Arsene Wenger promised that his Arsenal team had learnt from their mistakes of twelve months ago and the Gunners produced a battling performance to beat Barcelona and give themselves a very real chance of reaching the Champions League quarter finals.
Arsenal came out of the traps flying and were very much the dominant team for the first ten minutes, with Barca not getting time to settle on the ball. However, after a bright start, it was Pep Guardiola’s team that took the lead in a fairly straightforward fashion.
A through ball from Lionel Messi caught the Arsenal central defenders napping and David Villa made no mistake to slot home and give the Spanish side the lead.
For the rest of the first half, Barcelona were a dominant force, with the midfield axis of Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets getting the team’s passing game flowing and Messi causing problems for the home defence.
It seemed as though the Gunners were set for a frustrating evening but they kept pressing and Gael Clichy’s hooked ball to Robin van Persie in the 78th minute allowed the Dutchman to fire home from a narrow angle with the Barcelona keeper expecting the ball to be crossed.
Five minutes later and the home supporters were on their feet again, with Samir Nasri bursting down the right wing and playing the ball across to Andrey Arshavin who swept home the ball to give Arsenal the advantage for the second leg.
Arsenal are now best odds of 16/1 with William Hill bookmakers to win the Champions League.