Van Pierse Hails Gomes for his World class saves

Arsenal fit-again star, Robin Van Pierse paid tribute to Tottenham Hotspur goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes for his ‘crazy’ saves which made Arsenal selling their title hopes to Chelsea.


It was first time for Van Pierse to play after five months of sideline and he made an impact when he was introduced in the 68^th minute in Arsenal’s 2-1 defeat in the hands of Tottenham in the English Premier League clash at White Lane on Wednesday.

"Yes, especially the first one," he told Arsenal.com. "I expected that to go in but somehow he saved it which is crazy. The free-kick was going straight into the top corner and he saved that as well. Those were big moments.

"It is a thin line between winning and losing. We had some good chances, they had some too. I felt we deserved maybe a draw from tonight. If you look at the second half we had a number of good chances and their keeper made a couple of unbelievable saves."

The Dutch star also supported Wenger’s views that their title hopes have been ruined saying he don’t see Chelsea dropping over six points in their last five games but believes finishing second position is a great achievement and improvement.

He said "I don't think Chelsea will drop more than six points now."

"Definitely, if you look at last year," he said. "No one really expected this. But when you are this close you really want to win it. When you don't do that it is frustrating.

"It felt good and I am happy to be back. But when you are there and your team is behind you want to do something to help them.

"Unfortunately I could not do that this evening."

Messi's four goals sends Barca through into the Champions League Semi-final

Barcelona are through into the semifinals of the Champions League after Lionel Messi’s four goals gave them a 4-1 victory over Arsenal at Nou Camp on Tuesday night, 6-3 on aggregate.


 Arsenal without Cesc Fabregas, Andrey Arshavin, Alex Song and William Gallas due to injuries, were outplayed in almost all 90 minutes despite Bendtner early strike that broke deadlock amid crowd of 93,000.00 after he grabbed  a good pass from Theo Walcott.

Messi scored all four goals for Barcelona to send a warning to Jose Mourinho as they prepare to meet in semifinals after the Italian’s side also defeated CSKA Moscow 1-0 on the same night.

 Meanwhile Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger have so far wished Barcelona good luck for their qualification and admitted that Messi is a player who can make a difference at moment.

 “First I want to congratulate Barcelona and wish them good luck. They over the two games they deserved to qualify. They are a very good side but of course they have Messi who can make a difference at any moment in the game. He can take advantage of every mistake we make," said Wenger in a press conference.

The manager also admitted that his team were punished because of the defensive mistakes despite starting strong.

"I believe we played quite well. We started strong, had a good opportunity to score the second goal and were a bit unlucky because we had a good chance when Bendtner was not offside. The regret I have is that we made too many mistakes defensively for a game like that. They were always first on the ball and we were punished for it," said Wenger.

Arsenal faces another tough test

Arsenal faces another tough Champions League quarterfinal second leg encounter when they take on Barcelona at Nou Camp on Tuesday evening.


 Arsenal were held last week  by the defending champions when two late goals from substitute Theo Walcott and Cesc Fabregas sealed their 2-2 draw at Emirates Stadium in the first leg tie with the Gunners being outplayed in almost all 90 minutes .Read more...