Three takeaways from Barcelona’s 5-3 loss to Arsenal
Barcelona’s wing play is going to be elite
Recently there was a report that Xavi had asked Barca management to not sell Abde, last night we saw why.
For the first goal, he won the ball back, used his speed to run away from the Arsenal midfield and then found Raphinha with the cut-back, his shot was saved but Lewandowski put in the rebound. Abde won’t get an assist for that, but it was all him.
If Balde was the best player on the pitch, Abde was certainly Barca’s best player in the first half. He showed off his close control and even used his strength to hold up the ball. He constantly drew fouls from an over-aggressive Ben White playing right back.
I’d hate to see Barca move him at this point considering his trajectory and ability on the ball.
Ansu Fati looked confident and dangerous when he came on, and his linkup play with Balde was very good, if he can regain some confidence after his long injury lay-off, he can hopefully get back on track as one of the world’s premier talents.
Dembele was as dangerous as he always is, he had an effort come back off the post and another that landed on the roof of the net. He also hugged the touchline which created plenty of space for him to attack the full-back.
Raphinha didn’t have his best game but he still scored on a deflected free-kick and although Ferran played up front as a false-9, he also got on the scoresheet and that will really help is confidence.
Barca have a lot of options when it comes to their wide forwards, maybe too many options.
