It really looked a tough assignment for Arsenal to conquer Barcelona at Nou Camp but no matter how you look at it, Arsene Wenger's youngsters seem to have acquired some self-confidence these days.

The way they forced Barcelona to concede an own goal depicts their new found fighting spirit.

Too bad that influential striker Van Persie was rather harshly sacked thus reducing Arsenal’s attacking options.

Very few clubs can match Barcelona with a man short and with Messi all over the place it was no surprise that Arsenal conceded two goals despite the brilliant efforts of Manuel Almunia in the post.

I am sure Arsene Wenger would never be happy with way the referee issued cards to his players and may be pondering whether Alex Ferguson after all has a point in his recent comments about the knights of the whistle.

Be it as it may with the Champions League dreams shattered, Arsenal would have to turn to the domestic scene where they are facing stiff challenge from Manchester United in both the FA Cup and the Premiership.

It would definitely be a wonderful show of character if they can quickly recover from the Nou Camp debacle and continue their brilliant run at home.

It is quite evident that it takes a lot of toil to effectively combine the crowded domestic programme with the Champions’ league.

You need to pace yourself and pick your priority. It’s all well and good if you can win all the big trophies around but as the locals say in my part of the world will say “if you try to look into a bottle with both eyes you only see the outside". It’s tough.


This takes me to the Premier league. You have to learn to play your cards well always bearing in mind that you can lose a match and still win the league and you can pick the points from anywhere.

This reminds me of what I wrote in this blog, when Chelsea started this season's English Premier League in that blistering fashion scoring hatful of goals in succession I said that perhaps the Blues wanted to avoid  last season's harrowing experience  that saw Manchester United  breathing menacingly on their necks during the home stretch.

Those were the times when Drogba made hat-tricks look deceptively easy.

Up till now ,West Bromwich Albion  are yet to recover from the 6-0 drubbing  they received at the hands of Chelsea in those early stages as confirmed by their current precarious position on the table.

You remember Arsenal also joined Chelsea in setting a hot pace by whipping Blackpool 6-0 with Theo Walcott getting a hat-trick. I referred to them as the six goal magicians.

How the two London clubs conspired to lower their guards and allowed Manchester United to call the shots shows the unpredictable nature of English football.

It’s all well and good that the Londoners seem to have found their rhythm and are quickly closing  the gap at the top which  thus promises an exciting finish involving them Manchester United and probably Man City.

Liverpool are definitely not in the reckoning  for honours but their acquisition of  that upstart from Uruguay called Luis Suarez has given the Reds  renewed energy and generated a lot of interest in my country, Ghana.

You recall that it was this young man who with his magic right hand  virtually scooped the ball from the net when Ghana were on the verge of making  a historic semi-final berth in  the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Since then his name has been a national taboo in Ghana but his exploits so far with Liverpool has won him a lot of friends here and people are prepared to forgive him his trespasses in South Africa.

Of course, most of his admirers here are Liverpool supporters but you can be sure that Manchester United supporters in Ghana are not amused by the way Suarez tore their makeshift defence into pieces on Sunday.

For better or for worse Suarez is a topical name in Ghanaian football circles. All this is what makes football such an exciting sport.

Cheers everybody and keep loving sports.