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| A lot to think about (Courtesy of gordonflood.com - Flickr) |
This was a game
of reasonably poor quality, even the winners missed some very easy chances, in
a weekend lacking in entertainment. Certainly watchers of MOTD will have felt
thoroughly disappointed. United should have scored, perhaps not eight but at
least 4 or 5. In fact the only reason the home side did score their two goals
was poor defending. Thomas Vermaelen, usually a defensive rock, turned a poor
Rafael cross into a goal-scoring opportunity by clearing the ball with his
studs straight to Robin Van Persie, who finished well with his weaker right
foot. This, however, came only after Andre Santos had been left for dead by an
Antonio Valencia flick to Rafael. Andre Santos was probably head clown in the
farce that was this Arsenal defensive display. It’s like watching an attacking
left winger trying to defend; perhaps this is what Andre Santos is. The game
then meandered along with Vito Mannone making some decent saves in the Arsenal
goal; the Italian saved from Robin Van Persie and then fantastically from a
powerful Rooney shot. Still the main attraction of the day was the Arsenal
defence’s inability to deal with this lukewarm Manchester United threat.
Slicing crosses over their own bar, diving into challenges only to see that
their opponent had already left them (this was mainly the comically inept
Santos). Just before half time United missed a penalty, Rooney smashing wide,
after Santi Cazorla had produced a rejection that would have made Shaq O’Neal proud.
Just after half
time Arsenal’s defence was let off the hook again when the bafflingly poor
Vermaelen turned in his own half and lost the ball to Van Persie, who crossed
for Valencia to see the ball scrape through his legs from 6 yards out. Arsenal
had some chances of their own, the best of which fell to Olivier Giroud who
will have to go a long way this season to justify his hefty transfer fee.
United finally doubled their lead with a collector’s item, a Patrice Evra
header, which can only highlight again Arsenal’s defensive shortcomings. Evra
(5ft 8) got in between Vermaelen (6ft) and Per Mertesacker (6ft 6) to head home
from 6 yards out, the cross from Rooney was perfectly measured but I’m not sure
any cross can be good enough to create a scoring chance like this against two
defenders at the top of their game. Jack Wilshere was eventually sent off,
about which there can be no complaints, after not two but three bookable
offences, the worst of which was the first; taking out his frustration at
losing the ball by chopping down Tom Cleverley. This was indicative of Wilshere’s
afternoon, for someone who likes to control the tempo of the game and also make
big tackles this must have been a frustrating afternoon; Wilshere didn’t get
near the ball in either an attacking sense or a defensive one. Arsenal got a
consolation with the last kick of the game, a superb finish from Arsenal’s best
player; Santi Cazorla, but the 2-1 score line was not justified in anyway. The
post-match interviews said it all, Ferguson pointing out that United “didn’t
punish” Arsenal and Wenger stating that “we put ourselves in trouble” were two facts
that hardly needed saying. Rio Ferdinand admitting that the United dressing
room felt like the losing one is very understandable.
So where does
that leave these two? Unbelievably, based on that performance, United sit top
of the league, but they will have to dramatically improve their performances if
they have any desire to stay there. Arsenal are in trouble. The worst start to
a campaign under the reign of Arsene Wenger they are desperately missing not
one key factor but several. The defence, based on this performance, needs three
or four new faces. They need a clinical finisher as Olivier Giroud is not it
(THEO WALCOTT) and possibly another centre-mid before they can have any real
title aspirations. As for this season finishing fourth will be the main aim.
Luckily for them their main contenders from last season; Newcastle and
Tottenham, seem also to have decreased their level of play and at the moment it
seems like Everton are the team to beat. This game only served to highlight the
gap between the top 3 and the rest of the league, although results elsewhere
did not, and with Arsenal now 9 points off the top it looks to be another
disappointing season to be a Gooner.
In summary this
looked more like a game you would find in League One, and some might say that
would be offensive to League One football. There were moments where you could
see that this was a Premier League game but most of those were shots of the
crowd. It is a long time since the fixture between Manchester United and
Arsenal was the one that everyone was waiting for all season but we expect a
lot better than this from two teams who finished in the top four last season.
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