Arsenal were agonisingly close to a memorable comeback- but fell just short.
Football is littered with goalscoring substitutes, and how Arsenal would have loved to have had one last night.
After the starting 11 had valiantly hauled themselves within touching distance of equalising the tie on aggregate, they just needed that final push.
So at 3-0, Arsene Wenger looked to his substitutes bench, and must have sighed and put his head in his hands.
His options? Marouane Chamakh- who has not scored a goal since September, and Park Chu-Young who has never scored a league or European goal in an Arsenal shirt.
Out of pure desperation he threw them on anyway, he might as well have done after all, but predictably they offered nothing, and hardly lifted the spirits of the supporters.
It is why Arsenal are so keen to land German striker Lukas Podolski, a genuine, proven goalscorer at the very highest level.
A lack of a decent support striker for Robin van Persie is hardly new news however, Wenger knew this in January and should have acted.
Instead he signed Thierry Henry, which was nice for supporters, but his time was always going to be limited, and Arsenal could have done with him coming off the bench last night, instead of sitting in an expensive apartment in New York watching the game on satellite.
Arsenal’s other options on the bench?
Lukas Fabianski in goal, Johan Djourou, Carl Jenkinson, Ignasi Miquel, and Oghuzan Ozyakup.
Now the latter three may well turn out to be very fine players, but none of them were capable of turning last night’s game.
If Arsene Wenger had 20-20 vision and could foresee the injuries to Yossi Benayoun, Mikel Arteta and Aaron Ramsey, perhaps he would not have loaned out Ryo Miyaichi or more recently Andrei Arshavin. Both could have provided the inspiration to find the elusive fourth goal last night.
So through a combination of injuries, and poor planning when it comes to strikers, Arsenal were never quite going to finish the job last night.
They got close, mighty close, but with a quality striker on the bench, they may just have done it.
image: © wonker
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