Arsenal Moments: Andrey Arshavin winner against Barcelona

In honour of the Champions League Round of 16 kicking off last week and Arsenal without a match this weekend, I thought it would be nice to look back at a time when the Gunners were competing in Europe’s most prestigious club competition: The Champions League.

There was a time when Arsenal was the platonic footballing ideal of every football fan. The distinction of “playing the right way,” a phrase born out of witnessing Pep Guardiola’s tiki-taka Barcelona side win the treble during the 2008-09 season with an artistry never before seen, teams across Europe strived to create their own version of tiki-taka football.

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Arsenal were the closest thing to Barcelona; dubbed  Barcelona-lite, they had to face off against their more accomplished footballing relatives for a second year in a row.

They faced Barcelona during the 2009-10 season in the Round of 16 of the Champions League. Coming back from two Zlatan Ibrahimović goals in the first-leg at the Emirates, Arsenal lost the tie in the second-leg after Lionel Messi scored three goals. A year on, supporters cursed their luck, as their club had to face the juggernaut for the second year in a row. They also cursed Arsène Wenger for being too nonchalant in the group stages, losing to Braga and Shakhtar Donetsk which led to a second-place finish and, inevitably, a tie against one of the stronger sides in Europe.

Barcelona would lose only six competitive games on their way to winning the Champions League trophy and La Liga title. One of those losses, their only loss in the Champions League that year, came at the hands of Arsenal and a special Russian maestro.

This is an Arsenal team that I look back at with a lot of affection. They exhibited a brashness that comes with youth which was illustrated on the pitch in their competitiveness, adventurousness, ingenuity and athleticism. The team on the day consisted of Emmanuel Eboué and Theo Walcott, two vertical runners on the right-side, Samir Nasri, a mazy dribbler, a nineteen-year-old Jack Wilshere without the weight of an injury record looming over him, Cesc Fàbregas, Arsenal’s twenty-three-year-old club captain, slipping balls through for the lethal Robin van Persie and on the bench Andrey Arshavin. This team, with the defensive frailties that are synonymous with any Arsenal team from the last ten years, had the potential to lay a few blows themselves.

Arsenal created the first legitimate chance of the game from a confident passing move starting with Wilshere winning the ball in Barcelona’s half. The ball cycled back and forth from left to right touching the foot of every Arsenal player, bar Wojciech Szczęsny in goal. The cutting-edge and improvisation came from Walcott who received a pass to feet from Alex Song: jinking past two opposing players at the top of Barcelona’s penalty-area, he squared the ball for Fàbregas who, with an obvious option in Nasri to his left, played a gentle dink toward Barcelona’s net instead for van Persie to latch on to. The subsequent shot was saved smartly by Víctor Valdés, but Barcelona were revealed to be fallible.

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Despite Arsenal’s early opportunity, they would be the first to concede from a David Villa goal and were lucky to see a Lionel Messi chip drift wide right just moments before. Still, they knew they were not out of the game based on their experience just a season prior. They were not wrong.

After the first goal, Barcelona continued to have chances, dominating the first half. It was only until the second-half that Arsenal began to have their say. The pressure mounted, and it was their once talismanic striker, now an unforgivable traitor, who scored the equalizer from an extremely tight angle on the byline just left of Barcelona’s goal. Valdes expected a cross, but, in typical van Persie fashion, he went for goal as the fleeting opportunity presented itself.

Five minutes later, the goal that I love to gush over rosily, came. Arsenal broke again to devastating effect scoring, what Clive Tyldesley described as, “a Barcelona goal from Arsenal.” Wilshere found Fabregas with a one-touch pass that allowed the Spaniard to turn and play a 40-yard ball with the outside of his foot for Nasri to receive down the right side. With three Barcelona defenders retreating towards their goal, Nasri cut inside on his left foot looking for support from a teammate. Van Persie arrived into the box first; he darted toward the back-post drawing two Barcelona defenders. Following close behind was Arshavin, arriving late and unnoticed, he occupied the space opened by van Persie’s run. Nasri found Arshavin, and, with a cooling, icy composure, Arshavin side-footed the ball, first-time, around a closing Éric Abidal and a helpless Valdés.

Martin Tyler on his commentary saw the moment coming, as he famously screamed, “Arrshaaaaaaaavin” before the ball even reached the Russian. The goal resembled one that Barcelona would have been proud to score, but with an element of Englishness that only Arsenal were capable of constructing.

Arshavin’s career at the Emirates petered out as his lethargy began to dominate his performances. Supporters claimed he was lazy and over-weight and by the time he left Arsenal, nobody was clamouring for him to stay. He came in January 2009 and was an immediate help in Arsenal’s pursuit of a top-four finish that season, contributing six goals and seven assists in 12 Premier League games. His time at Arsenal did not materialize in silverware, but he will be distinctly remembered for his nimble style, powerful right-foot and ability to create breathtaking moments.

Arsenal were still underdogs going into the second-leg, as Arsène Wenger explained during his press conference after the first-leg. Barcelona dominated the second-leg. The task was made even more difficult when van Persie was shown his second yellow card for kicking the ball away after the whistle had blown for offside. In the end, Arsenal lost 3-4 on aggregate.

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There are fewer opportunities to witness moments like this — win or lose — if you are an Arsenal supporter now. However, one is quickly approaching, next week’s Carabao Cup Final, against Pep Guardiola and another historically good team in Manchester City.