Kenwyne Jones opened the scoring with another headed goal from a Jermaine Pennant cross. Ryan Shawcross tapped in a second from inside six yards, and Jermaine Pennant made it 3-0 with a deflected shot from about eight yards.

Wolves were very poor while Stoke continue to impress, playing to their strengths under the excellent management of Tony Pulis.

Wolves (34 points) stay in the bottom three, along with Wigan (33 points) and West Ham (32 points) but there is still time for all three to avoid relegation with four games still to play.
Blackpool climb out of the relegation places on goal difference after a 1-1 draw with Newcastle on Saturday.  Blackburn are currently 16th (35 points) and Birmingham (38 points) are far from safe following a run of bad results.  Fulham are in 14th position with 39 points and a game in-hand on the six teams below them, which I believe will be enough to see them play Premier League football next season.

I personally think the relegation battle will go to the final day and is now between the bottom six: Birmingham, Blackburn, Blackpool, Wigan, Wolves and West Ham.

At the top of the Premiership Arsenal and Tottenham both dropped more points at the weekend.  Spurs were held to a 2-2 draw at White Hart Lane by West Brom, while Arsenal lost away to Bolton. Tottenham appear to have blown a chance of a top four finish and Champions League football next season with two from a possible six points last week; while Manchester City overcame Blackburn on Monday with Edin Dzecko’s first Premier League goal.

Man City are now 5 points clear of Spurs with five games to play; and with Arsenal winning only one point from their last two games, Arsene Wenger will be looking over his shoulder at Roberto Mancini’s sky blues who are now just 5 points behind them with a game in hand.

Chelsea continued their recent good run as the most inform team in the Premier League with a 3-0 thrashing of West Ham on Sunday, including a first goal for Fernando Torres, and Manchester United continued to grind out results beating Everton at Old Trafford 1-0 on Saturday.

Both Chelsea (67 points) & Manchester United (73 points) have four games left.  This weekend Chelsea are at home to Spurs while Man Utd are away to Arsenal; two massive games for all four clubs.  But the Premier League title could be decided when Chelsea play Manchester Utd at Old Trafford on Sunday 8th May.

Ahead of the tie on Tuesday afternoon Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger made the surprise announcement that the clubs top scorer Samir Nasri will be available for tonight’s game having recovered from a hamstring injury sustained in the FA Cup clash with Huddersfield Town on January 30th.

The French midfielder had been expecting to be sidelined by the injury for three weeks, but Wenger said yesterday, “He’s recovered quicker than expected. I said it would be 21 days but it will be only 17 days.”

Nasri’s inclusion in the Arsenal squad will be a bonus for the North Londoners although Wenger has made it clear he will not be taking any chances on the player and will make a decision today (Wednesday) as to whether Nasri will be included in his starting line up.

While Arsenal have been getting by quite nicely without Nasri, there is no doubt that his inclusion in the squad is a huge lift for the team.

His form this season has been exceptional putting him into contention for the Premier League Player of the Year award. As playmaker and goal scorer the French midfielder is unrecognisable from last season at Arsenal.

Other team news from the Arsenal camp is that Tomas Rosicky has recovered from a groin injury but Abou Diaby has been ruled out with a calf injury.

Meanwhile Barcelona’s Andre Iniesta who missed the Quarter Final contest between the two teams last season, has suggested that his team will have to beat ‘one of the best teams in the world’ if they are to progress in this seasons Champions League contest.

Iniesta will be fit to face the Gunner’s this time around but says that the tie will be decided at the Nou Camp in the second leg, ‘It is the Champions League, we find ourselves against the best in the world so I don’t think anyone will think the tie can be won today.’

Arsenal fans might be tempted to wager a few pound on their team to win the Champions League Cup before tonight’s game as the online betting odds are currently offering 20/1, while Barcelona are clear favourites to go all the way at 7/4.

The current odds for tonight’s match are not so spectacular however, with Arsenal to win at 3/1, Barcelona to win 10/11 and a draw at 13/5.

Arsenal will have been lifted by this result, particularly as they are playing consistently well and present the only real challenge to Manchester United in the Premier league.

Arsene Wenger claims that the Gunners have closed the gap on their rivals since being punished in the quarter final of the Champions League last season when Messi scored four goals in their 4-1 romp at the Nou Camp and Arsenal escaped with a draw at the Emirates.

Despite playing the most attractive football in the Premier League, I really can’t see that the North Londoners are equal to Barcelona, but they are closing the gap due to Wenger being in a position to field his best players on a more regular basis this year.

None more so than Robin Van Persie who has scored more goals in the Premiership in 2011 than any other, with ten goals so far in less than two months. But the Dutchman has only featured in one Champions League game for Arsenal, and although he scored on that occasion all eyes will be on the Barcelona goal machine Lionel Messi, who has scored 13 times in his last eleven CL games.

In midfield it will be interesting to compare Xavi and Fabregas, perhaps the Barcelona players future replacement. Despite Cesc providing a joint Premier League high of nine assists this season, four more than Xavi, it is the Barcelona player who comes out on top in tackling and accuracy of passing.

In the Champions League however, Xavi has managed just the one goal assist so far (and no goals), although he has hit a competition-high 366 accurate passes in the opposition half. Arsenal captain Fabregas, on the other hand, has already bagged three goals and provided two goal assists.

While the likes of Messi and Fabregas will no doubt provide some of the highlights of the game on Wednesday, the outcome of the game may well depend on the performances of both sides’ defences.

Laurent Koscielny has endured a mixed start to his career with Arsenal, but in recent weeks, his partnership with Johan Djourou has become vital to Arsenal’s title tilt. Indeed, with those two in position in central defence in the Gunners’ last seven league games, Arsenal have kept five clean sheets. Koscielny has also impressed in attack, netting two goals so far.

His Spanish counterpart, Puyol, has already netted one goal, while his distribution, like that of all the Barca players, is superb, with 91% of his passes finding a team-mate in La Liga.

Castrol Performance data shows that Arsenal will know what to expect after their quarter-final clash with Barcelona last season.

Over the two legs, Barcelona asserted their total domination of the ball, completing 654 passes more than the Gunners. Pep Guardiola’s were too much to handle over the two legs, unleashing 37 shots, that’s one every five minutes. Nearly half of those attempts found the target (18). Lionel Messi alone had nearly twice as many shots on target as the Gunners, testing Manuel Almunia nine times, four of which found the back of the net.

Arsene Wenger will be warned to wrestle the initiative away from Barcelona early on. Last season, Arsenal were battered in the first-half of their first leg at the Emirates. As shown by the average position graphic below, all of Barca’s outfield players – barring their centre-halves – spent the majority of their time in the Gunners half of the pitch.

Given Barcelona’s dominance in La Liga again this season I would expect a repeat of last seasons quarter final score at the Emirates and am going for a 2-2 draw.

castrol performance research

In a manner normally reserved by the big teams for Carling Cup competition games, Wenger announced before the game in the Ukraine that he had chosen a team that he considered would win the tie, when defending his team selection to the press.

After just ten minutes it appeared that his choice had been vindicated when Theo Walcott, doing his best impression of former Arsenal favourite Thierry Henry, raced clear onto a Jack Wilshire pass to score the opening goal.

Perversely, the goal seemed to knock the creativity out of Arsenal, while galvanising the Shakhtar reserve and it was no surprise when the home side drew level just under half hour into the game with the Arsenal defence caving into the constant onslaught on their goal.

It was an unfortunate moment for Champions League debutant Craig Eastwood who inadvertently headed the ball into his own net, but it was a goal that Shakhtar deserved given the incessant pressure they were mounting on the Arsenal goal.

A bitter sweet winner from former Arsenal player Eduardo effectively finished the game for the Gunners on the stroke of half time and despite chances for both teams in the second half you couldn’t help feeling that the introduction of Vela (59mins) and particularly Chamakh (73mins) was too little too late for Arsenal.

Arsenal still only need a win from their last two group games to go through to the knock out stages and only a mad man would bet against them progressing, but instead of leading the table by three points they have allowed Shakthar to join them on equal points at the top of their group table.

After the game Wenger said the defeat was down to complacency rather than individual problems  saying ‘after a good start we lost our urgency.’

While that is a fair assumption it has to be said that without some of their key players on the night, Arsenal were made to look quite ordinary.

Although the manager insists that Arsenal are in no position to prioritise any one competition in their chase for a trophy this season, surely he had one eye on this weekend’s Premier League fixture against Newcastle when choosing the Arsenal team to play Shakhtar.

“It is interesting that the Castrol Predictor shows that Brazil is most likely to win – I see why, because it is based on historical games and on that basis, Brazil deserve to be the top – but personally I think that England, Argentina, Spain and the Netherlands are more likely to win the World Cup,” said the canny Frenchman when asked who he thought would lift the trophy in 2010.

Further questioned by Castrol regarding his thoughts on what players are likely to feature at thetop of the Castrol Index in this tournament, Wenger had only one player in his thoughts. Having seen Arsenal tormented by the young South American in the Champions League recently, Wenger said;

“Lionel Messi is an exceptional talent, but his game relies on his ability to run with the ball and change direction and for him to be able to do that, he needs to be playing on a perfect pitch. The pitches in South America are bobbly but hopefully the pitches in South Africa will suit him.”

Wenger also praised the Castrol Index as a tool to help identify talent, saying; “The Castrol Index is designed to measure the performance of the players and it is the best possible help you can get as a manager, that in a very positive way because it takes into account the defensive and offensive moves and it will be very interesting to see this for the first time in the World Cup.
It gives the fans the opportunity to get new insight and helps them to see the players in a new light – so they can agree or disagree with opinions. It is an objective way to see the game – giving facts. You can’t argue with it.
The Castrol Index can reinforce your opinion – it’s very important. The Castrol Index helps to any technical person because sometimes we’re isolated so it helps to give us the full picture. I am a great believer in the Castrol Index and think that no great technician would dismiss this level of objective insight.”

In a series of groundbreaking initiatives designed to deliver unique and objective ways of analysing player and team performances both on and off the pitch at the FIFA World Cup, Castrol will be fuelling the debate for football fans around the world. Check how your favourite players are shaping up on the Castrol Index.

By half time the Lionel Messi show was in full swing, and the best player in the world had scored another two goals to put the tie well and truly out of Arsenal’s reach, and in the process scoring his third hat-trick of 2010.

Messi’s fourth goal in the 88th minute was nothing more than icing on the cake.  By then everyone watching the game had surely agreed that this was one of the most amazing performances by any one individual footballer, possibly on par with Maradonna’s single-handed (forgive the pun) defeat of England in the 1986 World Cup Quarter-final.

And for those of you who listen to cricket legend and football pundit muppet, Darren Gough, on Talk Sport, I wonder if he will still be comparing Lionel Messi to Aaron Lennon tomorrow – a good player but not a great player, is his usually comment when asked about Lionel Messi.

I can’t imagine Messi ever leaving Barcelona while he is still in his prime because of the debt he owes Barcelona.  But how I would love to see him perform weekend in and week out in the Premier League.

After tonight’s match Arsene Wenger, Nicklas Bendtner and Manuel Alumina all  said they were simply beaten by the better team, and praised Lionel Messi’s amazing performance.  Wenger added he was the best player in the world “by a long way”.

Wenger knows his onions and tonight I am in total agreement with him.

Barcelona beat Arsenal 6-3 on aggreagate and will play Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan in the semi-finals after the Italian champions beat CSK Moscow tonight 1-0 away from home, 2-0 on aggreagate.

I don’t rate Manuel Almunia as a goalkeeper.  But tonight he alone probably stopped Barcelona sucking on their half-time oranges leading by three or four goals. With Barca having an alarming 70% of the possession in the first 45 minutes, and playing some of the most attractive ‘pass and move’ football I have seen since watching Brazil as a young boy. But for all their flare and skills, it was still 0-0 until twenty seconds after the restart.

A simple through ball left the Arsenal back four stranded and Almunia in no-man’s land, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who had not scored against English opposition in his previous 10 attempts, scored the first of his two goals.  The second was a similar through ball that caught the Arsenal defence ball-watching as Ibrahimovic thumped the ball into the roof of the net.  2-0 surely it was all over for another season, as far as Arsene Wenger’s Champions League aspirations were concerned.

At that stage I imagine anyone watching the game thought Arsenal was going to fall apart.  But it was then the young guns decided with a true musketeer cry ‘all for one, and one for all!’

With no fear left in their heads and fire in the belly, Arsenal decided to ‘have a go’ at ‘the best team in Europe’.

The introduction of Theo Walcott appeared to stun the Barcelona defence and spur Arsenal and the Emirates Stadium into life.  And even when Walcott scored to make it 2-1 I still felt it wasn’t going to be enough to save Arsenal their first defeat by a foreign team at the Emirates Stadium.  But then a great game turned into an amazing one as Puyol appeared to tangle with Cesc Fabregas in the penalty area, just as Fabregas had swung his leg back to shoot.  The resulting penalty seemed harsh, let alone the red card that means the Barcelona captain will miss the second leg along with his centre-back and former Manchester United team-mate Pique, who received a yellow card earlier in the game.

Fabregas scored the resulting penalty, and as if by magic Arsenal were now looking to win the game as they continued to attack,  wave on wave of attack spearheaded by Theo Walcott who, as the only Englishman on the pitch was being closely watched by Fabio Capello.

Thierry Henry received a very warm reception as he replaced Zlatan Ibrahimovic when Barcelona were 2-0 up, only to receive a chorus of ‘boos’ every time he touched the ball thereafter.

On the final whistle Fabregas, who had injured himself scoring from the penalty but had stayed on as Arsenal had already used all three substitutes, limped off.  But he was already going to miss the second leg in the Nou Camp by receiving a yellow card early in the game along with four other Arsenal players.

I cannot belief Barcelona didn’t win this game.  But fair play to Arsenal for their never say die attitude.  That said, it was a pleasure to watch Barcelona completely outplay a very good Arsenal team in the first half, and I feel they will do so again in the second leg.

“We are one of the ten best clubs in Europe and players who strengthen our team at that period of the season are not available, or at a price we cannot afford.” Arséne stated.

I nearly spat out my coffee. Not to offend fans of Arséne himself, but that’s truly a poor excuse for his lack of involvement in the recent transfer season.

He claims that the amount of money he is allowed to allocate his players is simply too low to attract any good footballers. But surely a £90k a week wage is enough to buy at least a decent striker?

Instead of trying to reason with his board, he’s been trying desperately to gain players like Maraouane Chamkh, and I have no doubt that he was heartbroken when, just hours ago, Chamakh himself said he was not prepared to move, at least not yet.

Many Arsenal fans, alongside non-supporters, are sceptical whether or not Arséne has performed well as manager this season.

Among these are many that also believe that Arsenal are in dire need of fresh new additions to their line-up, especially after Michael Ballack criticized Arsenal’s style of play, describing them as ‘predictable’.

At least Arsenal fans can rest assured that key player Cesc Fábregas, will not be transferring to Barcelona any time soon, despite recent rumours of his leave before the World Cup as Wenger has repeated stated that he still has ‘four years left on his contract’, and he is not prepared to sell him.

Although I deeply respect Arséne for the amount he’s done for Arsenal with so little money, I can’t help but think he’s only looking to buy stars, instead of looking for raw talent.

Arsenal have to adhere to their strict £90,000 a week rule, regardless of whoever the player may be. This means even their top players (Gallas, Arshavin), are on this.
Yet I think, although he might not be able to purchase a top-end player like Lionel Messi, he could definitely reel in some talent with that budget.

And besides, I think another small Arshavin-like player is not what Arsenal needs. What Arsenal needs is a large, powerful striker, to provide Arsenal with that muscle that the team sometimes lacks.

Even if his eyes are only on big names, surely he could sell some players that, frankly, just aren’t up to Arsenal standard (Walcott, Vela), and make an exception to bring in some world-class talent.

However, Arséne is adamant that his budget limit is necessary for the club to function healthily, and I think many people (including myself) respect the fact that he is cautious with his money, as we’ve all seen the effects of excessive spending with Portsmouth’s near-bankruptcy.

Anthony Duong
Guest Writer from GenXXL.com

angry arsene

Liverpool’s season goes from bad to worse, after insisting that they would focus on the Premier League following their disastrous Champions League campaign, Rafael Benitez’s team lost that focus in the second half against Arsenal at Anfield, and they paid dearly for it.

For the first forty five minutes it was all Liverpool, they could barely put a foot wrong. Steven Gerrard’s dramatic dive after William Gallas had caught him probably cost him the penalty that Liverpool should have been given, but both Gerrard and Torres created plenty of chances against an Arsenal team that really was poor.

Mascherano was monumental for the Reds and Dirk Kuyt was busy as ever, deservedly giving them the lead just before half time. Something strange happened at half time and the teams switched characteristics, suddenly Liverpool couldn’t string a couple of passes together and Arsenal finally looked something like resembling the wonderful young team that Arsene Wenger keeps promising to deliver.

Arsenal equalised when Glen Johnson claimed an own goal and from then on they were the tormentors, terrifying what has become a fragile Liverpool defence. The old adversary Arshavin scored the winner but as in the first half there were many chances not taken.

Wenger allegedly lost his temper at half time and it worked a treat with the Gunners showing great belief and composure in their comeback. Wenger says his team are ready to fight for the title ‘mentally’ now and on this evidence he is right.

I’m amazed at Liverpool’s fortunes this season or should I say misfortunes! Following this defeat Liverpool are actually talking about attempting to make the top four come the end of season, something I would not have considered a few months back.

Both Wenger and Hughes were involved in a verbal confrontation throughout most of the game, bending the ear of the fourth official, with the Arsenal boss at one time moaning that Hughes had left his technical area.

Wenger was particularly animated, often literally dancing in anger on the touchline at every refereeing decision that went against his team, as Manchester City finally took control of the game in the second half.

The much lauded young Gunners were, in the end, no match against the experience of Manchester City and despite the obvious qualities of the Arsenal squad, how long can they continue without a trophy to show for their efforts.

It has become the norm for the bigger teams to field their less experienced players in the Carling Cup competition and Chelsea followed the example of the Gunners by changing eight players from the team that had beaten Arsenal on Sunday for their game at Blackburn Rovers.

Inevitably they too paid the price of inexperience, losing out on penalties to Rovers, with Paul Robinson the goalkeeping hero with a brilliant save save from Ballack’s penalty and also denying the youngster Kakuta.

The game should never have reached that stage as Blackburn really deserved to win in normal time, only to see Ferreira equalise in the final moments of extra time. At 3-3, Blackburn kept their cool to run out 4-3 winners on penalties.

Carlo Ancelotti said after the game that he was disappointed with the result after a triple half time substitution gamble put Chelsea back into the game. The loss of Kalou with 20 minutes of normal time remaining meant that Chelsea had to play the remainder of the game with only ten men. But he did have the grace to shake the hand of Blackburn’s victorious caretaker manager Neil McDonald after the defeat.

Manchester City will face local rivals United in the semi final, a classic in the making surely, while Blackburn Rovers will play Aston Villa in the other two legged game.