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Arsenal will be
forever convinced that Robin van Persie’s red card cost them the chance
of beating Barcelona but the truth is that they were overwhelmed, while
contributing heavily to their own downfall.

Barcelona’s 3-1 win
at the Nou Camp on Tuesday took them into the Champions League
quarter-finals by what looks a narrow 4-3 aggregate but they were a
class apart in every department, not least the one that Arsenal pride
themselves on – passing and possession.

The statistics tell
their own damming story as Barcelona enjoyed almost 70 percent of the
possession and made 738 passes to Arsenal’s 199. The Spaniards had 19
attempts on goal and substitute goalkeeper Manuel Almunia was the
visitors’ best player.

Arsenal did not
manage a single one – unless you include Van Persie’s wild
post-whistle, offside lash that became the game’s main talking point.

Arsenal had two
touches in the Barca penalty area, and one of those was the miscontrol
by Nicklas Bendtner near the end in a rare moment of concern for the
home defenders.

“The reality is
that they did not have three passes in a row,” said Barcelona manager
Pep Guardiola matter-of-factly having watched his amazing team build
spells of relentless possession that led again and again to dangerous
balls into, around, behind and through the over-worked Arsenal defence.

Clearly unfit

Yet, not that they
needed to, Arsenal gave Barcelona all the help they could muster. Cesc
Fabregas, desperate to play against his former, and possibly future,
club having missed the quarter-final second leg last season, was
clearly unfit.

Seemingly
protecting the hamstring strain that had made him a doubt right up
until kick off, the captain was anonymous apart from one ambitious
backheel just outside the box.

Unfortunately it
was outside his own box, moments before the sanctuary of halftime, and
led to Lionel Messi scoring the opening goal.

“I take full blame
for the result,” Fabregas said on his Twitter page
(twitter.com/cesc4official). “One of the worst moments of my life. I
apologise.” Wenger, however, could also be accused of contributing to
the defeat by deploying negative tactics.

Barcelona were
playing with midfielder Sergio Busquests and fullback Eric Abidal
thrown together in a makeshift centre back partnership crying out to be
pressurised.

Arsenal’s goal,
headed into his own net by Busquets as three Barcelona players went up
together to head clear a corner, should have alerted them, not that
they should have needed alerting, that the “world’s greatest team” were
vulnerable.

Yet, even with Van Persie on the field, they failed to put the duo under pressure.

The Dutchman was
furious about his red card, which seemed harsh even if he had heard the
whistle, yet he put himself in the precarious position by picking up an
earlier yellow card for a needless slap at Danny Alves.

Wenger was unhappy at the injustice of it all, but his side could
well have finished with nine players with Laurent Koscielny escaping
what may have been deemed a second yellow for his foul on Pedro to give
away the 71st-minute penalty that Messi converted to settle the tie.