The dark artists of Catalonia

Well, that was brilliant wasn't it? A match winning performance if ever I saw one. Yes,Barcelona must be delighted at the performance of the Swiss official Massimo Busaca last night. You can come here and tell me, till you're blue in the face if you like, that Barcelona were the better team- they were, that they dominated possession- they did and that they created enough chances to win the game- likewise. But what you have to concede in return is that Bussaca's red card for Arsenal came at a time when Arsenal had just begun to gain a foothold in last night's match. It also came at a time when, for all Barca's possession, Arsenal were leading the tie. You will also have to concede that it was a staggeringly harsh punishment.

In fact, issuing a second yellow card of the evening and then sending a centre forward off for the crime of having a shot on goal one second after you've blown your whistle in a stadium full of 95,000 noisy catalans is not just harsh, it's ridiculous. The insult to injury comes when you consider that, had Busacca done his job properly in the first place, Robin wouldn't have been on a yellow card to begin with. What? Allow me to enlighten you. Late in the first half the fracas that followed a pretty hefty tackle on Jack Wilshere, certainly Eric Abidal had Robin van Persie around the throat whilst another Barca suspect (Alves? Busquets?) did the same to Samir Nasri. And what was the referees response to this/ Well, he and his two linesman decide to do a Horatio Nelson and pretend that they saw the square root of nada. Just minutes later, understandably fired up the by the continual refusal to do anything about Barcelona's skullduggery, van Persie raises his hands to Dani Alves- though barely enough to trigger the reaction that followed and finds his way into the book.

In truth, the referee had set his stall out early as, it has to be said, had the Barca team. Barca played the way that they apparently always play, excellent in possession, speed of thought and movement making them extremely difficult to cope with. The fact that they greeted almost every tackle by collapsing to the floor make them difficult to tackle, the fact that the referee seemed more than happy to allow them to leave their feet in made it all the more difficult to keep the ball. Especially in an Arsenal side clearly already struggling.

On reflection, the story of Arsenal's night was a comedy of errors, but with all the comedy taken out. We got the psychological boost of seeing van Persie and Fabregas restored to the starting lineup, only to witness the reality of their states of "fitness", we got Diaby and Rosicky in the midfield- when really all these two can be good for is the bench. And not the bench at a club with Champions League aspirations. We gotWojciech Szczesny dislocating his finger in gathering an Alves free kick- just one more reason to hate one of the biggest cheats I've ever seen on a football pitch. And yes, I include Eboue in that assessment. Which, of course, saw the return of Manuel Almunia to the first team, and didn't he play well? We got, deep into the injury time that resulted from Szczesny's injury, Cesc's first contribution to the match, the mother of all brain farts and a backheel- a backheel!- on the edge of our penalty area. Iniesta pounced, teed up Messi, who flicked the ball over Almunia and smacked it home on the volley.

Barca were worth their goal lead, I think, though aside from the Maxwell shot that smacked off the post, it was tough to think of many clear sights of our goal- our centre backs working hard to put out any number of fires. You have to say though, that not had only had we not had a shot in anger, we hadn't even threatened one.

The second half began in a much more positive vein, I thought. And in that positive vein, Samir Nasri dribbled down our left taking on three Barca players. He won a corner. He took the corner. Diaby jumped, the ball ended up in the Barca net- off Busquets! Busquets, the only man who migbht have a bigger claim to being a cheat than Alves, the Karma Police had arrived! Just as during last season's tie though, our joy was limited to about three minutes worth. Unlike last season when it was the magic of Messi pissing all over our dreams, we have a whistle happy cheat from Switzerland to thank.
And once van Persie was gone, I think it was simply a case of delaying the inevitable. We didn't delay Barca too long. I can sit here and rage about the way they marry their brilliant football with the dark arts. But sometimes you have to just give credit to that brilliant football and that was never more evident than in Xavi's heartbreaking goal with just under a quarter of the match left. As in 2006, the turnaround was completed quickly, with Messi blasting the ball into the corner from the penalty spot after a Koscielny foul on Pedro.

They could have had more, Villa was denied by Almunia. When Afellay replaced him, the substitute had two chances to get four on the board again but passed them up. Against all the odds, we came so, so close to securing a memorable passage through to the quarter finals when the tireless and excpetional Jack Wilshere won the ball, drove forward and fed Bendtner on the edge of the Barcelona box- Bendtner had replaced Fabregas by then. He was one on one with the keeper, could he hold his nerve and score? You all know the answer now, this legend in his own lunchtime couldn't even control the ball well enough to get his shot away- Javier Mascherano making a cracking recovery tackle he should never have been allowed to. To add to the chance Bendtner messed up late in the first tie, this one was gone and with it so were we.

I don't have any problem with saying the better team won, but I'm not sure how Graeme Souness can sit on a sofa and say that playing for 40 minutes with a man less than the best passing side in the world wouldn't have affected the result. Once we lost our centre forward and settled into a 4-5 bank, we were opened up time and time again. Say what you like about Barca, but they didn't manage this with such ease whilst it was 11 v 11. Why? Because it's easy to go forward against a team with no centre forward. Obviously, we were looking to hold Barca and hit them on the break towards the end, the dismissal of van Persie robbed us of that opportunity, More to the point, what would the Dutchman have made of that late chance? He would have got his shot away at least, Massimo Bussaca knows that much. Barca had 40 of 180 minutes against 10 men and for all their, well documented, superiority they beat us by one single, solitary goal. Talking of solitary goals, we now know the true cost of Eduardo's winner against us late last year. That's one to ponder on, isn't it? Effectively knocked out by our former striker.

I think we now have confirmation, as if we didn't know it already, that this Arsenal squad- although they still have a good chance of winning the league- are not going to be good enough against the very best the continent has to offer. There are too many passengers in the squad, too many players that you just can't rely on. I think 1-11 we're as good as anyone, except the dark artists of Catalonia, but when you start having to throw in the likes of Diaby, Bendtner, Rosicky, Almunia (though no blame to him for last night- he was brilliant), you are going to struggle. Then you look at players like Eboue and Denilson, what is the point of them, really? I think the time has come for Arsène to bite the bullet and go and get us the kind of striker that would have put away that chance last night, we know now that having one of them just isn't enough.

Just as I began this piece, news came in that both Samir Nasri and Arsène Wengerhave been charged byUEFA as a result of comments made to Bussaca last night. Great, he screws up and we cop it twice over. Merci beaucoup, Platini.