Chapter 664 125: One More Gamble! The Three Superstars Meet Again! Wenger's Three-Year Strategy and Arsenal's Fatal Weakness

They conceded an away goal, but they still won the match over the full 90 minutes.

Many of the stats from that match were very close to those from the Champions League final between Dortmund and Barça.

Things like possession and attacking threat.

Despite having twice the possession, Barça had fewer shots than Arsenal.

Then, in the second leg, something very interesting happened.

Barça ended up defeating Arsenal 3-1, and they managed to keep the Gunners from taking a single shot the entire game.

That's right. You read that correctly.

In 90 minutes of play, the Gunners didn't have a single shot!

It was nothing short of a disgrace!

Some of you might be wondering, "Wait, wasn't the final score of the second leg 3-1?"

The answer is that Arsenal's goal was an own goal from Busquets.

The match at Camp Nou sparked tremendous controversy.

First of all, Arsenal successfully held off Barça's attacks in the first half.

They were on the back foot, but the score remained 0-0.

The crucial turning point came in the third minute of first-half stoppage time. Just as Arsenal was mounting a counter-attack, Fabregas, from outside the arc of the penalty box, made a "brilliant pass" to Iniesta.

Iniesta then chipped a pass over the defense to Messi, who scored the first goal.

After the match, while many in the media praised the beauty of Iniesta's assist and Messi's goal, in reality, Fabregas's "brilliant pass" was the decisive moment.

This was because Arsenal was in the middle of transitioning from defense to attack, a critical juncture where every player was pushing out of the penalty area.

The mistake caught everyone completely off guard, and it was fatal!

This was especially suspicious considering that for the past few years, Fabregas had been agitating for a move to Barça.

It was hard not to be suspicious.

After conceding, Arsenal capitalized on a corner kick in the second half, which led to an own goal from Busquets.

Up to this point, there wasn't much of an issue.

It was 1-1, after all.

But a few minutes later, the referee gave Van Persie a second yellow card for shooting after the offside whistle had been blown.

Now, this is where it gets interesting.

Van Persie's first yellow was for retaliating against Alves, which was a fair call.

But the second one?

In a Champions League knockout match, at such a crucial moment, you're going to send off their most important striker for taking a shot after an offside call?

How is that justifiable in any way?

After that, Barça scored two quick goals, ending the second leg 3-1 and advancing 4-3 on aggregate.

Looking back at both legs, Arsenal actually had what it took to compete with Barça.

The red card in the second leg and Fabregas's "brilliant pass" were both factors beyond the manager's control.

But what interested Wang Shuo was why, after winning the first leg with an attacking approach, Wenger chose to play conservatively in the second.

This shift was truly baffling.

Upon hearing Wang Shuo's question, a helpless, bitter expression appeared on Wenger's face, and he let out a self-deprecating laugh.

This was followed by a sigh, heavy with mixed emotions.

"If I told you it was because Alexandre Song and Walcott's injuries made me lack confidence in the team, and... well, to be honest, over the years, any team playing against Barça has inevitably faced all sorts of controversies..."

"Of course, those all sound like reasons and excuses."

Wang Shuo nodded silently. He knew Wenger wasn't finished.

"Actually, the most fundamental reason is that I wasn't confident enough in this team of mine!"

Wenger's sigh seemed to stir up memories from the deepest corners of his mind.

"A lot of people probably won't believe me when I say this, but it's what I truly believe."

"I've never felt there was a huge difference between the current Arsenal team and the one that won the league unbeaten in the '03-'04 season, or the one that reached the Champions League final in '05-'06."

"There might be gaps in individual positions, but in terms of the overall team and tactics, I think they were more or less the same."

'Wenger was speaking the truth,' Wang Shuo thought.

'Whether he was right or not was debatable, but he was definitely speaking from the heart.'

"But why didn't that translate to our performance on the pitch?"

"For years, people have said the biggest problem with our defense is that during transitions, the players can't immediately press to win the ball back or fall back into position. But I've emphasized and focused on this constantly, so why couldn't we fix it?"

"And why were we able to successfully develop players like Fabregas a few years ago, yet our youth development has been plagued with problems in recent years?"

"I've reflected on this. In that team that won the league unbeaten and the one that reached the Champions League final, we had core leaders!"

"When all the players on a team, guided by a core leader, are willing to put the team first, are hungry for victory and titles, and are constantly pushing to improve and break through their limits—all the problems I mentioned before solve themselves!"

"We didn't just lose Vieira, we didn't just lose Henry—we lost our leaders!"

As he finished, Wenger heaved another long sigh.

Clearly, this was also a fatal mistake he had made.

Back then, he had believed Fabregas could replace Vieira.

Later, he also believed that players like Walcott and Van Persie could replace Henry.

But as it turned out, he was wrong!

Players can be replaced.

But core leaders can't.

Once Arsenal lost its core leaders, the team lost its cohesion. There was no backbone. Everyone on the pitch was just mechanically executing tactics, and you simply can't win matches like that.