When I bought my ticket for this Champions League Play Off tie I was anticipating a tight tie with an exciting second leg. Following Arsenal's comfortable win in Turkey though the match in London promised little and ultimately proved to be a totally Pyrrhic victory with Fenerbahce being banned from European competitions the next day and Arsenal counting the cost of injuries to Aaron Ramsey and Lukas Podolksi, not to mention a couple of yellow cards which may come back to haunt the Gunner later in the competition.
The match itself saw Fenerbahce make Arsenal fight every inch of the way for the elementary win, the Turks urged on by their finger pointing, fist waving supporters right to the final whistle. With Bruno Alves defending so deep he was virtually sitting next to me in the first half, Arsenal struggled to create chances beyond the one that Ramsey took to score. At the other end Wojciech Szczesny was kept busy, needing the help of the woodwork on more than one occasion. The result on the night was decided by Ramsey's second deep into the second half but long before that the home fans thoughts inevitably turned to the size of the Arsenal squad which is currently insufficiently big for the twin challenges of Premier and Champions League football.
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