Well after a few hours of digesting the roller coaster of a match, I figured as one of the sole Barcelona fans on the board I should give my congratulations to the Arsenal folk.

In my 10 years of following Barcelona I have certainly seen the team go from up to down. There was a period where Barcelona won nothing and it looked like we were never going to see the light at the end of the tunnel; then Rijkaard came and we righted the ship...then 2007/08 came and we gave up...then Pep came and ushered to us a new brand of football that took us to the top. I had forgotten what it was like to see a Barca team be the second best team on the pitch; something I was forced to watch today. Now this is no "woe is me", "the sky is falling" time for me personally; I have complete faith in Pep Guardiola as he has proven to be one of the masterful tactitians of the game today but I must question a few of his decisions in today's game.

The initial line-up was about what I expected: the trident of Messi-Villa-Pedro with the usual suspects in midfield and a backline of Alves-Pique-Abidal-Maxwell. The backline scared me because if the tie from last season showed me anything about Arsenal it's that they have an incredible amount of pace. Maxwell is clearly not capable of handling Walcott but with the absence of Puyol, that's all that could be done. My main disturbance with Pep is the substitutions, why bring on Keita for Villa? Villa scored the goal and he gives you the best attacking option for a player not named Messi, something Barcelona still needed considering they were only up 1-0 at the time. Secondly, why bring Adriano on for Iniesta? Surely Affelay would give you a better attacking option on the left. These two substitutions showed me that Pep was confident that they could take a 1-0 win back to the Camp Nou and he was going to try to play a more defensive/holding type of game for the last 15 minutes. It failed. Utterly.

I figure much will be made in Spain about the two handballs, Messi's "offside goal", and Alex Song deserving red, but I won't harp on that too much. The truth is that Arsenal played a wonderful game today. I was blown away at how much better they look this season than last season. Jack Wilshere was clearly the man of the match and I must question if you didn't pluck him from La Masia?

He has all the qualities of the great Barcelona midfielders of past and present; he quite literally out-Barca'd Barcelona, as did the entire Arsenal team. Hold onto him, he's young and he is an absolute animal.

Hearing you Arsenal fans talk about your defense, I figured Barcelona would slip a few goals past but number 6 (Koscielny?) was absolutly keeping Lionel Messi & co in check, especially in the second half. I comitted a fatal mistake in giving up on Robin Van Persie, he had done nothing by sky shots into the stands a la Frank Lampard all night that I sort of gave up that he was a significant threat...until that bastard went all Roberto Carlos-esque. I blam the goal on Valdes' poor positioning, he came out too far from the near post so when RVP rocketed it in there, he had ZERO reaction time. Beatiful goal by Van Persie, but something Valdes should have stopped. Same thing with Arshavin's goal....beautiful goal but a goal that I felt Abidal could have handled had he not shyed away.

On to Barcelona: Pedro could/should have been better. He lacked control and he didn't make many smart runs to catch the Arsenal defense of guard. Alves was immense tonight, he found acres of space on the right side of the pitch, he just couldn't get a final, decisive ball to the head or feat of the attackers. Sub-par performance out of Iniesta, Maxwell, and Pique. I feel Pique got caught flat footed at moments and he let Walcott/Nasri dance around him at points, which sucks because he is usually the most solid defender we have besides Puyol. Busquets has come a LONG way. Last year, many Barcelona fans were hard on him ESPECIALLY after his antics versus Inter Milan, but he has proven to be a valuable asset to the team, his passes are perfect and he holds the ball really well. Messi found little space tonight but he had a really nice chance in the opening 20 minutes that he barely missed, and his goal that was ruled offside...which I don't think was offside.

Clearly the Barcelona man of the match was Abidal. He was the anchor on the defense that Pique should have been. He has the pace to keep up with Arsenal's attackers and he is just a monster on defense. He's been with Barca for 3 years, and I don't think i've ever seen him better than he has been this season.

That's it i think. Have I left anything out? Sorry for the long post, I suppose you don't have to read it if you don't want

, but I figured I'd give my analysis. Anyway, it will all be decided in the Camp Nou! See you guys there!

Visca Barca!