Reviews

The Premier League climax quickly morphed into hilarity. I mean I cannot think of a word to sum it up better than that, it was just funny. Sunderland were supposed to have put any slight chance of St Totteringham's day to bed when they relegated Newcastle United in midweek, giving the Magpies nothing to play for whatsoever on the final day against Tottenham. I mean even if they had to scrap for a win to survive the drop, it was unlikely against the much lauded Spurs press. This super team that have given the Premier League a breath of fresh air and all that jazz.

Players like Laurent Koscielny and Francis Coquelin are aggressive, front footed defensive players who make tackles and interceptions by force, we take it for granted when they do their jobs well so unfortunately this is the other side of the coin. It was rash and ultimately snatched a chance to win the game out of our grasp but some of the frothing has been a little overboard in my opinion

Leading up to the game I had been hoping that we could take the positives from the Barcelona game, positives that I believe were massively overlooked due to our late folding in that particular game, but we worked extremely hard collectively, defended very well as a unit and that gave our counter attacking game an excellent platform. If we performed in the same manner there is no way that this Manchester United team would have beaten us. Interestingly though, I thought the selection of Welbeck and Gabriel

When the ball fell at the feet of Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain with only the keeper to beat early in the first half, he fluffed his lines and mishit a shot straight at the keeper who was already committed to make the save. There aren't many cleaner strikers of a ball in the squad than Oxlade-Chamberlain yet when the moment came, he could not deliver. That was a huge moment for him and for Arsenal. He had been playing very well down the right before his injury but two moments, the shot and the heavy touch which prevented a chance at the back post. It also resulted in his game being cut short after a collision with Javier Mascherano, and that meant the Arsenal vs Barcelona story had to be written a different way

But a point wouldn't be enough, we needed the three points. Theo had already replaced Coquelin which moved the Ox into the middle then Arsene went all 2003 when he sent on all of the attackers, including Welbeck in place of the Ox with only five minutes on the clock. Before that Alexis, Giroud and Ramsey missed great chances, perhaps none better than Mertesacker's close range header that bobbled past the post. I thought that was it, the chance had gone to take all three points. Why are we so wasteful in front of goal? But then came the free kick deep into stoppage time and Danny Welbeck

The second half I thought we were a little too cautious and dropped off too much. Some of that must have been the home side having to dominate the game a bit more but we were not good enough on the break to kill the game off once and for all. Alexis wasn't at his best and I think he really should have scored when he accepted an Özil pass on the left, cut inside his man and should have picked out the far corner, instead making the keepers job far too easy. Alexis is still searching for top match sharpness and I guess that is a good example when it comes to chucking Coquelin straight back into the fire