Champions League wrap - Spurs, Gunners stun giants

At long last, it's back! The Champions League! The best soccer you'll find on the planet.

We're now halfway through the first leg matches, and the London clubs have set the tone. It's an amazing start for both Tottenham and Arsenal, who claimed two famous scalps in AC Milan and Barcelona, the so-called "best side in football's history," as claimed by Cesc Fabregas.

We'll start with Spurs, who overcame injuries, Gennaro Gattuso's temper, Mathieu Flamini's two-footed lunge, the San Siro, and Milan's experience to win, 1-0, and carry a vital away goal back to White Hart Lane. The lengthy one, Peter Crouch, provided the winner in the 80th minute as a brilliant counter-attack by Aaron Lennon provided decisive.

It's really amazing, these Champions League debutants. A few players on the team have Champions League experience, but most don't. They were also missing several through injury (or had several players just returning from hiatus) - Gareth Bale and Ledley King were both out. Luka Modric just returned from an emergency appendectomy and played a small role off the bench, while Rafael Van der Vaart has struggled for some time with injury (though he was his usual tough, feisty self and nearly scored an amazing chip that went narrowly wide). Their attacking, pressing style would be swept up by the technicians throughout continental Europe.

But here we are, heading into the second-leg, and none of that has hurt this team. Their age and inexperience has given them an edge over a slower opponent, and an attitude of no fear, whereas AC Milan looked slow, sluggish, and having a difficult time dealing with expectations (both in Serie A and in the Champions League, where they were favored to at least advance out of this round). They've dealt with injuries well - Bale will probably be back for the return leg and Modric will have had a few more weeks to recover. They were attacking through Steven Pienaar and Lennon, but Harry Redknapp also had the foresight to go with the more defensive-minded Pienaar over Niko Kranjcar. So in nearly every area they were expected to struggle with - inexperience/age, injury/depth issues, style - they've actually received passing marks. 

Milan, meanwhile, were a disgrace. Gattuso slapped Tottenham assistant Joe Jordan in the neck, then gave him a light head-butt after the match that led to a mini-brawl. Flamini should have been sent off for his two-footed, off-the-ground, studs-up lunge on Vedran Corluka. Corluka had to leave the field on crutches, though Redknapp felt he avoided a broken leg. Somehow, both he and Gattuso stayed on the field (though Gattuso is suspended for the return leg). They have some exceptional attacking talent in Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Robinho, and Pato, but they are also exceptionally slow in certain areas of pitch. 

Milan are several things - slow, sluggish, divers, Serie A leaders (which is slightly amazing, and I fully expect a deeper, more talented, surging Inter to retain the Scudetto). Above all, they're also incredibly poor losers.

Tottenham's local rivals, Arsenal, also walked away from the first leg with a surprise win, a 2-1 victory over Barcelona. A year ago, Arsenal were over-matched by this same side. Mainly, they didn't have Lionel Messi, who scored 4 goals in the second leg at the Nou Camp in a 6-3 aggregate win. Fast forward a year, and a more mature, healthy, and more confident Arsenal head to Barcelona with a 2-1 lead after goals from Robin Van Persie and Andrei Arshavin cancelled out David Villa's 27th minute opener.

They may still be underdogs, but Arsenal now have something they certainly didn't have a year ago: belief. They know they can defeat Barcelona now. And while they may not have Messi or Xavi or Villa or Iniesta, they have Theo Walcott, Van Persie, Arshavin, Fabregas, and Samir Nasri to throw at Barcelona. That's more pace that Barcelona can handle. Barcelona play fast, but they don't have any speed demons like a Walcott. And with how Barcelona's fullbacks play, they leave large amounts of space behind them to exploit. They have weaknesses, and Arsenal have the tools to exploit that.

It was on display for Arsenal's beautiful second goal, a masterfully-played counter-attack that Arshavin finished well. Both fullbacks for Barcelona were caught out-of-position, and Arsenal made them pay. Arsenal have the tools to exploit that over and over. It will be difficult due to Barcelona's incredible tendency to possess the ball, and they will offer plenty of issues for Arsenal themselves. But if Arsenal can get an early goal like they did last year and not concede immediately afterward, they will stand an excellent chance. 

Arsene Wenger must be applauded. His side has grown these last two or three seasons. It's been full of lumps, broken legs, and bruised egos. But they have some mettle and resolve they haven't had in years. He also deserves praise for his gamble to put Arshavin on and take a defensive-minded player, Alex Song, off. It worked to perfection as Barcelona were largely ineffective the final 20 minutes of the match (while Barcelona took off Villa for Keita, a defensive player).