Well United have floundered again. Football is a funny game. The whole week precedingthe big match at the Emirates, none of the so-called experts in the ESPN panel thought Arsenal would get anything out of the game. And they pretty much had enough reasons to think so. But look what's happened now - Arsenal have come out with an almost resounding victory.
United have had a raw deal with the fixtures this season. A tough game following each of their 6 league games in the Champions' league. It was obviously going to be a tough task to travel back from a tough fixture at Celtic last wednesday to play early on Saturday against Arsenal. Yes, Arsenal had a rather poor start to their season. But how can you completely rule out a team like Arsenal in such a high-profile fixture.
The game had a quirky slowness to it at the start unlike the last year when both teams played at a frenetic pace throughout the 90 minutes. Arsenal didn't look like a team that was missing quite a few of their key players. But it was United which could have had their noses in front had Wayne Rooney taken a couple of chances that fell his way.
It was Samir Nasri who opened the scoring for Arsenal around 22nd minute and Arsenal seemed to be running high after that point. United looked to bounce back with some good attacking play but lacked a killer last ball. They looked quite dangerous on the numerous corners they had garnered but to no avail. When play started in the second half, Arsenal scored 3 minutes later through a beatifully created goal, again through Nasri, this time the Frenchman coming up with a thunderous strike past Van der Sar. United pressed for goals all through the rest of the match.
The game had some of the most beautiful football played with the game becoming a complete end to end affair. While United just couldn't get a convincing chance for most part, Arsenal had plenty of chances on the counter-attack to put the game to bed but they failed to take any. United ultimately had to concede defeat in the end. United's only consolation was a Rafael goal in the injury time. The 18-year old's goal was a treat to watch!
It's been that kind of a season for United. They've looked better than last season on paper. And they've dominated all of the matches they've played and yet dropped lot of points. Not converting most of the chances created has been the real worrying part. Inspite of the addition of Berbatov and the fine form Rooney has been in, we somehow have let games slip and not recovered well enough under pressure. Though we've had most of the difficult games early in the season (we've finished playing the rest of top-four away from home already), it's a pain to see us 5 points off the league leaders at this point in the season. United have to keep themselves hungry for more and not rest on the success of the last 2 seasons to be in shape to gain anything this season. We also need to find a better way of accomodating the 3 strikers in the squad - Tevez has been an absentee for most part and I believe he needs to be give more starts so that he remains fresh and hungry for goals. Aging Van der Sar's form is another cause for concern, because he's not been looking too effective in front of the goal and is quite prone to errors. We've got a lot of work to do!
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