Rarely has a warm-up been this important.
The eyes of the Emirates Stadium will be on Cesc Fàbregas around an hour before a match between the two clubs closest to his heart kicks off tonight.
The Arsenal captain has a “40-60 against” chance of playing against his boyhood club Barcelona this evening, according to his manager Arsène Wenger. Fàbregas’ knee injury, sustained in the weekend game at Birmingham makes his involvement doubtful – although he is likely to be named on the bench – and while Wenger’s anger at the perfectly fair Craig Gardner challenge that caused the problem is likely to stem from the last-minute Kevin Phillips equaliser he’d just witnessed, he knows just how much of a blow his skipper’s absence would be. It would be a blow for football too.
We’ve already lost one artist from this, the most attractive-looking of the Champions League quarter-finals. Andrés Iniesta had to be withdrawn halfway through Barça’s 1-0 win at Mallorca on Saturday and didn’t travel to London with his team-mates, and so the last thing the game needed was a Fàbregas struggling for fitness.
Not to worry, there’s still Lionel Messi, Andrey Arshavin, Xavi, Samir Nasri, Thierry Henry and Zlatan Ibrahimovic to marvel at. Marvelling at William Gallas might be a lesser practiced activity, but his return to the Gunners back-line couldn’t have been timed much better. His partnership with Thomas Vermaelen has been one of the success stories of Arsenal’s season, and both will have to be firmly on their game tonight. They’ve got some stiff opposition.
Messi has been the greatest sight on a football pitch for the past year, while the emotion of Henry’s return to a club he scored a record 226 goals for should be the overriding issue pre-kick off, regardless of Fàbregas.
It should be the purest of football matches. Two coaches who like to play the game the right way go head-to-head, with Wenger and Pep Guardiola both confident of progression. It will be decided in the Nou Camp – there’s no doubting that – but tonight could go a long way towards confirming who’ll progress to the semi-finals.
Arsenal will have to take the game to Barça, who can destroy even the best of teams if they are allowed the time and space to do so, but so can the Gunners. Messi will have to be watched closely, but so will Arshavin. Ibrahimovic will be a dangerous customer in the penalty area, as will Bendtner. Xavi can’t be allowed to dictate play, but then neither can...
The importance of Fàbregas to Arsenal may never be more apparent.
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