Arsenal 2 Man Utd 1
Pulsating end-to-end action, an exciting game won by two Samir Nasri goals, a surprise result.
Arsenal are back !
The first goal came when Berbatov’s loose header out of defence reached Nasri and his left-foot shot was deflected past Van Der Sar by Gary Neville’s leg.
Wenger picked the right team, going 4-5-1 with Bendtner on his own. I thought Fabregas might link with him and score but it was Nasri who made the difference.
At half time I thought the rain would stop and the pitch would drain well and United would improve and motor and if it was still 1-0 after 65, I figured United might win it. I reckoned their greater physicality would allow them to dominate the last half hour, even though Arsenal were moving the ball well and finding Nasri and Walcott in some good positions. Therefore Arsenal needed the second goal before 65. But I also thought that there was a very strong chance of Arsenal scoring again early in the second half, because they often score in that period. And that was what happened when a patient 15-pass move ended with Fabregas playing in Nasri, who hit a spectacular right foot shot which gave the keeper no chance at all. Walcott’s diagonal run had made the space, taking Vidic away to give Nasri all the time he needed to hit the shot he wanted to hit.
It was a very big game for Nasri, one where he learned a lot at the same time as he stepped up to the plate. At 2-0 I was pretty sure that Arsenal would win, although you never know with United, and you never know with Arsenal’s Keystone Cops defending. When Almunia was injured by Carrick, Fabianski came on and played confidently.
Clearly, Arsenal had bits and pieces of luck. Denilson kicked Berbatov on the back of the leg, which is fine on the halfway line but not eight yards from your goal, and a ball hit Clichy on the arm.
In 74, Nasri was bursting into the box again and had his shirt pulled by Vidic.If ref Howard Webb had been able to see exactly what happened he would have given a penalty.
Somehow, it was a tremendous game, even though many of the best players, like Fabregas, Ronaldo, Rooney and Berbatov, didn’t have good games. Bendtner was patchy, average, ragged. Diaby did very well, and Gallas was outstanding at the back, especially at the end
It was a surprising victory and I didn’t mind seeing Brazilian sub Rafael da Silva smash a left foot shot home in the 90th minute, as I had backed over 2.5 goals in the game. I wasn’t panicking that United would score again in the six minutes because their attack had not played with the verve and clinical finishing that I expected. Rooney muffed two chances early on, and United looked more dangerous when Tevez replaced him in 77, when Song also came on for Walcott
Overall, Arsenal are back. That makes it a great weekend for Gooners. Arsenal are back in business.
This was a big win, bigger than three points, bigger than the 4-4 draw against Spurs or the 0-0 yawn against Fenerbahce, a victory for their collective style, their perseverance, their dogged defending against a powerful outfit. They answered their critics and surprised a lot of people with a 2-1 win. It doesn’t solve all their problems but it gives them time to address their problems.
Crucially, the Arsenal crowd turned up for this one. The atmosphere was good and scoring first helped a lot. And Rooney’s misses helped a lot as well. It was an exciting game where two attacking teams kept pounding each other, kept looking for a telling blow, and sustaining their onslaughts for 96 minutes. You would not see a game like this in any other league. And Nasri’s two goals beat Rafael’s one.
OK, Arsenal had a bit of luck with the all-important deflection for the all-important first goal, and the ball that flashed off Clichy’s skull could easily have been an own-goal.
Man United have now lost at Liverpool after leading, drawn at Chelsea after leading, and now lost 2-1 at Arsenal. That’s not very good. And they were 2-0 down for 43 minutes before they got a goal back. United’s big guns are not firing right now, Rooney is still angrily chasing his 100th league goal, Van Der Sar is dodgy, and their results are patchy.
Let’s just say : Arsenal’s style is unique and when it doesn’t work, we want to see something more conventional. And Arsene Wenger is not conventional and never will be. His entire career is an experiment, and he has half-admitted that.
Today Chelsea fans are saying : Thank you, Arsenal. And cocky Arsenal fans reply : We’ll sort you lot out on Sunday 30th.
Wenger says : Judge me in May. We won’t wait that long, Arsene. I won’t anyway, I’ll judge you next Saturday against Aston Villa. If your schizoid millionaires are not up for that game, this win is meaningless. If they’re not up for Aston Villa, you still have a big problem.
If you like ANR, you’ll love The Professor. Because it’s 12 years of ANR distilled into a 400-page paperback.