“Vieira, Woah-oh, Vieira, Woah-oh-oh-oh,
He comes from Senagal,
He gave Giggsy the ball,
And Arsenal won f*ck all”
Ok let me get this thing clear first....when I talk about Man Utd-Arsenal matches, I am more like referring to wars rather than anything else. If you were a United fan, you would be expected to automatically inherit rivalries like the ones against Leeds, Liverpool or Man City. You find several pubs in Manchester, which are either Red or Blue - any twat of the wrong colour tries to enter that place and believe me, he is a dead man! But for me it has always been Arsenal for some reason. When I started following Man Utd, Liverpool looked like going down the gutter with Gerrard Houllier….Sir Bobby Robson had just started the rebuilding work at Newcastle….Though Chelsea had quality, they were nowhere the team they are today and Man City were too busy fighting it out in the lower divisions. That only left Arsenal to challenge us for the title consistently, and boy o boy did I hate them enough! When you watch that wonder goal from Giggsy in 1999…..or you watch Beckham bending the ball right in front of Seaman’s eyes, there is not much you can do but jump with a feeling of satisfaction and pride. When you win the premiership under the noses of Arsenal in the last couple of months (rewind the clocks back to 2003), those moments remind you of all the darn reasons why you are a Red and not….errmmm….Red n White (??) or should I say French! And believe you me, it is not just the fans who hate each other, the managers have led with an example too. Their mind games prior to the match are a work of genius and it was unbelievable how much pressure such public statements alone could put on the opposing team. I mean give me a break, what not has happened between these two teams - Captains have fought in the tunnel, Players have exchanged punches and then called each other cheats and to top it off, Pizzas have been thrown at the managers! Do you still think I should hate some other team, which is led by a complete maniac and plays in the backyards of Manchester? No!! Arsenal and Man Utd have got immense history between them and I am quite happy to see that continue for a while, atleast until Sir Alex’s pacemaker fails to work anymore or Wenger is shot by a group of Algerian guerillas.
It’s a shame that key players like Keano, Vieira, Campbell and Ruud have left their respective teams, which has taken off a bit of gloss from their fierce rivalry. Arsenal had an awful season last year and it was up to Liverpool and Man Utd to fight it out for that crucial Champions League spot. So it was not surprising that the same hype, intensity and mind games were missing before this weekend. Arsenal were without their captain and Van Persie was sitting this match out with a hip injury too. We are kind of still looking for a replacement for Keano, Van der Saar was suddenly missing with a mysterious stomach bug and Giggsy had tweaked that good old hamstring of his - again! Despite that, all signs were pointing only in one direction – our win! Man Utd were flying high with the best start to their campaign ever, Arsenal on the other hand had failed to keep a positive goal difference after 4 games! Little did I know what this game had in store for the 76000 people in the stadium or the millions and millions of people who were glued to their TV sets around the globe.
With the fullbacks trying the long balls to Rooney and Saha again and again, I momentarily thought that there was a coup and Sam Allardyce had been put in charge. Although Saha and Ronaldo were running around with aggression initially, as the lads started to tire in the second half and give away the ball too often, the match lost a bit of its passion and reputation (atleast from United’s point of view). Rooney was passing the ball at the wrong feet and for some reason, Neville looked 10 Kgs heavier. Players like Paul Scholes (Salford) and Gary Neville (Bury) who belong to the Manchester area have probably been groomed to live these rivalries over the years. To be honest when Ferdinand scored an injury time winner last season at Old Trafford, I wasn’t really surprised to see Neville run half the pitch to mock the Scousers. We have won many premiership games solely using that passion and belief….hell we have won the Champions League because of that! But it was disappointing to see the same passion and energy missing in the team yesterday. It just took one scream and shout from Keano to fire up the whole team, and I kind of expected something similar from Neville when the passes looked all over the place. Just before half time, stats show up on TV for the preceding 10 mins and my lord! Am I reading it correct or I have had one pint too many….it says possession 68% in favour of the Gunners!
It would be very unfair to single out a player for blame because each one of them, especially Fletcher, played end-to-end football. But it was still very frustrating to see O’Shea put in such a poor performance at the heart of the midfield. After Owen Hargreaves broke his left fibula in Germany last week, does Sir Alex still see O’Shea as the man to carry on the duties of a holding midfielder past January? It was shocking to say the least when Scholes was taken off in favour of Carrick, because I think Carrick could have done a better job at containing the opposition than how O’Shea did yesterday. His through balls are as dangerous as it can get and with Scholesy in the middle, he might have put some life back into that quiet midfield of ours. Having said that, I would shower all praise on the young talent that is Cesc Fabregas and yesterday again he substantiated the decision to play him every week in my fantasy football team. It is astounding how this 19-year old man can make so much space for himself among the clutter of world-class players and calmly put in a perfect pass for the awful Adebayor to score. It is not easy to keep your young head in the game when there are penalties being missed, tackles flying in from everywhere and I am sure even Scholesy would have been proud of that performance from the Spaniard. As it always happens between these two teams, goalkeepers were superb and balls were being cleared from the goal lines. I personally feel Man Utd lacked that energy and control in midfield and it wasn’t a surprise that Arsenal hung on to a 1-0 win yesterday.
All I can say is that this fixture at Old Trafford has been and will always be on the top of my priority list every season and it is extremely heartbreaking to lose it this way. Did anyone ever imagine that Pompey would be leading the premiership after 5 games? Well let me put my hands up, I for a start didn’t! But I am sure the club Man Utd is, it will bounce back from this adversity and put in a routine performance against the Royals next week. Undoubtedly even if the stadium wasn’t 10 mins from my house, I would be there regardless to greet the likes of Scholes and Neville! Some people say that Man Utd have peaked too soon this season, but I would personally ignore all that noise with a smile of contentment. Over the years Red Devils have shown to play the best football only in the second half of the season and thinking what Rooney can produce in the coming months is scary!
Leaving you with this piece of paper, which I have saved on my wall for 3 years now. Will this rivalry between the Red Devils and Gunners ever end? I say, “Bravo! Bring it onnnn!”
It’s a shame that key players like Keano, Vieira, Campbell and Ruud have left their respective teams, which has taken off a bit of gloss from their fierce rivalry. Arsenal had an awful season last year and it was up to Liverpool and Man Utd to fight it out for that crucial Champions League spot. So it was not surprising that the same hype, intensity and mind games were missing before this weekend. Arsenal were without their captain and Van Persie was sitting this match out with a hip injury too. We are kind of still looking for a replacement for Keano, Van der Saar was suddenly missing with a mysterious stomach bug and Giggsy had tweaked that good old hamstring of his - again! Despite that, all signs were pointing only in one direction – our win! Man Utd were flying high with the best start to their campaign ever, Arsenal on the other hand had failed to keep a positive goal difference after 4 games! Little did I know what this game had in store for the 76000 people in the stadium or the millions and millions of people who were glued to their TV sets around the globe.
With the fullbacks trying the long balls to Rooney and Saha again and again, I momentarily thought that there was a coup and Sam Allardyce had been put in charge. Although Saha and Ronaldo were running around with aggression initially, as the lads started to tire in the second half and give away the ball too often, the match lost a bit of its passion and reputation (atleast from United’s point of view). Rooney was passing the ball at the wrong feet and for some reason, Neville looked 10 Kgs heavier. Players like Paul Scholes (Salford) and Gary Neville (Bury) who belong to the Manchester area have probably been groomed to live these rivalries over the years. To be honest when Ferdinand scored an injury time winner last season at Old Trafford, I wasn’t really surprised to see Neville run half the pitch to mock the Scousers. We have won many premiership games solely using that passion and belief….hell we have won the Champions League because of that! But it was disappointing to see the same passion and energy missing in the team yesterday. It just took one scream and shout from Keano to fire up the whole team, and I kind of expected something similar from Neville when the passes looked all over the place. Just before half time, stats show up on TV for the preceding 10 mins and my lord! Am I reading it correct or I have had one pint too many….it says possession 68% in favour of the Gunners!
It would be very unfair to single out a player for blame because each one of them, especially Fletcher, played end-to-end football. But it was still very frustrating to see O’Shea put in such a poor performance at the heart of the midfield. After Owen Hargreaves broke his left fibula in Germany last week, does Sir Alex still see O’Shea as the man to carry on the duties of a holding midfielder past January? It was shocking to say the least when Scholes was taken off in favour of Carrick, because I think Carrick could have done a better job at containing the opposition than how O’Shea did yesterday. His through balls are as dangerous as it can get and with Scholesy in the middle, he might have put some life back into that quiet midfield of ours. Having said that, I would shower all praise on the young talent that is Cesc Fabregas and yesterday again he substantiated the decision to play him every week in my fantasy football team. It is astounding how this 19-year old man can make so much space for himself among the clutter of world-class players and calmly put in a perfect pass for the awful Adebayor to score. It is not easy to keep your young head in the game when there are penalties being missed, tackles flying in from everywhere and I am sure even Scholesy would have been proud of that performance from the Spaniard. As it always happens between these two teams, goalkeepers were superb and balls were being cleared from the goal lines. I personally feel Man Utd lacked that energy and control in midfield and it wasn’t a surprise that Arsenal hung on to a 1-0 win yesterday.
All I can say is that this fixture at Old Trafford has been and will always be on the top of my priority list every season and it is extremely heartbreaking to lose it this way. Did anyone ever imagine that Pompey would be leading the premiership after 5 games? Well let me put my hands up, I for a start didn’t! But I am sure the club Man Utd is, it will bounce back from this adversity and put in a routine performance against the Royals next week. Undoubtedly even if the stadium wasn’t 10 mins from my house, I would be there regardless to greet the likes of Scholes and Neville! Some people say that Man Utd have peaked too soon this season, but I would personally ignore all that noise with a smile of contentment. Over the years Red Devils have shown to play the best football only in the second half of the season and thinking what Rooney can produce in the coming months is scary!
Leaving you with this piece of paper, which I have saved on my wall for 3 years now. Will this rivalry between the Red Devils and Gunners ever end? I say, “Bravo! Bring it onnnn!”
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