The Gunners had Robin van Persie controversially sent off as they were knocked out of Europe by the Spanish giants for the second successive season, with a 3-1 reverse meaning a 4-3 aggregate exit. The Dutchman was a shock inclusion for Arsenal, who led 2-1 from the first leg, having recovered quicker than expected from the knee injury he sustained in the Carling Cup final. However, moments after an own goal from Sergio Busquets had cancelled out Lionel Messi's fine opener following a terrible mistake by Fabregas, van Persie was dismissed by Swiss referee Massimo Busacca. The Dutchman had already been booked in the first half and was shown a second yellow card for lashing the ball towards goal after a marginal offside call which the Arsenal striker claimed he could not hear. Barcelona took full advantage, with Xavi and then Messi's penalty putting the tie beyond Arsene Wenger's men, who were left to reflect on what might have been and must now regroup for Saturday's FA Cup quarter-final at Barclays Premier League title rivals Manchester United. Fabregas, returning to his boyhood club for the first time, had earlier inexplicably tried to backheel the ball to Jack Wilshere on the edge the Arsenal penalty area, but gave it straight to Andres Iniesta - who set up Messi to put Barcelona ahead in first-half stoppage time. The Spain World Cup winner, substituted with 12 minutes remaining, was left bitterly disappointed by his own contribution after coming back from a hamstring injury, . "I take full blame for the result tonight," Fabregas said on his Twitter account. "One of the worst moments of my life. I apologise." Van Persie, meanwhile, labelled his dismissal "a total joke". Just a second elapsed between Busacca blowing his whistle and the Holland forward striking the ball. "I cannot understand that view from the ref," the Arsenal striker said. "If there were four, five, six seconds in between, you can make a check (for offside). One second, it's a joke. "I tried to explain there were 95,000 people jumping up, how can I hear the whistle? "We feel betrayed a bit, when it was 1-1 it was all to play for and in my opinion this referee killed the game." Midfielder Jack Wilshere felt the decision had been key and believes Arsenal must put the incident out of their minds as they focus on completing a league and FA Cup double. "We all know it was a bad decision, but we have to deal with it and move on," he said. "I thought we dealt with it quite well, but if there is any team you don't want to go down to 10 men against, it is Barcelona. "We got a goal back - which was the aim - and were pushing them, then Robin went off and we had to defend. Maybe we just ran out of legs in the end." Arsenal were dealt another injury blow when goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny suffered a dislocated finger when he saved Dani Alves' free-kick after 16 minutes. The young Pole could now be facing an extended spell on the sidelines, leaving Manuel Almunia as the only fit senior keeper available.
