Manchester United 1 Arsenal 2
An abysmal Valencia backpass didn’t reach David De Gea and Danny Welbeck was able to nick it past the keeper and slot the winner into an open goal.
Up till that moment in 61st minute, Welbeck was reminding me of Joe Jordan playing for Scotland, a striker who was somehow always two feet further away from the ball than he wanted to be.
In 21, when Oxlade wasted a great position by not making a low cross into the six-yard box, I was thinking funk with Cockney lyrics: What a waste! I could be a ticket man at Fulham Broadway Station/What a waste!
In 25, Oxlade beat four red shirts to set up Monreal for a cool finish and 1-0 to the Arsenal.
Rooney wasn’t in the game.
The score was Rooney 0 Arsenal 1
But in 29, Rooney headed in a Di Maria’s inswinging cross from the right flank for 1-1
Verdict? A good FA Cup tie won by the better team.
At half-time I said three things to my brother Paddy and my best friend Doug.
1: Arsenal will win the game on fluency. Their style is much more practiced than United’s style because United, having very little automatic, are having to think about every pass.
2: That Arsenal had played pretty well between Rooney’s headed equaliser and half-time.
3: I predicted that bringing on two subs, Phil Jones and Michael Carrick, for Shaw and Herrera, would be disruptive to a team pattern that was already stuttering.
Di Maria deserved to be sent off for diving and then pulling the ref’s shirt petulantly.
After the final whistle the phone rang and Kelvin told me that his daughter Amanda and 9,000 Arsenal fans stood for the whole game and had a rocking night watching their team outplay Man United on their own turf.
Kelvin said, “Szczesny terrifies me. He has to leave the club in the summer.”
I said, “This is a massive confidence boost for the squad. The feelgood factor from this is mega.”
Kelvin’s reply was typical;, “I know. But what if West Ham score an early goal on Saturday?”