Key moments: Barcelona v/s Arsenal

No regrets from the game at Camp Nou. We came up against a side which is undoubtedly the best in the world, which is arguably at the peak of its form and which boasts of definitely the best player in the world. For all the pain the Champions League exit caused me, I have no complaints. Barcelona surely deserved to go through to the semifinals over two legs.

Arsenal played with a patched up squad against a Barcelona side which also had a couple of absentees. But it would be unfair to ignore the fact that we were without our main centre back (Gallas), our two most important midfield players (Fabregas and Song), and two most important 'forwards' (Van Persie and Arshavin). We do not have the squad strength that Barcelona have, therefore, getting a favourable result at Camp Nou was always going to be a mammoth task. What followed is history.

We all know about Messi and Xavi's brilliance, how well Barcelona hold the ball, and how beautifully they play in general. How hard they work trying to get possession back is exemplary. I am not going to go on about that again. But here are some of the key moments that contributed to our defeat -

1. Diaby makes a poor decision: Faced with a choice between playing a through ball to Walcott - who would have torn free for a one on one against Valdes - and making a not so important pass to Bendtner, Diaby chose the latter. Arsenal were 0-1 up at that time, and good decision-making by Diaby may have turned the match heavily in Arsenal's favour.

2. Poor defending by Silvestre and Denilson: Everybody wishes to play for this Barcelona team. Silvestre probably wanted it so much that he played a one-two with Messi. As Messi ran with the ball along the penalty area, with Denilson hopelessly following him, an attempted pass by Messi was inadvertently played back to his feet by Silvestre. Not something you get away with.

3. Messi again shows us that he has a short backlift: Silvestre played the ball back to Messi, but Vermaelen and Silvestre himself were not far away and flung themselves in the way. The way Messi took his shot was unbelievable. In a fraction of a second, not only did he hit it accurately, but he also found the requisite power to beat the surprised Almunia.

4. Arsenal fail to deal with the cross: For the second goal, a cross caused panic in the Arsenal defence and we failed to clear the ball. Messi showed great composure and quick decision making by taking a first touch that moved the ball beyond the hapless Clichy. We never had a chance once Messi got past Clichy.

5. Arsenal fail with the offside trap: An interesting statistic is that we are the team that has caught opponents offside the most number of times in the Premier League. We generally play the high line in defence. But against Barcelona, playing the high line didn't quite work out very well. Our defence was so high up that Messi took Kieta's headed pass almost from the half line, ran the entire length of the half, and scored without being challenged. We all know about Messi's pace. Playing a high line is very risky against a player who is that fast. The offside trap has to work perfectly in such a scenario. We took the risk and we paid for it.

These moments, for me, shaped the result.

Finally, all said and done, sometimes you just have to raise your hands and accept you came up against a superior opposition. Luckily for Arsenal, this moment doesn't come too often. But when it does, like this time, I choose to congratulate the winning team and hope that maybe we will get to their level soon.