Arsenal's 2-0 win at Celtic Park, through a fluke deflection from Gallas and a Gary Caldwell own-goal, leaves the Bhoys with it all to do in London next Wednesday. Manager Tony Mowbray is under no illusions as to the enormity of the task his side faces in the return leg of the Champions League play-off but they'll be going for goal straight from the kick-off. "It's a big ask for us now but I think the secret is to go down there and try to score the first goal," he said. "That would make them very nervous and edgy, but if they score first we aren't going to score four at the Emirates."
Arsenal, one of the biggest beneficiaries of Sky's munificence to the EPL, went into Tuesday's game at Celtic Park as clear favourites to win but the Celts matched them until a freak moment just minutes before half-time. Gary Caldwell was adjudged to have impeded the diving Fabregas and the resulting free-kick took an appalling deflection off Gallas and into the net. That put the Londoners (sic) a goal up at a most crucial time in the match. The unfortunate Caldwell was also responsible for the second goal when he struck Clichy's low cross past his own goalkeeper in the second half.
"Both goals were very difficult to take," said boss Mowbray. "Arsenal are one of the best teams in the world and yet I can't remember them having a shot on goal in the first half. Then they get a free-kick 30 yards out, it hits Gallas on the back as he's trying to get out the way and goes in the bottom corner. If they have a 15-pass move and score you think 'wow' but they never did that, and didn't look like doing that to be fair. But then again we didn't either."
Although Arsenal were very fortunate Mowbray admitted that he had been expecting a little bit more quality from his own players. "The bottom line is that on the night we weren't good enough on the ball." he said. "I think they worked extremely hard to try and deny Arsenal opportunities - and I think they did that really well. Ultimately our passing to the forwards wasn't good enough from the back or the midfield."
The boss had sprung a surprise in his starting line-up when he elected to play Aiden McGeady as a forward alongside Georgios Samaras, at the expense of Scott McDonald and Marco-Antoine Fortune who were on the bench, but he was pleased with the Republic of Ireland midfielder's showing in the unfamiliar role. "Aiden was up front because he can hold onto the ball," he explained. "He was the one player on our side who showed he has genuine top quality that could match their quality players."
McGeady himself was not consoled by the fact that most observers, including Arsene Wenger, were raving about his performance. "How I played is no consolation if the team lose." he said. "It doesn't mean anything. Of course, you want to play against the best teams in the world every week but this is a tough one to take. We have no one else to blame but ourselves. We didn't play well enough on the night, I don't think. Arsenal have a fantastic team but I don't think we did ourselves justice on the ball."
Arsenal are a quality side, according to McGeady, but Celtic have beaten better sides he says. "They are a real good team, a team full of athletes, but we've played against better teams," said Celtic's number 46. "No disrespect to them, they are one of the best teams in Europe. We played against Barcelona a couple of seasons ago and I thought they were going to win the European Cup but we scored a couple against them, whereas tonight we didn't look like scoring at all."
"That was down to ourselves." he insisted. "I don't want to talk down Arsenal because everyone saw what a good team they are, everyone is comfortable on the ball, but it's true we've played better. We played AC Milan and won 2-1 without playing particularly well. We managed a couple of goals then, but it never looked like that against Arsenal."
Next weeks return leg in London is an even more daunting task than the team's trip to Russia for the Champions League qualifier against Dinamo Moscow and Aiden knows that only too well. "The second leg is totally different." he said. "It was the exact same scenario before Dinamo Moscow as well but we went away in the second leg, played really well and ended up winning 2-0. Arsenal are totally different from Dynamo. There's always going to be a gulf in class, Arsenal are a team who are going to go and look to win the European Cup. Obviously that's not the same with us but if we get the first goal anything can happen."