A Night of Pure Emotion

ARSENAL 3 – AC MILAN 0 (MILAN WIN 4-3 ON AGGREGATE)

Yesterday was one of those days that truly showed what a beautiful game football is. And it wasn’t due to one moment of magic from an individual player. Or the celebrations of winning a coveted trophy. And sadly it wasn’t quite because of a stunning Champions League comeback, where a team overturned a 4-0 deficit, to qualify for the next round of the knock out stages of the elite European club competition.

For me, yesterday highlighted the beauty of football as it displayed almost all of the possible emotions that one can experience as a result of the beautiful game. Belief, joy, expectancy, disappointment, and pride. And it’s not often that you get a night where they all fall into one place.

Belief

Before the game, there was an unprecedented amount of belief amongst the majority of Arsenal fans. That we could actually create history and beat Milan by enough to qualify for the quarterfinals. Crazy, right?

Well on the back of two excellent comebacks in the form of a thumping 5-2 victory over North London neighbours Sp*rs, and a hard-fought 2-1 win against Liverpool at Anfield, why not believe that it was possible to do it again. Complete the hat trick, and knock out Milan?

Most people laughed. A lot completely dismissed the match as a ‘non-event’. Some actually had the audacity to suggest that the FA Cup replay between Birmingham and Chelsea should be considered a better choice of viewing.

But in the Arsenal camp, the belief was ever present, albeit cautious. There wasn’t expectancy pre-match, but there was hope. There’s always hope. And if Milan were good enough to score four against is at the San Siro, why aren’t we good enough to score at least four against them at the Emirates?

#IBelieveInArsenal was circulating around twitter, as were several inspiration quotes including the famous ‘Impossible is Nothing’ as uttered by Robin van Persie after the Liverpool match. We all believed, and I don’t think any of us predicted what would happen in the first 45 minutes of the game.

Joy

And it started with a bang. Laurent Koscielny met an Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain corner to head us 1-0 up, before a Theo Walcott cross fell to Tomas Rosicky whose low shot crept into the bottom right hand corner. We hadn’t even played 30 minutes of the game, yet we were already half way towards levelling the tie.

Kos celebrating Arsenal's first

Just before half time, the very impressive Oxlade-Chamberlain darted into the box, only to be scythed down from both sides, and after a long and needless pause the referee pointed to the spot. RVP converted, and we went into the interval one goal shy of the minimum target.

I don’t think anyone could believe it, and after all the pre-match talk of not giving up hope, and battling to the very end, we were so in this game it looked as if we were the only ones able to go on and win it.

Expectancy

RVP and Walcott after our third, just before half time

After a first half like that, with three goals and complete domination, the belief floating around the Emirates pre-match suddenly turned into an air of expectancy. At half time, I really thought we were going to go on and do it. We were going to go on and absolutely thump the Italian League leaders. We needed four to take it to extra time. It looked like we could get six or seven.

We were outstanding in the first half. Everyone was up for it, everyone believed, and the stadium was bouncing. Milan looked hopeless, without any kind of an idea, and as if they were heading towards the most embarrassing screw up in the history of the competition. No one had thrown away a 4-0 lead in it before. They were three quarters of the way towards doing that, and our pre-match odds of qualifying at 75/1 had been completely reversed to around 5/6 in some betting houses in favour of our progression.

Gary Neville, who I am worryingly starting to like more and more, summed it up pretty well. ‘Defend, Arsenal. Defend and you’ll win this tie’. It seemed he was right. Goal scoring was never going to be an issue, it was our defence that had to hold tight. It was more than likely that we would score again, so should we not concede, that would surely be enough to at least take the game into extra time. The miracle comeback was totally on.

Or so I thought…

Disappointment

It just didn’t happen in the second half. We weren’t without chances, as RVP missed what can only be described as an absolute sitter on the hour mark, after he attempted to chip the ball over Abbiati in the Milan goal from close range after a deflected Gervinho cross, instead of placing it into the corner.

RVP's close range miss

We can hardly hold it against him, given the season he’s having, but it was a horrible miss. And it surprisingly turned out to be our last real chance in the game.

As the second half went on, we grew more and more tired, and Milan started to control the game. This was aided by the fact that the referee was one of the worst I’ve ever seen, giving Milan free kicks for fun, and booking players (for both sides to be fair) for relatively little. He was appalling, and if not for the otherwise useless fifth official behind the goal, he didn’t seem overly keen to give us the penalty in the first half either. Even though it was possibly the most blatant one I’ve seen all season. Wenger has subsequently been charged by UEFA for his comments post-match. Can hardly blame him…

That said we still should have had enough in us to finish the match off, given how poor Milan were playing. Fatigue was one reason for the dreary second half, but a limited bench was another. The Ox was clearly carrying a knock for most the second half, but the lack of options on the bench prompted Wenger to keep him on and hope for the best. He didn’t look right, and was eventually replaced by Marouane Chamakh, who offered absolutely nothing up front.

Theo Walcott, who had another excellent game and tore the Milan left back to shreds, also went off with an injury towards the end, his replacement being Chu-Young Park.

Now I’ve been desperate for both Park and Chamakh to get game time lately, but it’s impossible to expect them to come on and change a game like that. They obviously have no confidence, and why should they? They never get picked. There’s no trust in them from either the manager or the fans. For them to do something for the team, they’d need regular game time. Which, unless someone else gets an injury, I can’t see happening before they are inevitably sold in the summer. Unfortunate, but that’s football.

As the minutes ticked by the match got flatter and flatter, and eventually Milan held out to qualify 4-3 on aggregate. We just ran out of gas. A hard worked win against Liverpool on Saturday, and an explosive first half means it’s not hard to see why. Still, we got a whole lot closer than anyone really thought we would, so a huge amount of credit must be given to the players for that.

Pride

And it duly was. Heroic. Brave. Inspirational. Just a few of the words thrown around to describe what had been witnessed at the Emirates during the previous 90 minutes.

Rosicky looking dejected post match

The fact that the players and fans alike were so visibly gutted after the match shows just how close we were to the greatest European comeback of all time. The fact that we went from having a less than 5% chance of winning pre-match, to being huge favourites at half time. That was never expected to happen. And the players gave absolutely everything to ensure a thrilling night of football was once again delivered at the Emirates.

In fact, there was very little to be disappointed about. As in truth, the tie was completely over after the first leg and the main thing the players were playing for were the fans and for the momentum. Both were satisfied.

A compelling 3-0 win against the Italian League leaders is not an easy feat. It’s a very good result, and ignoring the overall aggregate score, it adds to our excellent recent run of form. That’s ten goals in three games now, against two excellent European sides full of history and tradition, and also Sp*rs.

The players showed again they have the required mental qualities to take on and beat a big side; something we thought was missing from their inner arsenals only a few weeks ago.

There were again some big performances from the likes of Rosicky (who absolutely ran the show in midfield and scored AGAIN), Oxlade-Chamberlain (who excelled playing in the middle and also worked hard tracking back), Walcott and RVP. But the defence need a special mention too, I think.

Is it a coincidence that our best form of the season comes at the same time we’ve only really been able to play our best back four? Probably not. And keeping those four guys fit as a group is probably as important as keeping RVP fit. Probably. Maybe. Hey, I’d rather they all kept fit to be honest.

And if they do, and if they keep this run going starting again against Newcastle on Monday night, then there’s no reason to think why we can’t go on and finish third. A week ago I would have taken fourth spot at the time if we were offered it. Actually, I probably would again now, such is the importance of finishing there.

But playing like this, with this passion, desire and belief, there’s no reason why we can’t go from strength to strength and end the season in the stunning form that can catapult us over those pricks from N17.

There’s a long way to go yet, and I’m sure there’ll be plenty more twists and turns along the way. No doubt we’ll again experience all of the above emotions, as we did last night. But hopefully not all during the same match. It’s not good for our hearts.

But my heart belongs to you, Arsenal. You may do with it as you wish.

Roll on Monday.