Official Gooners Thread - A New Hope

[gallsman]

Jeez, didn't even think of Ajax!

The match. Barca are incredible. Yes, Arsenal got treated unbelievably harshly with the sending off, but they were getting torn apart anyway.

Fabregas clearly wasn't fit.

Arsenal didn't appear to have any tactics. Not one shot? Come on Arsene, at least give the thing a go.

Messi's goal will live long in the memory. That dink was one of the most special things I've ever seen on a football pitch. I didn't cop on until the replay just what he'd actually tried. Regardless of the backheel, the build up play to it from Iniesta was phenomenal.

Daniel Alves, for all the theatrical whinging and crying, is absolutely outstanding. Without doubt the best right back on the planet. He should actually shoot a bit more and learn to be a little more selfish. Unreal player.

Wilshere is brilliant. Needs to keep the temper and agro in check as well. Tweeting a little too much for a first year pro.

Bendtner is a donkey. Apparently some sports psychologist analysed him and said he'd never come across someone with so much self-confidence. He genuinely believes he's an all time great.

[ballinaman]

Only 4 capital cities have seen one of their clubs win the CL/European Cup - and London ain't one of those 4 cities.

Really fancy Chelsea this year, in a one off game they'd really rattle Barcelona.

Madrid, Lisbon, Belgrade, Bucharest?

Paris, Rome, Berlin?

[ross4life]

Only 4 capital cities have seen one of their clubs win the CL/European Cup - and London ain't one of those 4 cities.

Really fancy Chelsea this year, in a one off game they'd really rattle Barcelona.

Madrid, Lisbon, Belgrade, Bucharest?

Paris, Rome, Berlin?

Nope, plenty of final's in those places i think Roma got the closest (beaten by pool on penalties)

[ballinaman]

Only 4 capital cities have seen one of their clubs win the CL/European Cup - and London ain't one of those 4 cities.

Really fancy Chelsea this year, in a one off game they'd really rattle Barcelona.

Madrid, Lisbon, Belgrade, Bucharest?

Paris, Rome, Berlin?

Nope, plenty of final's in those places i think Roma got the closest (beaten by pool on penalties)

Ah right, thought it was which capital cities has never won a european cup/champions league....

[Aaron Boone]

Only 4 capital cities have seen one of their clubs win the CL/European Cup - and London ain't one of those 4 cities.

Really fancy Chelsea this year, in a one off game they'd really rattle Barcelona.

Madrid, Lisbon, Belgrade, Bucharest?

Correct 4 here. The Hague is capital of Holland.

[Dinny Breen]

Can you pur your trivia somewhere else and for the record the Dutch government sits in the The Hague but Amsterdam is the actually capital.

[Billys Boots]

Sore this morning Dinny?

[Bingo]

Read on twitter last night:

Arsenal had one shot at goal and had a man sent off for it. 

[nrico2006]

The other one is that Arsenal are going off winning trophies for lent again this year.

[deiseach]

Can you pur your trivia somewhere else and for the record the Dutch government sits in the The Hague but Amsterdam is the actually capital.

You are correct. The bane of my life, that one

[ONeill]

A lot of Arsenal fans still blaming the referee. He did make a mistake but for Arsenal to go through it would have been daylight robbery. I know a lot of teams and their supporters couldn't give a damn about that but personally I'd rather see the best footballing side progress. Twenty attempts versus zero attempts is enough for me.

[Dinny Breen]

Sore this morning Dinny?

Every morning Billy I'm that age now plus will have to listen to the Arsenal cliches for the next while i.e. 'Bottlers, Soft Underbelly (what ever that is?), chokers, need a centre back, need a goalie etc etc etc....'

[Archie Mitchell]

The ref did balls up the RVP red card but still wouldn't have made a difference, especially when you look at the stats in bold below.

Were Barca that good or were Arsenal that poor that Arsenal didn't even have a shot at all?

Pure genius from Messi from the goal, and some of the passing play in the 2nd half was out of this world.


Barcelona v Arsenal: The Statistics from F355

* Depending on the method of calculation, Arsenal had somewhere between 24% (Opta) and 32% (UEFA) of possession in the Nou Camp.

* UEFA conclude that Barcelona had the ball for 49' 3" while Arsenal had control for 22' 41'' of the game.

* According to Sky Sports, Barcelona completed 724 passes versus Arsenal's 199.

* According to Opta's figures, Arsenal completed 71% of their passes while Barcelona's completion figure was 90%.

* Barcelona's midfield trio was Javier Mascherano (95 passes, 86% success), Xavi (133 passes, 90% success) and Andres Iniesta (105 passes, 92% success).

* Arsenal's midfield trio was Abou Diaby (24 passes, 88% success), Jack Wilshere (33 passes, 79% success) and Cesc Fabregas (30 passes, 70% success).

* No Arsenal player had a single shot - on, off target or blocked. Seven Barca players had attempts on goal - including both full-backs.

* Barcelona recorded 21 shots - 12 were on target, five off target and the remainder were blocked.

* In his 56 minutes on the pitch Robin van Persie had attempted eight passes.

* The Dutchman had not touched the ball in the opposition penalty area and Opta track his average position as well inside Arsenal's own half of the pitch.

* According to their figures, the only Arsenal player who logged an average position in the opposition half was substitute Andrey Arshavin.

* Arsenal committed 19 fouls to Barcelona's eight. Five of those fouls were attributed to Jack Wilshere.

* Laurent Koscielny has been yellow carded in each of his last three games for Arsenal. He has picked up nine yellows and two reds in total this season.

* Arsenal have scored more goals (21) than any other team in the Champions League this season. But ten teams have had more shots.

* Seven Barcelona players grace the top ten 'total passes' chart for the Champions League this season. Sergio Busquets, Xavi and Iniesta are the top three.

* Arsenal's first entrant on that list is Jack Wilshere down in 17th place - just below FC Copenhagen's William Kvist Jorgensen.

* Abou Diaby has conceded nine goals in his last three Champions League games - all against Barcelona.

* Manuel Almunia has conceded ten goals in the 271 minutes he has played against Barcelona in his career. That's a goal conceded every 27 minute

[Geoff Tipps]

Since Opta started analysing every Champions League game in August 2003, Arsenal are the only team ever to record zero shots in a match.

[Dinny Breen]

Yet for all those damining statistics Arsenal could have won it if Bendtner had scored 3 mins from the end. Sport eh! Although the internet probably would have broken down with the injustice of it all if he had....