SOCCER ANGLES:In allowing Cesc Fabregas to dictate his fitness to face Barcelona, Arsène Wenger gave the Premier League title a withering look, writes MICHAEL WALKER
ARSENAL’S PREMIER League campaign resumes this afternoon. That may seem like an unnecessary statement of fact, it’s just that there have been moments before and since Wednesday night’s blurring exhibition of passing and pressing from Barcelona when it feels like what Bill Shankly called bread-and-butter has been forgotten. It’s all tapas these days.
Arsenal must beat Wolves at Ashburton Grove today. If they do, and if Manchester United and Chelsea draw at Old Trafford – not an unreasonable expectation – Arsenal will be two points behind United and one behind Chelsea with five games to play. That does not make Arsenal favourites, but they are not out of it.
But Arsenal’s chance has been considerably reduced because Cesc Fabregas will not be around to help. Fabregas will be in recovery somewhere. He and Arsène Wenger were clearly so consumed by the prospect of Barcelona’s lip-smacking delights that bread and butter was pushed to the corner.
Wenger deserves all the praise that is carted his way, the English game would be less beautiful and less colourful without his vision. He is a great manager.
But in allowing Fabregas to dictate his readiness for battle on Wednesday, Wenger not only indulged his Catalan captain, he gave the Premier League title a withering look. What it said was that finishing in its top four season after season is a means to an end – and that end is the Champions League.
But is winning the Premier League not an end in itself? It is approaching six years since Arsenal last won it but they are close once again – against the odds – and having striven to overcome a previous Fabregas injury plus almost a season without Robin van Persie, Arsenal have now placed all that catch-up work in jeopardy.
And why? Why was it so important that Fabregas played in the first leg when with a few more days’ rest he would have been fitter for the second?
Fabregas has been portrayed as selfless and captain fantastic since Wednesday night, and he certainly played well for a man who might have taken a broken leg on to the pitch, never mind left it with one. But he is 22. Fabregas has time on his side. There will be other European nights. There’s one next Tuesday, funnily enough.
Fabregas made his Arsenal debut in 2003. He has one winner’s medal, the 2005 FA Cup, to show for it. This season, winning the Champions League was a longer shot once Barcelona were drawn in the quarter-finals.
But there was still the Premier League to play for. There still is. But Cesc won’t be there.
Barring a most unusual performance from Barcelona in the Nou Camp, Arsenal will be out of Europe. It is hardly their ideal scenario but then even reaching the last eight proved beyond Real Madrid and Chelsea. So Arsenal’s European season has to be understood as being far from disastrous.
They will still come back from Catalonia as Premier League contenders – assuming they beat Wolves today. Arsenal will then have eight days before they go to White Hart Lane to face a Tottenham side who three days earlier will have played in a Wembley FA Cup semi-final. Eight days, that’s a lengthy period of relaxation at this time of year.
Tottenham away, we may recall, is quite a big game for Arsenal. You would want your captain to be around.
Arsenal’s other remaining away games are at Wigan and Blackburn. Lancashire always feels like an inhospitable place for the Gunners but the recent memory of Fabregas’s match-winning performance at Bolton would be of some comfort.
Arsenal’s other home games are against Manchester City and Fulham. Neither is straightforward but you would fancy the home team, especially if it was chasing down a league title.
It may be optimistic to argue Arsenal can win the league from where they are. Perhaps Wenger felt the cruelty of last Saturday’s Kevin Phillips equaliser for Birmingham more than we realised. Perhaps he thought that was the moment the Premier League was lost.
Perhaps that’s why it was all eggs in one basket for Barcelona even though Arsenal have two baskets.
Wenger was emotional at Birmingham, he swore. Fabregas was emotional about Barcelona. It’s understandable.
But what if Arsenal had been meeting CSKA Moscow, for instance, on Wednesday. Emotion would have been rinsed down. In all likelihood Wenger would have instructed Fabregas to be cautious, to sit on the bench.
There are only four prizes a season for Arsenal. Wenger disdains the League Cup, so really it’s three. Stoke in February in the FA Cup reduced it to two. By Wednesday morning it is likely to be one.
But not a forlorn one, particularly if the captain was around to participate. United and Chelsea have difficult games beyond today’s. You can foresee twists. Wayne Rooney’s ankle proved that. Didier Drogba may need a hernia operation. Arsenal could profit, they could win the Premier League. What a triumph that would be. But it would be easier if their captain had more than a leg to stand on.
Leeds fans nervous
OH, LEEDS. From Antrim to Cork the thousands infected with the Leeds United virus have surely suffered enough in recent years. But you feel the pain may not be done yet. It's Swindon Town at Elland Road today. That's Swindon who are one point behind Leeds and who have won their last three away games 1-0. What do you think the score will be?
Rooney's injury a reality check for England
DON'T TELL Alex Ferguson but one beneficial side effect of Wayne Rooney's injury in Munich was a national re-evaluation of England's hopes at the World Cup. Refreshingly, much of this was realistic: without Rooney England are a team in search of a Plan B. They should not be. Any country that can name Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Ashley Cole and Rooney in the team should be able to compensate for the loss of one of them.
Yet the hoopla greeting England's qualification for South Africa ignored their penultimate qualifier when they were beaten 1-0 by Ukraine. The six named above all started that game.
England produced good performances against a declining Croatia but it required an 85th-minute winner to beat Ukraine at Wembley. How excited should a nation get about the other results in the group, against Andorra, Kazakhstan and Belarus? Not very, one suggests.
Yet Theo Walcott showed his capabilities when he came on against Barcelona and Aaron Lennon is close to a return.
His Spurs colleague, Jermain Defoe, may play at Sunderland today. Play all three of them in attack. A sprinting trident. Gerrard and Lampard can score from the ricochets.
