Arsenal travel to take on AC Milan at the San Siro on Wednesday night, and Arsene Wenger will be hopeful of getting a similar performance and result to the one recorded the last time The Gunners visited the Giuseppe Meazza. The north London club beat Milan 2-0 away from home at the same stage of the Champions League in 2007/08, and there is no reason why those lucky supporters with Arsenal tickets won’t witness a similar outcome this time round.
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This article titled “Three lessons for Arsenal before they take on Barcelona” was written by Sid Lowe, for The Guardian on Tuesday 15th February 2011 08.00 UTC
1 Internazionale
Champions League 20 Apr 2010
Much is made of José Mourinho’s ultra-defensive approach to the semi-final second leg against Barcelona last year but Inter did actually lose that game and, but for a poor decision from the referee in the final minute, would have lost the tie. A far better performance came in the first leg at San Siro – the first time Guardiola’s side had been beaten by more than one goal. Mourinho’s team combined tight defending with physical pressure, quick counterattacking and an awareness, above all, of the space behind both Barcelona full-backs. They were helped though by Barcelona’s marathon coach trip to Milan
Result
Internazionale 3 Barcelona 1
2 Sporting Gijón
La Liga 12 Feb 2010
As David Villa put it: “Sporting managed to do to us what no one else has done to us and stop us playing.” “It can be hard,” Pep Guardiola said, “when a team puts nine or ten men behind the ball and denies us space.” Manolo Preciado built two solid lines, close together, ceded territory and possession and funnelled Barcelona into traffic. They had not so much parked the bus, one newspaper noted, as parked the airbus. Sporting got the opener on a swift break from the edge of their area but were pinned back in the second half. Barcelona were also stymied by the absence of Sergio Busquets and, in the first half, Pedro
Result
Sporting Gijón 1 Barcelona 1
3 Real Madrid
La Liga 29 Nov 2010
On the morning of the game at the Camp Nou, Gonzalo Higuaín could be seen hobbling round the team hotel. Most assumed that Mourinho would take the opportunity to replace him with an extra defensive midfielder and play deep. Instead, emboldened by Madrid’s results until that moment, his team played high. But they did so without the pressure that makes that approach work and, once Barça got the first, they were sunk. Lionel Messi sliced them open, finding space behind for David Villa to punish them. Madrid couldn’t get a kick. Of the ball or, even, of their opponents’ legs
Result
Barcelona 5
Real Madrid 0
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This article titled “Arsenal will give Barcelona a tough test this time, says Jack Wilshere” was written by Dominic Fifield, for The Guardian on Sunday 13th February 2011 22.30 UTC
Jack Wilshere believes Arsenal have learned the lessons from their chastening Champions League elimination by Barcelona last season and has called on his team-mates to “be a bit nasty” by “getting in the faces” of the Spanish team during a daunting tie, which begins at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday.
Arsène Wenger’s side are set to be boosted by the unexpected availability of Samir Nasri, arguably their most consistently impressive player this season, with the France international having recovered from hamstring damage sustained in the FA Cup fourth-round win over Huddersfield. His return would add to Arsenal’s attacking options, though Wilshere and his team-mates will be just as intent on nullifying a Barça team who have scored 71 times in La Liga already this campaign and won 6-3 on aggregate in last year’s quarter-final.
“I was at the Emirates Stadium for the first game against Barcelona last season and they were brilliant, especially in that first half,” said Wilshere. “I was in Bolton [on loan] for the second match and watched on television but I remember we basically played our game, passing it around. This year we have to get in their faces and show them what we’re all about. When we have the ball, we’ve got to keep it as well as they can. We’ve got to change our game a bit to play against Barcelona – we’ll learn from last year, but we need to get in their faces and, if you like, be a bit nasty, in a footballing sense, to get the ball back.
“We have to press them as a team – there’s no point just one of us going after them, so we have to close them down as a team and get the ball back from them. But we’ll go into the game on Wednesday looking for the win still. It’s important we get that to take to their place for the return match.”
Although the teenage midfielder acknowledged a need to tweak the team’s approach, Wenger retains faith that his players can unsettle Barcelona by tapping into their own strengths, albeit if they can secure possession for themselves. Arsenal claimed an unlikely 2-2 draw against these opponents in last season’s first leg despite being without key players, and with Cesc Fábregas’s domestic season ended by the injury picked up converting the hosts’ equaliser from the penalty spot. Yet there is strength in depth this time around, with Nasri’s potential return particularly timely.
The French midfielder has excelled, scoring 14 times, and had been expected to miss the first leg at the Emirates Stadium. He will have further tests on his hamstring tomorrow and Tuesday before a decision is made, though there is optimism that he will be able to feature against the Spanish champions.
“I will not take a crazy gamble, but physically he is ready,” said Wenger. “There is just a risk of him suffering a setback, so we will test him medically and physically. There are other important games coming up – we have Leyton Orient in the FA Cup, and the Carling Cup final, and the return game in Barcelona in three weeks. So it is important not to be stupid.
“I personally believe we go into the Barcelona game in better shape than last year. We had so many uncertainties last season – Robin [van Persie] was injured, William Gallas went off in the first game, Andrey Arshavin went off after 27 minutes, we had no Alex Song or Fábregas in the second game … The team, for me, had less confidence and we have matured since then. We can certainly compete technically better with them. It will be interesting to see whether we play with belief.
“You can wonder whether we need to change the way we play at the Nou Camp but, at home, we will try to play to our strengths. We will try to attack the other team. If we just play in the final third defensively, that would not be our natural game and we would not be happy – we’d come out of the match thinking we hadn’t played. But if we can escape their pressure, then we can be dangerous. We will create chances if we can put them under pressure. We have to think about how we do that.”
The size of the task awaiting Arsenal was put into perspective by Fábregas who acknowledged the Catalans are “the best team in the world” at present. “We have a young team but one with a lot of quality and energy,” he said. “We are very motivated. They are such a good team that, even if you know everything [about them], they have so many quality players that they can make the difference. We don’t have to worry too much about them. We have to play with no fear. Last season in the first half [of the first leg] especially we respected them too much. We just have to play our game and that is it.”
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This article titled “Huddersfield’s Lee Clark puts Arsène Wenger’s philosophy to acid test” was written by Louise Taylor, for The Guardian on Saturday 29th January 2011 09.00 UTC
Lee Clark closes the laptop on his impressively tidy desk and concedes he has changed. “In the past I didn’t know if I’d be able to get on with new technology,” says the Huddersfield Town manager. “But I’m always using it now. I’ve got all the computer programmes, I’ve tried to embrace it.”
At one time many people would have been astonished to see Clark choreographing both a League One promotion campaign and an FA Cup adventure with Arsenal from the manager’s office at the Galpharm Stadium.
The former Newcastle United, Sunderland and Fulham midfielder was, unfairly as it transpires, widely deemed a daft Geordie lad who, whisper it, did not seem the sharpest tool in the box. If such theories gained currency when his stint at Sunderland came to an abrupt end after he was pictured attending the 1999 Newcastle v Manchester United FA Cup final wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with “Sad Mackem Bastards”, they have been thoroughly undermined in West Yorkshire.
These days Clark is regarded as a potential high-flyer whose insistence on Huddersfield playing a smooth, thoughtful, passing game has persuaded Arsène Wenger to loan him Arsenal’s England youth international striker Benik Afobe.
While Afobe will not feature at the Emirates tomorrow Clark, also missing his injured leading scorer, Jordan Rhodes, can expect a warm greeting from the sometimes sniffy Wenger.
“It’s a big boost to me that we’ve had players loaned here from not just Arsenal but Liverpool and Manchester United too,” he says in his soft Tyneside accent. “It’s very complimentary that top Premier League managers want their players to come to Hudderfield. It’s important for me to win games and get out of this league but I intend to do it playing the way I want, with a good passing ethos.”
Kevin Kilbane, the much travelled Ireland international, recently arrived on loan from Hull and believes few managers do more assiduous homework. “Lee’s attention to detail and analysis are unbelievable,” Kilbane says. “He’s also a very good coach; I can certainly see him going higher up the management ladder.”
For the moment all Clark can think about is the most glamorous game of his two years at Huddersfield. “Trying to get out of this league and into the Championship is the biggest test,” he says. “But playing at Arsenal is my toughest and most exciting challenge. The style Arsenal play is what I aspire to. My dream as a manager is to get to that level, to have a team like that. As a club and a manager Arsenal and Arsène Wenger are a yardstick.”
A chat Clark enjoyed with Wenger at a coaching seminar remains a treasured memory. “I remember our conversation word for word and I keep going back to it,” he says. “Those type of things are worth their weight in gold to young managers like me.”
At 38, he remains relatively inexperienced but benefits from having served under an eclectic assortment of managerial mentors including Ossie Ardíles, Kevin Keegan, Peter Reid, Jean Tigana and Graeme Souness. “I’ve been lucky in that I’ve enjoyed working for all of them so I don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and ask for their advice,” he says.
An epiphany came when he played for Wenger’s compatriot Tigana at Fulham and suddenly appreciated that an apparent fixation with players’ fitness and diet “enabled you to sell your wares better”. By then realisation had also dawned that there really was life outside Geordieland. “Leaving the north-east was tough at first,” Clark says. “But within a month I knew I’d made the right decision. Once I’d settled in to life down south I loved it. The lifestyle my family and I had living in Surrey was great; we had a magnificent time.”
Nonetheless, Newcastle still exerted a powerful pull and, not long after returning to St James’ Park in a junior coaching capacity that involved helping develop Andy Carroll’s academy skills, Clark was confronted with another big choice.
This time Glenn Roeder called, offering the post of assistant manager at Norwich. “I didn’t want to leave Newcastle, it was where I wanted to be,” he says. “But I knew if I was going to make my mark in management Norwich was an offer I couldn’t turn down.”
The decision to listen to his head rather than his heart was vindicated a year later when Huddersfield made him manager after hearing through the grapevine that Roeder had hired one of the brightest young talents in England’s coaching pool. His seemingly natural, attention-grabbing poise and authority in a tracksuit were not acquired overnight, however.
“I got my first coaching badge at 23,” says Clark who, early in his playing career, helped coach Walker Central boys club where Newcastle’s Shola Ameobi was harbouring hopes of turning professional. “It gives me a lot of pride that I had a little bit of impact on Shola and Andy Carroll. But I always knew I wanted to be a manager. I didn’t just want to be a coach, I wanted to be the one making the decisions.”
Although he is doing precisely that at the club Bill Shankly managed before taking charge at Liverpool, Huddersfield has lately been regarded more as a poisoned chalice than a stepping stone. After all the 1922 FA Cup winners and three-times League champions have not resided in English football’s top two tiers for 10 years now. Clark is their seventh manager in 12 seasons.
Yet with the team third in League One and anxious to atone for last spring’s play-off defeat against Millwall, there is cautious optimism that his partnership with the club’s wealthy new owner, the greetings card magnate Dean Hoyle, will finally end an era of instability.
It is not merely Clark’s habit of artfully knotting a blue and white scarf around his neck on matchdays that has earned him the “Roberto Mancini of League One” sobriquet, but a perception that Huddersfield are, à la Mancini’s Manchester City, now capable of financially outmuscling their divisional rivals.
“This is a huge club,” says an increasingly suavely groomed and smartly dressed manager who does not care to contemplate “what my Geordie mates might say” about that now hallmark scarf.
“Not so long ago Huddersfield were in administration but we’ve just bought land to build a training facility which will be of Premier League quality,” says Clark.
“The owner wants to see this club competing at the highest level and my ambition is to get us there. Reaching the Premier League is a dream but teams like Wigan and Hull have shown it is an achievable dream.
“Sunday at Arsenal will whet the appetite. We’re massive underdogs but I’ve got some gifted young players … and the FA Cup is all about shocks.”
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