Good old Arsene Wenger has at last had his say in the war of words with Barca over Cesc Fabregas ahead of the Champions League showdown at the Emirates tonight.
A defiant AW says we broke no rules by signing the teen ace and are not keeping him in north London against his wishes. AW insists he is sick of the Nou Camp whining over the acquisition of Cesc when he was just 16 and the possibility of him rejoining the Catalan club where he learned the game growing up.
He said: “There is no reason for any bitterness because we did nothing illegal, Everything was legal. We did not force a gun somewhere. We respected the rules. They could come and take our players, we accept that as well. It’s part of the game. Where do they get their players? They take players from all over the world. Where does Lionel Messi come from? Barcelona? At what age did they take him? Twelve years old?
“Don’t expect them only to get players from Catalonia – and you must remember that every young player in Catalonia wants to play for Barcelona. Not every young player in London wants to play for Arsenal. Some want to play for Tottenham, some for West Ham, some for Chelsea and some for QPR. In Barcelona they don’t have the same choice.”
When we played met Barcelona in the quarter-finals last season, Cesc played with an injury and hit a late leveller from the spot in the first leg to make it 2-2 but later found out he had broken his leg and did not play again that season. But AW says he is back to his best and will be keen to prove that in tonight’s game. “He will approach this game as he approaches every game. Cesc is an exceptional footballer – but he is a winner as well. He wants to win every game and when he doesn’t he is hugely frustrated. He will be thinking: ‘What can I do to win, how do I help the team win?’ That’s how he will be.”
Meanwhile, AW says the inclusion of Samir Nasri in the squad is on merit of his fitness. He said: “Samir is in the squad and the starting line-up will then be decided. I will take no medical risk. It’s good to have him in the squad. He’s recovered quicker than expected. I said it would be 21 days but it will be only 17 days. Everybody’s absolutely adamant that he’s completely medically available. It’s down to me to make the decision.”
And AW says he has no fear of Barca despite acknowledging their qualities. He added: “We don’t deny the quality of Barcelona, but what is important for us is we have a good opportunity to show who we are now. Not only that, we also want to show Barcelona we are capable of knocking them out. We have the belief and a strong togetherness to show we are a different team now.
“In the first half of the home game last year we were spectators a little bit and were a bit inhibited. I believe that confidence-wise and mentally we are a completely different team today. We have made our way forward by challenging in the Premier League and we are still in all competitions.
“If you look at the predictions pre-season, nobody in England predicted we would be where we are today. We have made our own way through our own strength and mental belief. Losing to Barcelona made us better because we came out of the second game with a lot of frustrations after missing the turning point when we were 1-0 up.
“We are now a stronger team because we have attitude and I have not seen many teams with such consistent focus every day. We are in an ideal condition to face Barcelona. We cannot complain, we have the belief, the confidence and the players available. We want to show how good we are. We want to show the belief we have in our game and in our quality.
“We want to win this competition and we know the only way to do that is to beat the super-favourites. Barcelona are certainly the best team in the world at the moment. If we knock Barcelona out, we straight away have a good chance to win the tournament.
“Everybody expects an exciting match because we are two teams who play quality football. We want to be faithful to our philosophy, to make sure we dominate the game, that we pass the ball and that we have possession of the ball. If we do that, we have a very good chance of beating them.”
I for one will be waving my little red and white flag and singing Good Old Arsenal throughout the game – come on you red machine!
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