Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has been charged with misconduct by UEFA after comments following his side's 3-1 loss to Barcelona at the Camp Nou, a result that sees Wenger's side dumped out of the Champions League by the Catalans for the second straight season. Rather than focusing on the fact that his side were well and truly obliterated by a Barcelona side that played them off the pitch, Wenger chose to take the focus away from the football and laid the blame squarely on the shoulders of referee Massimo Busacca, who controversially sent off Robin van Persie in the second half shortly after Arsenal had leveled the score at 1-1 on the night through Sergio Busquets' own goal.After the match, Wenger was quoted as describing Busacca's decision as 'embarrassing':
FC Barcelona Vs. Arsenal FC, 2011: Arsene Wenger, Samir Nasri Charged With Misconduct By UEFA
If you play football at a certain level you cannot understand this decision. It killed a promising, fantastic match. If it’s a bad tackle, OK, but frankly it is embarrassing.
That was enough, apparently, to get him hit with a misconduct charge from Europe's governing body. Winger Samir Nasri, who had been the driving force behind Arsenal's equaliser, also managed to get himself charged after words were exchanged with the Swiss referee in the immediate aftermath of the sending off - which was, in defence of Wenger and Nasri, a bit of a disgrace. Van Persie was shown a second yellow card for shooting at Victor Valdes' goal less than a second after the whistle had been blown for offside in one of the noisiest stadiums in the world. Any common sense at all would suggest that the referee should simply ignore the situation, and you can understand Arsenal's anger at that specific decision, which at least partially excuses Nasri having a heated tete-a-tete with Busacca.
The sending off did change the match, as well, although you’d be hard pressed to find anyone saying that Barcelona didn’t deserve to win on their own merits anyway. Although van Persie was playing terribly, being reduced to ten men cut into Arsene Wenger’s options to move his team around to protect the lead - with eleven it wasn’t inconceivable that they could drop into a defensive shell and hold their hosts off for 25 minutes. With ten, well... Arsenal are not Inter Milan. However, van Persie should have been dismissed in the first half anyway, something Wenger would have done well to remember before he laid the blame entirely on Busacca’s services.
Considering Rino Gattuso picked up a four match ban for headbutting Tottenham Hotspur coach Joe Jordan two weeks ago and UEFA's track record for footballers and managers discussing refereeing decisions, I'm anticipating both Nasri and Wenger to be suspended for at least five matches.
