Manchester United 0-1 Arsenal - A footballing lesson
Arsenal was the better team yesterday, and they deserved to win.
Having said that :), I think Ferguson missed a major trick there by letting Arsenal control the play from midfield and mainly, not starting the game with Carrick. O’Shea’s presence was unnecessary until Baptista came on the pitch - till then, United lacked creativity in midfield with Scholes doing a lot of the cleaning up and defending and Ronaldo playing on his own on the left.
Manchester United missed Carrick in the game - Neither Hleb or Rosicky or Ljunberg or Fabregas are the type of players that need a bruiser to mark them - Carrick with his interception play and slick passing would have been a better foil for Scholes and his presence would have helped Rooney and Saha as well.
The second mistake Ferguson made was in not starting with Solskjaer on the right. The commentators talked about Fletcher being a better defensive player but with Gallas playing ahead of him and Neville doing a good job of marking Ljunberg / Rosicky, Fletcher’s brief was to go forward and support the two strikers. He’s not good enough to do that.
Before the game, Hasan said that because Manchester United were favourites they wouldn’t fight so hard (and by extension, because Arsenal were underdogs they would scrap harder). I don’t think the favourites/underdogs tags mattered much, but while Arsenal were better on the day this was Manchester United’s home game and considering their lead in the Premiership, their game to win and lose. They lost it, partially to a better team, partially to poor tactics and partially to the players not being up for it.
Arsenal’s goal was typical of Manchester United’s recent defensive problems - first Fabregas wasn’t closed down, then Adebayour was allowed to beat his marker and tap in the goal. Considering the chances we had to score, it was a shame to lose this match.
The Premiership race isn’t over yet for Arsenal, but Manchester United’s title hopes took a hit while Liverpool’s hopes nosedived. They say nothing’s decided yet, but this weekend it was all about which way the results went.
In all fairness, Arsenal showed us how a football match is played - even if they were defensive and had Gallas playing for them (Arsenal’s best player on the night). Manchester United lost a game they really should have won.
A defensive lapse and Arsenal kill the game. Many 1-0 wins predicted for Arsenal this season, while Manchester United will keep leaking goals.
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Discussion - 12 Responses
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Your last comment “was Manu United lost a game they really should of won” - by implication you mean Arsenal were lucky? - I dont think so - defensive? I dont think so - solid yes, played as a team yes, worked hard yes, deserved to win, yes -Lucky - Hell no.
“In all fairness, Arsenal showed us how a football match is played - even if they were defensive and had Gallas playing for them (Arsenal’s best player on the night).”
What an absolute load of ballacks.
Arsenal didn’t need to be defensive because Rooney was a bag oif shyte, Ronaldo was doing his usual poncy stepover rubbish, Arsenal ran the midfield, had 2/3 of the possession first half, mostly in United’s territory, and if anyone was defensive then it was the Moaners with their putrid attempts at stopping Arsenal playing football.
F**k me, we even had Fergie trot out a “players looked a bit tired” excuse.
Woweee, two trips from the Manc suburbs in a week, the poor dears. And this after Arsenal had travelled to Germany and back, and become the first English team to win in Hamburg.
As for Gallas, as left back, he couldn’t and didn’t really make a very big contribution to the game - but then again, he didn’t really need to, did he?
Arsenal outplayed the Mancs all over the park, and thoroughly deserved the win.
I really don’t understand what game you watched. Arsenal had much better chances of scoring than Man U. I’m an Arsenal Fan but don’t see where Gallas was so special on this day. The best player for me in the entire game was the young 19 year old full back for Arsenal along with Kolo Toure.
I think that its about time that SAF and DG left the club as it has now become more than apparent that they have nothing more to contribute to the club!How can you pay 4-4-2 and expect width with Fletcher on the right?What was wrong with Richardson?He would have been perfect on the left and Ronaldo would have given Gallas a torrid time!And please dont give us the Giggs excuse,because ever since the latter stages of last year,we played Giggs out of his natural position by putting him in the centre of the park.We should have made significant signings in the summer,but due to our bungling transfer negotiation team,we only ended up with Carrick and a keeper that I can only pronounce his first name!!!I hope that in Januay,all concerned with our transfers will make it a point of duty to buy Senna as with the arrival of him,we’ll be able to rotate him and O’Shea as holding midfielders and Scholes,Carrick and Fletcher can be rotated as their pairs in the centre of the park,leaving Park,Giggs,Richardson and Ronaldo(plus Ole Gunner if necessary)to be rotated to create attacking flair on the flanks!
The game I saw had Arsenal controlling the midfield with Fabregas passing it around for fun. United created the better chances (Solskjaer and Ronaldo) and were unlucky to find Lehmann (god I hate him) instead of the back of the net. O’Shea was completely ineffective and the game completely bypassed him. Fletcher tried hard but doesn’t have the quality to influence the play enough. Scholes was United’s best player by far working tirelessly and passing well with Gary Neville and Rio (despite his concentration lapse in the first half) putting in good performances. Rooney was off the pace and as a team we didn’t do enough with the ball. Stunned at Fergie’s decision to take off Rooney and Scholes. I don’t buy the line that “Scholes was getting cramp”. Rooney looked a little off the pace but is always capable of something special (remember the goal against Newcastle United).
We should have started that game in a 4-5-1/4-3-3 with O’Shea in the holding role, Scholes and Carrick in the centre with Rooney and Ronaldo left and right supporting Saha. He has shown he can work on his own up front and we would have had more creativity coming then from the likes of Scholes, Carrick, Rooney and Ronaldo. Plus we would have had more players in midfield when not in possession to stifle Arsenals midfielders.
To sum up - Fergie got it wrong! Oh, and we desperately missed Giggs!
Firstly, I must admit… ARSEnal played great!!!
Now that the formalities are over… What the F#&k was ManU doing. As a ManU fan, I’m actually glad that they got a ‘footballing lesson’ from Arsenal. I really started doubting myself last week, believing that there was something seriously wrong with me. There had to be??? I felt that I was the only one of all those that watched the previous games that noticed a lack of ’spark’ in United’s play. At least now I have some consolation in knowing that it was NOT my imagination. There is absolutely NO creativity in the team.
SAF declared that this season’s focus will be ‘to make Old Trafford a theatre of nightmares again’ for visiting teams. From yesterday’s performance, I doubt the team’s on the right track of achieving that.
Our midfield was no-where to be found. No domination…no creativity…no nothing. (We seemed almost like Reading playing away at Chelsea). Is it just me or did it seem like the goal-scoring opportunities just dried up.
When it came to slick passing, Arsenal definately outplayed us. And this with a team of ‘youngsters’. I actually thanked God that Henry wasn’t playing last night. (Perhaps it would have been a good thing if both him and Van Persie was playing. Perhaps then some eyes would have opened in the ManU boardroom).
Is this a taste of what’s going to happen when we meet a team that is not afraid to take us on?
Martino, I conpletely agree with your formation suggestion. I was actually surprised to find that we did not start with that formation. Perhaps the ‘fans’ reaction to last season when palying that formation had something to do with SAF not going that route?
What I also find interesting is that after Toure started having ‘injury’ problems in the second half, no one seemed to have capitalised on it. Why didn’t they have a run at him. To me there were no ‘killer-instinct’ in the team.
I admit that we missed Giggs. (He’s always been my hero in the team). BUT, I’m getting quite sick of this…
Last season it was … we missed Scholes, before that we missed Ruud, before that … we missed Rooney, before that … we missed Rio, etc. etc. etc. Get what I’m trying to say? United won championships because they had depth in the squad. The same reason why Chelsea is such a great team today. If you look at the quality and depth of our squad, I have to admit that it is nowhere close the Chelsea (FAPL) and Barcelone (ECL). It would have been a different case if youngsters were given the opportunity in the first-team (eg. Arsenal), but lets face facts… When last did a youngster break into the United first team from the academy? (pre-season games does not count…). Richardson’s not even getting a proper run-in.
I have a feeling that this season will be another ‘near-miss’ mainly because of the depth of quality in our squad.
Ahmed so this officially the first time that i’m posting a comment here and I think you already know why …
‘We’ kicked ‘your’ ass all over Old Trafford !!
Go Gunners !!
Also, SAF should just call it quits.
It was really a night for arsenal to win for it beat Man United right away from the beginning to the end.
It would have looked so terrible to get a leopald from the trap and it turns back to rejoice on you.
I need Wenger our man…. to use that formation 4-5-1 whenever we are not at home.
Cheers The Gunners
Everything has an end. It broke our unbeaten record, we broke has. An eye for an eye.
to sum it up honestly arsenal played well and utd were never at the races, the tactics were out and utd gave us plenty of space in the midfield. as for the complaining of arsenal being overly defensive or utd being overly defensive i gotta say i saw nothing to confirm that either way, considering these are the two biggest teams in the premiership (other then liverpool) you can hardly be surprised that both teams will be able to defend and have to spend some time doing that.
Yes utd lost and played badly but its not the end of the world you’re defence has looked pretty frail for the last few games and the midfield has looked unimaginative but what a good team needs every now and then is a kick up the jacksy to drill things into them, i say this as an arsenal fan who used to pull his hair out when we would grind out draw after draw.
look i’ll put it like this i ain’t no manc fan but i’d prefer a big team to win something this year then some minor team with the morals of…….. well…peter kenyon
I feel so great, Arsenal is becoming new wine in old bottles in trying to revive our lost glory.
Guys please talk about Fc Porto,Sheffield Utd
Joseph a Gunner