Real-ly bad

I'm not sure I've ever seen a team this loaded look so mediocre. I was expecting Real Madrid vs. Arsenal to be a good game, probably better than the bookmakers did. Arsenal may have been missing a bunch of players through injury, and yet it never seemed to matter.

Aside from a couple of solid shots from Roberto Carlos and a wicked drive from Robinho that happened to be right at Lehmann, Real never seemed to seriously threaten. Certainly the first 30 minutes of the game were all Arsenal; Real snatched the last 15 minutes of the first half, but when the second half started up it was mostly Arsenal again. They just made the Real defense look bad - but then, the Real defense isn't that great. (6-1 at Zaragoza? 6-1 vs. anyone?)

The more impressive part was that Arsenal's makeshift defense managed to keep Real off the board. But few of the Real players seemed on top of their games - in particular, Beckham, Ronaldo, and Zidane were all pretty ineffective. That helped, as did the fact that Arsenal's counterattacks were so successful. Indeed, in spite of Real's stunning 65-35 edge in possession, it never felt like they were the ones dominating the game. Maybe that's because after Thierry Henry's great goal in the 47th, Arsenal no longer seemed as interested in attacking. Yet they were still offered a number of chances due to horrible passing by the Real defense, which committed as many stupid turnovers as you could possibly expect any team to make in any one game.

Time of possession isn't everything, obviously. Arsenal were clearly the better team for at least 75 of the 90 minutes - honestly, had Real scored on one of their late chances (like the ball Ronaldo couldn't quite get to with only a few minutes left), I would have talked about how bad Arsenal's luck was in not winning. Either way, though, they've got their away goal - and with the win, any tie at Highbury sends them through. As Derek Rae was saying, it would be ironic if in one of their weaker Premiership seasons in recent memory - a mere fifth right now (which would be out of the 2006-07 CL), after not having finished worse than second since 1996-97, and not lower than fourth since 1995-96 - Arsenal finally broke through in Europe, where they have notoriously struggled despite their domestic success (and obviously with all those high finishes in the EPL they've had plenty of European chances in the last decade). Indeed it would be - and even more ironic if they did so with all their injury problems. But we'll see what happens - this Real team is certainly loaded enough to win at Highbury if they can get their act together.

Tomorrow's game? Chelsea vs. Barca. I'm even more excited for this one.