Arsenal closer to Orient than Barcelona

Arsenal are billed as the English Barcelona. They are seen as one of the few teams in the world that is similar in it's style of play to Barcelona. Arsenal looked closer to Leyton Orient last night rather than Barcelona.

Lionel Messi scored two goals last night at the Nou Camp to take him to a record breaking 33 Champions League goals for Barcelona, that is 2 more than Rivaldo despite only being 23 (6 months younger than me). Barcelona completed 724 passes whilst Arsenal completed 199. Two similar teams?!
Barcelona had 21 attempts on goal, 12 on target. Arsenal had zilch, their goal coming from the head of Sergio Busquets
7 Barcelona players are in the top ten of attempted passes in the Champs League, Arsenla have Jack Wilshere..............in 17th place

The stats go to show the alarming gulf between the two European clubs. Arsenal like to play a pretty game, keeping the ball and probing the opposition defence. That is all well and good against Blackburn and Stoke, Barcelona pose a complete different threat.

Arsene Wenger sold out somewhat last night. Using Rosicky over Arshavin or Bendtner showed that he was attempting to defend more than attack. Clichy and Sagna never attempted to cross the half way line and only once in the 1st half did Arsenal venture forward with any purpose. Many teams have attempted to douse the fire that Barcelona try to light, not many try fight fire with fire. Arsenal lost the game last night, but they also lost dignity. They did not go down fighting, rather with a whimper.

Many fans will look towards the inexplicable sending off of Van Persie. Yet again Arsenal, and the English public will look to hide behind an embarrassing fact that the English game is light years behind the Spanish game. Dani Alves was the outlet for Barcelona from the 1st kick of the game, had he made better choices in the final 3rd, Barca really could have had 6 or 7. Pedro played a lot without the ball, drifting in off the right wing and dragging Clichy inside, allowing Alves to overlap and leave Nasri in his wake. Wilshere and Diaby could not live with the dazzling feet of Iniesta who once again lit up the world with his trickery. Fabregas was as much a bystander as Valdes was throughout the match and would not have enjoyed his homecoming one bit.

I for one am a little more gung-ho and would have liked to have seen two Arsenal strikers on the pitch, maybe 3 with a more conservative outlook later in the game. Mascherano sitting in front of Abidal and Sergio were not tested enough and maybe a three pronged attack of Chamakh, Van Persie and Bendtner would have been more effective.

Ah, Arsenal and Arsene, what could have been!