Compared to the plush layout of the Emirates, for example, it is something of a throwback, a place that - somewhat surprisingly - could benefit from a lick of paint at the very least.
And that's without even stepping out on to the enormous pitch in front of a baying crowd of 95,000. Arsenal should have avoided this possibility like the plague, having been turfed out of the Champions League here just 11 months ago.
Lesson not learned, clearly. Never mind berating referee Massimo Busacca for his admittedly lamentable decision to send off Robin van Persie, Arsenal staff and fans alike should cast their minds back to abject displays in Braga and Donetsk in the group stages.
Had they taken even a point against Shakhtar in Ukraine, or beaten the Portuguese on their own rocky patch, Arsenal would have topped Group H and avoided the other group winners. Instead of facing Barcelona, they would have been taking on a Roma side that lacked discipline, cohesion and even a full-time manager in losing 6-2 on aggregate to Shakhtar.
The seeds for this Champions League exit at the earliest knockout stage were sown then, but last night brought another raft of key moments that cost Arsenal dearly.
Playing unfit duo Fabregas and Van Persie
Cesc Fabregas radiated pride when he led his team-mates on to the Camp Nou pitch for his Barcelona homecoming.
With the captain’s armband hugging his left bicep and a broad smile on his face, he looked like a man in perfect control of his destiny.
In his mind, Fabregas would have played out a winning scenario in front of his family, childhood friends and fellow Catalans a thousand times but the arena that he still considers home proved to be an unforgiving one for the exiled Spaniard.
Fabregas came into this match having missed the best part of four games with a hamstring injury and he left the pitch with 10 minutes to go to a cacophony of wolf whistles from the home supporters, presumably in disgust at Wenger bringing off one of their own.
The 23-year-old looked like a man playing at something less than full fitness and ended up paying a heavy price. Later he tweeted his regret: “I take full blame for the result. One of the worst moments of my life. I apologise.”
Apart from perhaps the anonymous Tomas Rosicky, the only man in Arsenal’s yellow change strip as ineffective as Fabregas was Robin van Persie.
Arsene Wenger gambled by including the Dutchman only 36 hours after ruling him out with a knee ligament injury sustained in the League Cup final but Van Persie found no space in which to work and was chasing shadows long before his unfortunate red card.
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| Homecoming nightmare | Fabregas was unfit and at fault for Barca's opener |
It may have simply been mental and physical exhaustion provoked by scurrying after Lionel Messi et al for the best part of the opening half but the finger for Barca’s opening goal could be pointed directly at Arsenal’s captain.
Finding himself by virtue of necessity 10 yards from the edge of his own penalty area, Fabregas attempted to play his way out of a tight situation by laying off the ball to Wilshere with a back heel.
It proved to be a chronic misjudgement. Andres Iniesta seized on the woolly thinking and even woollier execution, slid in Messi with a perfect short pass and the buccaneering Argentinian scooped and dabbed the ball past Manuel Almunia. Would Wojciech Szczesny have fared better? Arsenal's new No.1 had to leave the field with a finger injury, raising another "what might have been" question for the Gunners.
Van Persie’s yellow peril
Whether it was through pure frustration or simply the lack of discipline that was a recurring theme in the Dutchman’s early professional career, he lost his composure and picked up an unnecessary yellow after clashing with Dani Alves in the first half.
How the majority of the 95,000 souls luxuriating in Barca’s brilliance but suddenly nervous about their passage into the quarter-finals howled their approval when Swiss referee Busacca produced yellow and then red cards from his pocket to end Van Persie’s stay on the pitch.
However much the home side had earned the right to win the tie after dominating the second leg even more conclusively than the first, it was a pivotal decision.
Arsenal’s lone striker claimed he had not heard Busacca blow his whistle as he raced through on goal and shot wide. Wilshere later backed up his team-mate’s plea in mitigation by claiming the din in the Nou Camp was such that he had not heard it either.
It was easy to sympathise with the visitors. It soon emerged that only one second had elapsed between the referee’s whistle and Van Persie making contact with the ball.
Wenger could face a Uefa charge for his strong post-match comments in which he accused the referee of “embarrassing” football and “killing” the game. Just for good measure, he claimed he had spoken to UEFA officials who agreed with him about the rigid, but patently ridiculous, application of the rules.
Koscielny runs the gauntlet
Following an error-strewn start to his Arsenal career, Laurent Koscielny has improved markedly since the turn of the year. He began last night's game by careering into challenge after challenge, and winning the ball frequently.
The problem with this is that eventually the sheer volume of tackles that he and central defensive partner Johan Djourou were forced to make - and several of them were of the last-ditch variety - would catch up with Arsenal.
So it proved. The Frenchman was booked in the first half for colliding with Pedro, and was fortunate not to receive a second yellow card when he conceded the penalty that sealed the match once and for all in Barcelona's favour in the second half.
More what ifs for Arsenal to ponder - what if Thomas Vermaelen had been fit? And what if Wenger had parted with some cash for a central defender in the January transfer window?
Bendtner’s blundering late miss
The Camp Nou held its collective breath with four minutes remaining on the clock when Nicklas Bendtner ran through the home defence to latch onto a perfectly weighted Wilshere pass.
But the Dane’s first touch was poor, his second too ponderous and Javier Mascherano caught up and robbed him of the ball to thwart the danger. “If Mascherano had not run those 20 yards quicker than Bendtner we were out,” reflected a relieved Guardiola afterwards.
It would have been Arsenal’s only shot on target, indeed on goal at all, in a game in which Barca had 19. It was also only the visitors’ second touch in the opposition goal area all game; compared to a total of 47 by the three-times European Cup winners.
Had Bendtner capitalised on Wilshere’s astuteness, the statistics would have been rendered irrelevant and we could be reflecting on the most anomalous result in the history of the competition. Arsenal got what they deserved, but it really could have been so different.
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