Brown.

Arsenal 5-0 Porto: Bendtner hat-trick helps Arsenal progress

Nicklas Bendtner silenced his critics last night as Arsenal surged through to the Champions League quarter-finals. The big Dane has always been supremely confident in himself and last night’s performance showed that confidence is justified.

The Gunners went into the match having to overcome a 2-1 deficit and without injured skipper Cesc Fábregas, who had been ruled out with a hamstring problem. Manuel Almunia stepped in to take the armband, meaning Lukasz Fabianski dropped to the bench after his horror performance in the first leg. Andrei Arshavin returned to the starting lineup following his substitute appearance against Burnley and he turned out to be one of the most influential players on the night, along with Samir Nasri and Bendtner.

Arsenal started brilliantly, bombarding Helton in the Porto goal from the outset. After 10 minutes Nasri knocked a lovely ball through towards Arshavin, which a combination of defender and keeper blocked, only to see the ball fall into the path of Bendtner on the edge of the area. Bendnter, who was widely criticised following his string of misses against Burnley, made no mistake and slid in to make it 1-0. He increased the lead 15 minutes later after Arshavin slalomed past 3 Porto defenders on the edge of the box and squared for the easiest of tap-ins.

Arsenal were now  ahead on aggregate, and it looked like this realisation started to affect their play. Nerves crept in and the introduction of the lively Rodriguez sparked Porto into life.  Almunia was tested when Falcao hit a shot from 12 yards and a corner was cleared off the line by Nasri. Moments later, the tie was put beyond doubt as that man Nasri produced an extraordinary piece of brilliance that was fit to decide any game.

Picking the ball up on the right edge of the area, he danced round 3 Porto players before slamming past Helton from the tightest of angles. It was one of the best individual goals of the season and capped a brilliant performance from the young Frenchman. Taking the creative reins from Fábregas is no easy task, but Nasri stepped up admirably, creating chances with his passing and looking dangerous with the ball at his feet. This performance might even have given a boost to his World Cup ambitions, with Nasri playing in a central role behind the main striker, where the France coach Raymond Domenech would want to deploy him. Watch the goal here.

By now the Gunners were rampant and Emmanuel Eboué added the fourth after a lightning break from a Porto corner led by Arshavin. Bendtner completed his hat-trick from the penalty spot in injury time after Eboué was brought down by Fucile. Overall, it was a great display from Arsène Wenger’s men, although Porto didn’t prove to be the sternest test. Full highlights can be found here (thanks to Arsenalist for the links).

Formula 1 2010 season preview

The 2010 Formula 1 season kicks off in Bahrain on 12th March and I can barely hide my excitement! That means only 10 more days before I become an insufferable motor racing nerd and start quoting stats and generally not moving on Sunday afternoons (or mornings or evenings depending on where the race is being held). For a lot of people in this country, particularly journalists, this season is all about Hamilton vs. Button at McLaren. The last two World Champions. The best British drivers at the best British team. Who will end up on top? Who will be backed more by the team when push comes to shove? Who will Lewis date next? These are just a few of the questions people will be asking throughout the season. As interesting as all that is, for me, the real story is the return of Michael Schumacher.

Michael Schumacher is the most decorated Formula 1 driver in history. He has the most World Championships (7), the most race victories (91), the most pole positions (68) and the most World Championship points (1,369). All in all, he is a motor racing legend. When he put himself forward to replace Felipe Massa after his terrible head injury last year, I was eager to see if the old master still had it. Some people thought he had been out of the game too long, that he had lost his fitness and wouldn’t be able to compete with the new kids on the block. Some even tried to claim that his wins were mostly due to a superior car rather than driving talent (I’m looking at you here Jenson!). Some people just don’t like him because he is German. And occasionally cheated. But more on that later.

Personally, I idolised the man when I was growing up. His level of dominance is almost unparalleled in the whole of sport; only Tiger Woods (in golf and philandering), Roger Federer (tennis) and Phil Taylor (darts) are on the same  level. His will to win meant he would do whatever it took, including famously parking his car on the track at the end of qualifying in Monaco. While the more sanctimonious or idealistic readers may cry foul, I believe this is just an example of Schumacher’s champion’s mentality. The upshot of his failed comeback last season is that we get to enjoy a whole season of Schumacher, trying to win the World Championship with the World Constructors Champions at Mercedes. When Bahrain rolls around, we will all be able to see whether he can still hack it at the top level, by comparing him to his teammate Nico Rosberg, one of the most promising young drivers in F1.

Of course, to win races, Schumacher will have to get past a few very talented teams who I expect to put up more than a little resistance. As already mentioned the McLarens will be piloted by the last 2 World Champions and the Red Bulls (runners-up last year) are expected to be strong. However, my feeling is that Ferrari with Massa and Alonso will be the biggest threat to Schumacher’s pursuit of Championship number 8.

All will be revealed through the course of the season. I can’t wait!

NOTE: I will try to put up race reports when I can during the season, hopefully there will be one direct from Sepang on the 4th April.