With Wolves coming up tomorrow, we archive the big Champions League game against Barcelona with quotes from three Arsenal players. Brasilian midfielder Denilson was upset following the injury to Cesc Fabregas which ended the season of the captain, but explained Frenchman Samir Nasri can fill up the gap left by the Spaniard in midfield. Cesc, on the other hand, was full of praise for Theo Walcott, declaring how he was the one who really made a difference after coming on as a substitution.

Incidentally, Theo Walcott, 21, doesn’t really agree with Fabregas, explaining how his second half introduction was not the only reason why Arsenal made an amazing comeback from 0-2 down. The Englishman gave credit to the crowd, who kept on pushing the Gunners until the very last second of the game. Walcott also explained how he was impressed by the first half of the Catalans, comparing their fast football to a video game.

Denilson said:

We are sad now because Cesc will not play [the second leg]. But I think Samir can come in and help us. It is important to go there and to win. In the first half they played better than us. It was a great opportunity to show [our spirit]. We started badly but in the second half we played well and we have one more game to go.

Fabregas said:

Theo made such a difference. He went behind them. He created a lot of problems and I think he was the best player. We were dead at 2-0. You could never imagine we could come back. In the first half we never saw the ball. You thought you were going to get the ball then they changed sides. In the second half they scored two great goals but we had great spirit and comeback. Not everyone does that against a side like them.

Overall it was an amazing experience and an amazing game. I will remember it for the rest of my life. My injury makes it bad but I think I would have done it anyway without being injured before.

Walcott said:

For me as a young player growing up and learning the game it was a fantastic experience just to watch some world-class players. It was like someone was controlling them on a PS3 at times. It was fantastic to watch.

Just me coming on didn’t turn the game. The fans were like an extra man. We just showed great character coming back like that. You also need a bit of luck, which we got with the two goals. But I think it was a fair result. Almunia was fantastic for us. [Without him] it could have been three or four. Going in at 0-0 was a very good result because they had a lot of possession and come at us quite a lot.