Arshavin gives Arsenal hope after securing thrilling victory

First they broke the spell that Barcelona cast over them. Then they won the game. Now all that is required of Arsène Wenger's team is to prevail at the Nou Camp in 20 days' time and they will have tipped European football on its axis.

That is no small task but you had to be in the Emirates midway through the first half last night to understand truly just how unpromising Arsenal's position was in this game and just how far they came to rescue it. They were one goal behind and light years off the pace before finally they launched a barrage of counter-attacks to end the game with two goals in the space of five euphoric minutes.

Put simply, Arsenal were drowning in the first half amid those hypnotic waves of Barça passing that go on for so long it is possible for opponents to give up all hope. Pep Guardiola's team finished with an enormous completed pass count of 629 to Arsenal's 299. But that was immaterial once Robin van Persie and Andrei Arshavin had scored goals that changed the course of the tie.

To beat the best club side in the world with just 39 per cent possession was once Jose Mourinho's trick – last night it was perfected by Arsenal. When they finally found their feet in the closing stages, Arsenal looked direct and pragmatic in comparison. First, Wenger's side beat Chelsea this season, now Barcelona. How they are growing up.

During the period of Barça dominance, and then when they had wrested control of the game back from them, there were many great performances in Arsenal shirts. Van Persie and Cesc Fabregas were among them – but again and again the eye was drawn back to the brilliant Jack Wilshere in the centre of midfield, making tackles and spraying passes.

If Barcelona resolved that this coming summer was to be the time that they finally repatriated Fabregas to Catalonia then after last night they may well reflect that they will have to return to Arsenal in a few years time and make Wilshere a similar offer. The greatest compliment you could pay the Englishman was that in his side's darkest moments he still looked good enough to get in the Barça side.

The manner in which Wilshere played, alongside Alex Song who was embarrassed by Barça for long periods, was the strongest evidence yet that restricting him to defensive duties in an England shirt would be the biggest waste of his talent. "Jack was outstanding," Wenger said. "He wasn't fazed by the occasion. In difficult periods he took the ball and took the pressure off."

It was difficult to identify exactly what went wrong with Barcelona who were in such complete control for most of the first half, it looked they would win the game. They certainly missed many chances and Lionel Messi was as guilty as any of his team-mates in the 15th minute when he ran through on goal, chipped Wojciech Szczesny and missed the far post.

At that point one assumed that there would be dozens more opportunities to punish Arsenal but instead Messi drifted out of view. Asked whether the Argentine may do the same damage he did last season when he scored four goals against Arsenal in the Nou Camp, Wenger replied: "When don't you worry about Lionel Messi? You can never keep him completely quiet."

More immediately, English football can celebrate that in the space of two days, the two old foes of north London have beaten the league leaders in Italy and Spain. It is early days yet, of course, with the possibility that both may not make it past their second-leg games, but it says something for the ambition of these two exciting young sides.

For all their travails in the first half, Arsenal started the brighter and created the first chance of the game in six minutes when Fabregas scooped the ball over the Barça defence to Van Persie whose shot was well-saved by Victor Valdes.

By the midway point of the first half, the Spanish champions were utterly dominant. By 26 minutes they had scored one and should have had another. By the end of the half they should have three in all and Wenger's players were starting to exchange desperate glances.

Xavi, Andres Iniesta, Messi and David Villa had their opponents chasing the ball in the manner you might expect of a humble Football League team visiting the Emirates on a daunting cup assignment. Song was passed around and Theo Walcott, for all his effort in chasing back the full-back Maxwell, looked isolated.

The Barça way was to mesmerise Arsenal with their passing and then, when their opponents were completely befuddled, slip a throughball in for one of their many attackers. Messi just missed from Villa's pass. Then on 26 minutes Messi returned the favour and Villa struck his shot between the legs of the diving Szczesny.

Arsenal had chances but they were in possession for such brief periods it felt as if they were clinging on Five minutes before the break, in the build-up to a move in which Messi put the ball in the net but was ruled offside, there was a clear handball by Johan Djourou which could well have resulted in a penalty.

Laurent Koscielny's barge into the back of Pedro before the hour had a whiff of a penalty about it and might have been given if the little winger had not spent the game ungraciously appealing for every decision. Gerard Pique was booked and is out of the game at the Nou Camp.

Then the sting in the tail. Van Persie's equaliser on 78 minutes came from Gaël Clichy's ball into the left channel. The striker's decision to hit it inside Valdes' near post caught the goalkeeper by surprise. The winner was a classic Arsenal counter-attack. Fabregas released Samir Nasri and he cut the ball back into the path of Arshavin who hit a powerful, controlled shot past Valdes.

Barça's grip had slipped before then but in the five minutes in which the two goals were scored, the tie had changed beyond recognition. For much of it Arsenal were not in control yet that is the strange thing about playing Barça: it is possible to cede large periods of the game to them and still win. As Arsenal will attempt to prove again in three weeks.

Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Szczesny; Eboue, Djourou, Koscielny, Clichy; Song (Arshavin, 67), Wilshere; Walcott (Bendtner, 77), Fabregas, Nasri; Van Persie. Substitutes not used Almunia (gk), Rosicky, Denilson, Squillaci, Gibbs.

Booked Song, Nasri, Van Persie

Barcelona (4-3-3): Valdes; Alves, Pique, Abidal, Maxwell; Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta (Adriano, 88); Pedro, Messi, Villa (Keita, 67). Substitutes not used Pinto (gk), Bojan, Mascherano, Milito, Afellay.

Booked Iniesta, Pique.

Possession Arsenal 47% Barcelona 53%

Shots on target Arsenal 8 Barcelona 7

Man of the match Wilshere Match rating 8/10.

Referee N Rizzoli (Italy) Attendance 59,927.