Barcelona have “two or three players who transform normal life into art”, says Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger.<\/p>\n
The Gunners went out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage for the sixth straight season after a 5-1 aggregate loss against Barcelona.<\/p>\n
The La Liga side’s front three of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez were all on target.<\/p>\n
“In the final third, Barcelona’s passing accuracy and creativity is exceptional,” said Wenger.<\/p>\n
Arsenal missed numerous chances in the game, with Danny Welbeck hitting the woodwork and Alexis Sanchez twice coming close.<\/p>\n
Having also gone out of the FA Cup in a shock defeat against Watford last weekend, the Premier League is Arsenal’s only hope of a trophy this season. They are currently 11 points behind leaders Leicester with a game in hand.<\/p>\n
Wenger feels the result could have been different if they managed to add to Mohamed Elneny’s crisp effort in the second half.<\/p>\n
“I felt at 1-1 they were wobbling and insecure,” said Wenger. “We could not take our chance to score the second goal to put ourselves in a good position.<\/p>\n
“We created plenty of dangerous situations and the quality of our game was good.<\/p>\n
“When we lost the second goal, we lost the edge. They are an exceptional side.”<\/p>\n
Messi’s delightful dinked finish took his tally to 37 for the season in all competitions, while Neymar netted his 28th and Suarez’s superb volley was his 46th goal this term.<\/p>\n
“We played against a team who has the best strikers I have seen,” added Wenger. “The three together are absolutely exceptional.<\/p>\n
“From nothing, they can create a chance, especially Messi. He didn’t miss a first touch, no matter where the ball came from.<\/p>\n
“At some stage in our sport, we must admire art and they have two or three players who transform normal life into art. I respect that and I believe it is pleasure as well. For me, is it suffering.”<\/p>\n
How Arsenal’s season has unravelled<\/p>\n
Back in early January, Arsenal fans were dreaming of a trophy-laden season.<\/p>\n
The Gunners were top of the Premier League, safely into the Champions League last 16 – albeit with Barcelona looming – and making progress into the FA Cup fourth round.<\/p>\n
But conceding a late leveller at Liverpool on 13 January proved the catalyst for a dreadful run of form.<\/p>\n
Wenger’s men have managed to win just two of their nine Premier League matches since, leaving them well adrift of leaders Leicester.<\/p>\n
If falling away in the title race is not hard enough for Gunners fans to take, their misery has been compounded by a double cup exit in the space of four days.<\/p>\n
Failing to overcome a two-goal deficit against Barcelona may not have been a surprise. But, following Sunday’s home quarter-final defeat against Watford, it has done little to ease mounting pressure on Wenger.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Barcelona have “two or three players who transform normal life into art”, says Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. The Gunners went out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage for the sixth straight season after a 5-1 aggregate loss against Barcelona. The La Liga side’s front three of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[142],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=199566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=199566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=199566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=199566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}