Faced with the daunting task of overturning a 4-0 deficit, Arsenal scored three in the first half against AC Milan on Tuesday night. Unfortunately, Arsene Wenger’s side ran out of steam in latter part of the game, but the effort and belief shown by the players was fantastic.

Paul Merson once said that Arsene Wenger gave him and the other members of the squad “unbelievable belief.” Judging by the sheer work rate exhibited by his players on Tuesday, Wenger was able to inspire the same sort of “unbelievable belief” in this Arsenal team. It would have been so easy for the Gunners to simply fold up and accept elimination, but instead, they made it a real contest.

From the start of the game, it was obvious that our players were not treating this affair lightly. When Laurent Koscielny’s header flew into the net, the thought of a tremendous comeback quickly passed through my mind. After Tomas Rosicky scored our second, I really did start to get anxious and excited. Scoring two before the break was our target, but then the referee pointed to the spot after Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain was brought down. Robin van Persie’s penalty attempt was powerful and accurate, and a wave of euphoria overtook me during the half-time interval. Could we really pull off one of the biggest comebacks in the history of European club football?

While the story of the first half cooperated with the idea of a fairytale Arsenal victory, the second half just would not comply. Arsene Wenger’s side suffered from fatigue and injury, and the manager had no impactful players on the bench. And then there was that wasted chance.

The greatest opportunity for a fourth fell to Robin van Persie, one of the most clinical finishers in world football. Gervinho’s effort on goal kindly found its way to the Dutchman, standing six yards away from the goal. Robin van Persie attempted to lift the ball over the head of Christian Abbiati, but the Milan keeper made a brilliant save. After the match, Abbiati said about the stop on van Persie: “My save? I just raised my arm and I was lucky Van Persie tried to chip it.” (Source: The Guardian)

Don’t worry Robin, we’ll forgive you for your miss.

Fatigue and a lack of options on the bench (and not RVP’s miss) were the real reasons we failed to even the score on aggregate. In a post-match interview, Laurent Koscielny said: “It was difficult because we were tired after 45 minutes. We gave everything on the pitch and that is that. We learn and it is the first game that killed us. Every player fought together to help his team-mates.” (Source: Arsenal.com)

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who put in a splendid performance, clearly ran out of energy in the second half. Perhaps the cause of his tiredness was Alex Song’s refusal or inability to track back. Our holding midfielder (term used lightly) seemed to do more attacking then defending, which forced the Ox to play the role in front of the back four.

Song had one of his worst performances of the season on Tuesday night at the Emirates. In addition to constantly being out of position, he also gave possession away on numerous occasions. The Cameroonian seemed far too concerned with looking for his next through ball. Song’s poor play might have been down to the fact that he must have been drained after starting all of his club matches along with making a trip to Africa last week for an international friendly.

Unfortunately, Arsene Wenger did not have anyone to call on to replace the tired midfielders. Remember that Mikel Arteta, Aaron Ramsey, Yossi Benayoun, Abou Diaby, and Jack Wilshere were not available to play on Tuesday night against Milan. Wenger explained after the match:

“Overall I feel we didn’t have many options on the bench in midfield and in the second half we had more problems keeping the ball than in the first half. When we tired in midfield we had no options on the bench and the regret I have is there.” (Source: Arsenal.com)

Marouane Chamakh and Ju Young Park were entrusted with the job of conjuring up a vital fourth goal. The odds of Chamakh scoring the aggregate equaliser must have been one in three million. Once the two strikers came on, we were exposed in the midfield and had trouble gaining possession of the ball.

In reality, the entire ninety minutes represented a microcasm of what our club has been over the past seven years- so close to greatness, but still a big tease. Coming so close to glory and falling short is almost worse than not competing at all. Had we won 1-0 on Tuesday night, I would have just accepted the victory as an important step in keeping the momentum we have built up. In an odd way, the 3-0 result hurt hurt more because (and I’m sure I’m not alone in this) I let my mind drift to what could might have been.

Dreadful. Pathetic. Weak. All words to describe Arsenal’s performance on Wednesday night at the San Siro. Even Arsene Wenger, who tends to gloss over defeats, couldn’t deny the sheer dominance Milan exhibited over his team.

Arsene Wenger accurately summarised the game at his post-match press conference:

 ”It was one of those nights you never forget. It is our worst night in Europe. We were punished and deservedly so. I felt we were never in the game, we were very poor offensively and defensively. It was shocking to see how we were beaten everywhere. There was not one moment in the 90 minutes where we were really in the game.” (Source: The Guardian)

Not really much to say. It was almost a numbing experience, similar to the 8-2 at Old Trafford. However, unlike that nightmare in Manchester, we had our entire starting defence on the pitch. Kieran Gibbs, Bacary Sagna, Thomas Vermaelen, and Laurent Koscielny all played, but none of them were particularly good.

To be fair, Koscielny was forced out of the game when the score was still 2-0. Johan Djourou, his replacement, gave up the fourth goal by pulling down Zlatan Ibrahimovic late in the second half. The other centre-back, Vermaelen, was really poor, nothing like the solid defender he usually is.

But the whole debacle cannot be blamed on just the back four. The attack lacked any focus; it was mostly just sideways passes with no penetration. Much of the blame for the rarity of chances needs to go to the midfielders because Robin van Persie didn’t get much of the ball. Aaron Ramsey was absolutely terrible, just abject. Mikel Arteta and Alex Song were a little better, but neither had an excellent showing.

Why did Wenger essentially start four central midfielders (Rosicky, Song, Ramsey, and Arteta)? Rosicky, who was probably the best performer out of the four midfield men, is not winger. There was no width because Theo Walcott was ineffective and there was no winger on the other side. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain or even Andrei Arshavin would have been better inclusions than Ramsey.

Perhaps our wide play was hampered by the awful playing surface. Milan’s pitch was definitely unacceptable and unfit for a Champions League match. Even the green section down the middle appeared to be spotty. Obviously, the discoloured portions down the sides of the pitch were terrible, almost a no-go zone for players early in the match. And don’t think that it wasn’t planned; this is a club operated by Silvio Berlusconi after all.

If only we would have lost by a goal or two, then the pitch could have been to blame. However, we lost by a four, so we can only blame ourselves (and by that I mean the manager, the players, etc. not us, the supporters).

As always, our enemies have used our time of despair to mock us. Funny how it seems to be the Liverpool and Spurs supporters doing most of the gloating. One club has utterly disgraced itself through their handling of a racist incident. The same club has also never won a Premier League title and only wishes they could have the opportunity to face top sides like Milan. The other clubs hasn’t won the league in ages and are celebrating like mad because they are in third. Both clubs are no more than a joke.

Now, back to Arsenal. The implications of this massive defeat could be far-reaching. A domino effect could occur like last season, when we dropped out of three competitions in three weeks. Certainly, our next four matches (Sunderland, Spurs, Liverpool, Newcastle) (not counting the Milan second leg) are extremely important. I’m planning to write an article for EPL Talk discussing what impact this loss could have on our future results, so I’ll post that link when/if that piece is published.

Our Champions League dreams, however slim, were destroyed on Wednesday night. Arsene Wenger admitted as much:

“Let’s be realistic, we don’t play in dream world. Maybe two per cent or five per cent statistically. We have to show a completely different performance and you never know. But, you have to say, realistically, we are out of the competition.” (Source: Arsenal.com)

Hopefully, this poor performance turns out to be just that- one poor performance. If it carries over… well, let’s not think about that for now.