I just can't agree with you here.

Randall and Gibbs are out on loan, Gilbert was supposed to be out on loan for the season but wasn't getting first-team football. Djourou has been average for Birmingham and played 45 minutes of football for us since coming back. I don't think you can compare Theo Walcott and Carlos Tevez.

The point is that it's about quality, not quantity. O'Shea and Wes Brown are both very good defenders, and i'm sure that most fans would have preferred at least one if not both to Senderos earlier on in the season (he's in great form now).

Alex Song is nowhere near close enough to the first team yet. Armand Traore has never played in the Premiership, and been terrible in the Carling Cup this season - Man Utd's reserve left-back is Mickael Silvestre, at one time one of the best in the league, and a France regular.

Our genuine scoring options are:
Adebayor, Robin Van Persie, Eduardo. Bendtner is still unproven, Eduardo's season is over, Van Persie has made 7 starts all season, and Theo Walcott has only just scored his first Premiership goal. People talk about Cesc contributing from midfield, but he has scored just one goal since November.

Compare that to United - Ronaldo, Tevez, Rooney, Saha - all have great scoring pedigree. Giggs and Nani chip in regularly from midfield (Anderson and Scholes less so, but still more frequently than Hleb, Denilson, Gilberto, Flamini. Eboue has scored one goal in his whole career... a Carling Cup goal from 3 years ago).

And if you bring the fit vs unfit players into the equation, there's a massive difference. Senderos is massively injury prone (and is carrying one right now), Eduardo is done, Van Persie and Djourou have barely played. Diaby and Song are injured.

I would have to agree that the footballing media do certainly harp on far too much about United's strength in depth. I think there is a difference between the teams however. There is little doubt in my mind that were Manchester United to lose Cristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney to injury for a time period nearing that of Robin Van Persie's absence, I doubt they would have the strength in depth to cope with that. Arsenal have very good cover in most areas with the exception of left back where Armand Traore is certainly not ready to deputise. In any case, William Gallas is more than able to play there. Perhaps the key distinction this season is that Arsenal's injuries have often hit two or three players in similar positions at a time, in contrast to Manchester United. I think you make a good point with regards to the media reaching this assessment of Arsenal's squad due to the notion that..

Arsene Wenger has not shelled out extortionate amounts of money for players. Manchester United's defensive midfield position is frequented by Owen Hargreaves and Michael Carrick: both 18m+ players. Arsenal on the other hand have Mathieu Flamini and Gilberto Silva, who cost significantly less. The difference in performance has certainly not reflected the price tags. Manchester United is a side filled with world class talent, and the key is that they probably have more 'ready-made' stars than Arsenal's emerging young talent, but in a year or two Arsenal's side will have just as much experience and still be young: then you may see real strength in depth.

SM.

Alex Song got in the All-star team for the African Nations Cup.

You need to get with the facts I am afraid. We have more scorers than Man U have. Our squad have scored more goals than their squad. Nani, Tevez and Rooney score few goals.

Take out Ronaldo's goals this season, and Man U are mid-table.

Van Persie got 7 i 6 games and then got crocked. Up came Adebayor stepping up to the plate. Senderos of all people has not allowed us miss Toure's presence.

SM, o check the stats. Virtually all our midfielders have scored more than their Man U counterparts this season.

Well the idea of midfielders and forwards is a bit of a grey area... Ronaldo is still classified as a midfielder, and hes scored more than the midfield.

As for the ACN "all star team", thats really not adding much backing to the Alex Song is ready argument.

Ronaldo...if you add him to the midfield then it means the United attack is misfiring since he has like 40-50% of their goals. Don't know the figure off the top of my head.

As for Song, I think it does.

"Which of O'Shea, Simpson, Dong, Evans, Fletcher, Park, Eagles, Brown, Neville is the great superstar of the Premiership that left on the bench is going to turn around a major game? Which one of them would make Arsenal players or Liverpool players quake in their boots at the prospect of playing?"

well, let's not forget, Neville is a veteran player known by all for his experience while Fletcher single-handedly slot in 2 goals past Arsenal's defence while Brown manipulated Liverpool's

While your line-up of players for Utd are players we do actually see on the picth even if it is a once in a while affair.

I'd have to say atleast a quarter of the Arsenal squad, I've never seen before this season. & when we say strength in depth, it is the experience. In the line-ups for Man Utd we have players who HAVE experienced the ups and downs, the prime of United...

but how much can you say about these players: Gilberto, Lehmann, Toure, Gallas.

"Players like Fabregas, Flamini, Rosicky and Hleb are also reasonably well experienced. "

If this is the case, then we can also say the same about
Vidic, Evra, Ronaldo, Hargrieves, Rooney, Tevez, Darren Fletcher, Louis Saha even if they have not started out as regularly.
& the fact about splurging on players is just a mere sad fact to cover up, it seems and I've seen it alot of times.thanks for the intrsting reviw anws!

That's a wildly silly argument OG, just because Alex Song got selected in the ACN XI, it suddenly means that he's a top quality player who can improve the squad?

The following were all also in that XI: Essam El-Hadary, Wael Gomaa, Hosni Abd Rabou, Mohammed Aboutreika, Amr Zaki

Are you going to suggest that any of those players are better than Man United's (or even our) backups?

Getting with the facts, is one thing, getting in touch with reality is another. The Alex Song ACN XI thing is one of the most hilarious ways of approaching our squad shortage problem.

And if tomorrow we sign a young player from New Zealand who gets chosen as Oceania player of the year, does that suddenly mean that he is actually as good or better than Darren Fletcher or Ji-Sun g Park?

I would love to say that our squad is as strong, but it isn't, and it's showed in the run-in.

As for Ronaldo accounting for 40-50% of their goals, well that's obvious, and fine as well, because he's got 30+. Not everyone can score goals, especially when you have one person scoring so many.

Rooney and Tevez have 16 and 15 each... and the chances are that one (if not both) of those two will finish the season on 20+ goals. Irrespective of what Ronaldo does, having two strikers scoring 20+ is almost league winning stuff.

When was the last time that happened with us?

One thing is for sure, Man Utd would be shit without Ronaldo. But then how different is that from when we had TH14 scoring between 30 and 40 a season and beating teams on his own?

We've been unlucky with injuries, etc, but Robin for e.g. hasn't scored more than 13 in a season (despite him being the player we were talking up the most). Ade has creditably managed 20, the first time he's done so in his career. The Eduardo situation is sad, but he did manage a creditable 12 goals. However, he scored in just 3 league games this season (4 goals). His other 5 came in the FA and Carling Cups, 3 of which were against Sheff Utd and Burnley. Hence, he has altogether scored 6 goals in 23 games again Premiership teams this season (in the league and cups). Hardly scary stuff.

People like Ade, Cesc, Gael all look exhausted right now.

, and the squad depth isn't just in attack, because Evra has reguarly been given breathers by O'Shea, and their defence has been rotated around nicely.

Sadly, the injuries have been bad, but we're probably 2-3 players short of a real challenge

stats (league + CL).

their midfield (incl. ronaldo):
41 goals

our midfield (incl. walcott):
28 goals

their attack:
33

our attack:
39

their defence:
7

our defence:
9

sadly eduardo can no longer contribute to those figures, but let's hope that rosicky can. it's the only way we stand a chance at this point.

we are of course fairly even at the end of it all, and we can keep arguing about attacking ability and goalscoring ability, but their main strength (apart from ronaldo) has been the defence.

their defence:
20 goals conceded in 40 games

our defence:
30 goals conceded in 40 games

bah

according to ADP "difference in performance has certainly not reflected the price tags"

No way! That can't be true. Apart from their irregular appearance for the club, which is not necessarily their choice, I'd have to say Hagreaves and Anderson are performing way better than Flamini and Gilberto. By saying this, I'm backing it up with the fact that, they've been given the playing chance as soon as they arrived, this season. Furthermore, you can't deny their brilliance in manipulating opponent's posession of the ball. Truthfully, the two have got to be the best I've seen, yet, at challenging opponent's posession of the game.

to add to that, is the relatively short period of time they spent to get used to the club.

according to ADP "difference in performance has certainly not reflected the price tags"

"Manchester United is a side filled with world class talent, and the key is that they probably have more 'ready-made' stars than Arsenal's emerging young talent"

Well, that's unreasonable. Besides, let's consider than Utd is the pioneer of promoting young english players by providin an academy.

Let's not also just throw the fact that Scholes, Giggs, Neville, Brown, Fletcher, Heaton, Eagles, Evans, Simpson are the young, moulded by united.

The first half were those who started young, along with senior players, ALSO enjoying success. Now that they are older, they act as role model for the second half-batch of players.

So, what do we see here? It's just about good balance for the team. you can't load the whole squad with youngs with no experience whatsoever about critical aspects of english football. at the same time, you can't do with all the experienced players, those who only have 3-4 seasons left to their names. What happens then when they all are gone? Load back the team with the young players left?! It becomes a cycle and don't expect for a free-flow of silverware then.

The fact about splurging money. Once again, it's a cover-up. Where did Arsenal get their 3/4 non-english players then? free of charge? The club's providing, use it! not like the more you use, the less credible your football is, right? & it doesn't mean you demand a player, he'd agree or even get released. In the end, it's about being wise and the right balance in everything for the team. the brains of fergie.

& even when Utd spend, they've still got a whole lot of english players...

SM:

Being in the all-star team at a major tournament counts for a lot. Afterall, Toure, Yobo and Eboue went to the same tournament. He was outstanding at a major tournament. Song was.

And then: If you say the strongest squad is that which wins, at least that'll be a fair standard to base it on. But then you'll have to agree that if we finish ahead or 3 points behind it must mean our squad is at least as good?

Heeqmah: I don't get your point at all. What are you on about? Most of your supposedly deep squad are crap players. That's a fact. And you don't have more players in your squad either. No player in your midfield (apart from Ronaldo) has been as distinguished as Flamini or Fabregas this season. FACT.