Written by Adam Gold Wednesday, 31 March 2010 17:58

GunnerTalk Blog

By Adam Gold

On possibly the most passionate night of football seen yet at Arsenal's still-new Emirates Stadium, Gooners walked home with all thoughts on three legendary club footballers.

It was nine years since David Rocastle died. The fans clenched their fists, sang their hearts out and somehow tried to honour the spirit of their favourite son - Rocky - as the Gunners fought back to 2-2 against (on paper) the greatest team in Europe.

The contest drew Arsenal's greatest ever goalscorer and talisman Thierry Henry back into North London to face his former team for the first - and probably the last - time. Henry received his own unique welcome from the fans during the warm-up, a standing ovation when he came on as a sub, and he applauded every corner of the pitch in return after the final whistle. It was hard seeing him play against us, but - it seemed - he felt like that as well, and he did basically nothing for Barca in his cameo on the left wing. Didn't fancy hurting us Gooners too much!

And the third legend - and I'd argue after today's performance he earns that status despite being only 22 - is Captain Fantastic, Cesc Fabregas.

He took on the team of his childhood. The team his supported and played for as a boy. The idiot referee booked him when every other human with a pair of eyes in the ground thought he'd won the ball. That denied Fabregas a chance to play in his Catalan homecoming - he'd have to sit out the away leg. Cesc's response? As I said at the time to my cousins in the stands, he'll either score the crucial goal or get himself sent off... It was the former.

With the game looking dead and buried at 2-0 down, we felt it would just get embarrassing. Arsene Wenger had other ideas, and threw on Theo Walcott who was utterly dangerous from that moment. Then a vintage Arsenal quick-passing move led to Barca's Puyol shoving Fab over in the box - penalty. The tension was unbearable as Puyol refused to leave the pitch, delaying Cesc's spotkick. Finally he took it - smashed it down the middle and bosh - 2-2.

He was injured during this key moment - and hobbled around heroically for the remainder of the game, because we'd used all our subs. It was one of those Terry Butcher moments - he might be Spanish, but he showed a bit of lionheart on this night. Despite barely being able to move, Cesc even almost got the winner late on! What a truly tremendous footballer. And a captain's performance that echoed Frank McLintock, Tony Adams and Patrick Vieira.

Because of Cesc, we go to the Nou Camp with nothing to lose. We'll attack Barcelona, and we can beat them there. Score two goals and it's game on - but we could even do them one nil. I'd love that after the Barca fans gave us a taste of our own "one nil to the Arsenal" song when they reached that scoreline in their favour.

If they beat us, or it's 0-0 or 1-1, what's the shame in that? Barcelona on this form can be compared to the likes of the Brazil and Ajax teams of the 1970s. They started this game with the closest thing I've seen to Total Football... And I'm an Arsenal fan!

They closed us down and hassled us with incredible intensity in the first 20 minutes - our players couldn't cope at all. We couldn't find an outlet, kept losing the ball, and their one-touch passing and skilled control was mesmerising. Playing them felt to us what it must feel like to Bolton fans when they come up against the Arsenal. Just overwhelmed!

Barcelona could have been four, five even eight nil up in the first half an hour. They absolutely murdered us. And our players did their best, but the gulf in experience and quality was there. Our much-maligned keeper Manuel Almunia had the best half of a football match in his Arsenal career to keep us in the contest. He flung himself in front of shot after shot - I counted five awesome saves by him in the first 30 minutes or so. He played out of his skin that half.

The second half was a different matter. Barcelona struck immediately after the break with a Ibrahimovich running onto a ball down the left channel and finishing beautifully over stranded Almunia. He scored an almost identical goal not long afterwards, this time powering his strike in at the near post. Barcelona hitting the net was inevitable.

That we came back after such a hammer blow speaks loudly about how far this young team have come, in terms of grit, determination, fitness and pure passion. Us fans in the stands really felt it would go on to be 3-0 or 4-0, but we ended with a result. Now let's see who's got what guts in the second leg...

A word about Barcelona. We wanted to love them, for the fact that they play beautiful football like we do. And they were astonishingly good, especially at the beginning of both halves. And Pep Guardiola is the man I'd most like to take over from Wenger as our gaffer when the Frenchman finally retires - until I spot a manager who might suit us even better. But...

...what a set of dirty, nasty, grubby little f***ers they were. Cheating, appalling, unpleasant, a lot of their tactics made me feel physically sick. The ref didn't help much - the worst I've ever seen at the Emirates. Mind you the Swiss have often been dubious at making decisions - remember that one where they chose NOT to fight the Nazis in World War II? Good riddance, Mr Busacca - don't ever come back here.

But let's not end on a bad note. Let's end on the fact that the Arsenal dug deeper than ever before and fought back against the best visitors we've ever had. Now let's dig even deeper at the Nou Camp. Let's beat Barcelona at their place.