Are Arsenal Gunner complete the job against Barcelona?

As I sat watching the first leg of the Champions League tie between Arsenal and Barcelona, a mix of emotions went through my mind. On one hand I felt happy at the way we were playing but, on the other hand, I knew that Barcelona can punish any team in a split second and put a tie out of reach.

After Van Persie's effort was saved by Valdes and David Villa netted the opener after 26 minutes, pessimistic thoughts of "oh no, here we go again!" started to enter my head. Part of me still kept believing we could pull it off but, with the worry of our defence falling apart as it has done in periods of other games this season, I accepted the score could yet get worse.

But to my delight Arsenal showed no fear and, rather than imploding, continued to get in the faces of the Spanish giants. Jack Wilshere was excellent in midfield and Laurent Koscielny put in arguably his best performance by far in an Arsenal shirt. But, despite all of this, we were not converting any of the chances that came our way and I knew Barcelona could soon get a second goal and make all our efforts count for nothing.

Arsenal are often breathtaking to watch but, at times, we can be so frustrating. Not converting chances, failing to kill games off, and daft lapses in concentration.

But then 12 minutes from time we were right back in the tie. Van Persie's thunderbolt had me celebrating wildly around the living room but, while I still believed we could do it, there was still a slight worry we might do something silly.

Barcelona had been less of a threat in the second half, but the importance of a second goal would give us a huge lift ahead of the second leg...and then it came. Arshavin's cool finish gave us victory in the first leg and, while I struggled to contain my joy at the result, I accept the job is only half done and we have to put in another consistent performance if we are to have any chance of progressing into the next round.

Barcelona remain strong favourites and are likely to come out all guns blazing. Home advantage will also be key for the Spanish side, but if we can learn from past mistakes and make the most of our 2-1 advantage there is no reason why we cannot hold on to progress. It is hard to predict what the second leg will hold as Barcelona are such an amazing team, but we just have to keep believing. You just never know!!