Arsenal 2 - 1 Man U: Classic

Once again the Arsenal youngsters showed their mettle, this time against a high-flying Man United team. The league leaders left their first encounter at Ashburton Grove empty handed, and it really was a super game. Various accounts have been given of the match, including a ridiculous match report in the Independent by Sam Wallace which is disgustingly biased and if you hadn't watch the game would give you the impression that Arsenal kicked and poisoned their way to a completely undeserved victory with a bunch of thugs, hooligans and charlatans, and Manchester United were a noble glorious force, cheated at the death, who basically deserved to have won 7-0 and didn't only through some self-induced philanthropic desire to throw the game away to that bunch in an attempt to spice up the title race. Nigel Spackman said post-match that it was a game that Manchester United had dominated from start to finish and that they were very unlucky to have lost. Steve McMahon rightly called him on his absurd views afterwards by saying that he didn't know what game Spackman watched, but it certainly hadn't been this one.

As Kurt Vonnegut would say... Listen:

The story was this - a confident, good United team started brightly, at a high tempo, and tried to dominate. In the first half, they did, and they had a lot of posession against a young, nervy Arsenal who tried to stick to their game but were being pegged back under a constant barrage of pressure. Jens Lehmann had saves to make, and he did (Wallace has erroneously reported that Rooney hit the bar when Lehmann in fact had saved; perhaps he too, like Spackman, was watching a different game). United had several chances right before half-time, but were unable to capitalise, and Arsenal came into the game in the second half. They largely tried to play their way, but mixed it up a bit. They started to show what they were capable of, dealt with United and started to impose themselves. And then on a counter-attack, United created their only real chance of the half and Rooney scored from it. It was a great run off-the-ball from Evra, a good cross and an excellent diving header from Rooney to score. In the media, fingers were being pointed - Fabregas didn't pick up Evra's run, Clichy had Rooney unmarked behind him, Toure got a touch on the cross as it went by but couldn't cut it out. But finger-pointing doesn't help, and we didn't dwell on it - these things happen in football, especially on counter-attacks... if you have players charging back the length of the field all at different speeds, and the ball is in behind you, it's difficult. Crucially, I think Gilberto was missed. As Arsene says, "he smells danger", and usually picks up the supporting and overlapping runs that fullbacks or midfielders make against us. 0-1 to the Mancs.

But again, no matter. The boys regrouped, and went for it. The second half was all Arsenal possession, all Arsenal dominance, and even if it was not effective at times, the direction of the game was changed. Man United played their part as well, after going a goal up, they sat back a little deeper (wary perhaps of Henry's pace), and Senderos and Cesc's probing long passes to Adebayor were starting to push them deeper and deeper. Then the subs came on. Van Persie in attack on for the innefectual Hleb, and Baptista more latterly for Flamini, to offer some more of a goal threat and experience. And Monsieur Wenger... take a bow, because the subs worked a treat.

With 6 minutes left, Cesc and Rosicky fought doggedly for the ball. Scholes and Evra were on the ground after having put in tackles, and 3 or 4 times the ball changed hands, but our two little dynamos never gave up. Never. Finally Cesc came away with the ball, and released Rosicky down the right flank. He crossed to the near post, Henry tried a cheeky backheeled-instep Kanu-versus-Boro flick type thing that didn't come off at all, but Robin Van Persie came screaming in at the far post to lunge and bang in an equaliser into the roof of the net off that precious left foot of his. He wanted it, and he got it. He covered loads of ground, and showed great hunger and anticipation to take the chance, and of course exceptional technqiue to direct the ball high and past Van Der Sar. 1-1.

With the pressure of defeat, and their unbeaten home record off, the team regrouped and went back for more. Then in the 3rd minute of stoppage time, Eboue played a terrific one-two with Rosicky, ghosted in behind the player at left-back (Heinze had come on to supplement Evra who moved upfield, and maybe they got confused), and he delivered a pacy, accurate cross into the box. Henry was lurking behind Vidic, and he jumped perfectly to thump a bullet header past Van der Saar. Magnificient stuff, and typical of Henry this season. He had faffed around the entire game, wasted a much easier headed chance from a great ball by Adebayor, and done not very much apart from having a penalty decision go against him (probably wrongly), and squabbled with Gary Neville the entire game. But cometh the hour, cometh the man. 2-1; game over.

Baptista has not been mentioned much, but he did well when he came on. Was positionally good, and supported the team well in defence and in attack. We all expect him to be scoring goals, but it's easy to forget that he started off as a defensive midfielder, and that he understands the position. Cesc, who was majestic all game really hung around the final third towards the end of the game, and Baptista helped him to do that. Everyone was good; Clichy was superb apart from their goal, Eboue was minimally dramatic, made some good tackles, had Ronaldo in his pocket and crossed for the winner. Senderos was decent, and although had donkey moments (including falling backwards while trying a simple pass to Toure), he was always alert to danger. Rosicky was wasteful and although involved, was ineffective for most of the game, but played a crucial part in both goals. Flamini worked hard as he always does. Hleb tried but failed on the day, and was probably the second worst player on the field after Henry, but Henry scored and he didn't, and that's the way it goes. Adebayor was probably man of the match, full of running excellent control and technique, and he always managed to hold up the ball and lay it off neatly. He created good chances for Henry and Cesc, and although he didn't really have a shot to speak of, he gave them massive trouble. Van Persie as I said earlier produced an excellent finish, but fractured his foot (metatarsal #5!) in doing so and that's a big worry now.

So Arsenal win 2-1 deservedly, and things become a wee bit more interesting. It's unfortunate that sections of the media have had a field day somehow managing to slam Arsenal for coming back and winning the game. In Paris, 10 men Arsenal had lots of possession and more shots, but lost. The media however had no hesitation in proclaiming Barca as worthy winners. I bet if Man United had been the ones to win that way, they would have been applauded for their "British spirit" and "never say die attitutude" and all that malarky. F*ck off.

Spackman and Wallace, you pair of twats, here are the stats (yes, yes it rhymes):

	Arsenal	Mancs
Shots (On Target)	19(11)	10(6)
Fouls	13	11
Corners	8	6
Offsides	1	2
Possession	53%	47%
Yellow Cards	1	3
Saves	4	7

Images shamelessly ripped off from the Beeb.