Manchester United lost last week.
Arsenal won and took a five-point lead.
Now it’s the FA Cup and neither manager wants a replay.
But both managers have to prioritise. The older they get, the more they have to prioritise. Sir Alex wants to enhance his legend. He needs another European Cup to give him one more than Sir Matt, so he wants to beat Lyon on Wednesday night.
United’s Champions League record is piss-poor for a club their size : one final since Ferguson arrived in 1986.
In 1999 the biggest club in the world did a magnificent treble, did something no other club has done, before or since. In the six matches that mattered that season, United delivered. In the final, without Keane and Scholes, they won it after Bayern Munich’s ribbons had been tied to the trophy by Uefa officials.
In other seasons a chance to whack Arsenal at Old Trafford is something Sir Alex might have relished, especially after the way United lost to Arsenal on penalties in the 2005 FA Cup Final.
Wayne Rooney thinks : Am I unlucky, or what? We murdered Arsenal and got beat. Two years later we play Chelsea in the final and it goes to extra time and we lose again !
Arsene Wenger is in a wholly different position. He is top of the table and needs this Premier League title. He can beat United on Saturday but he won’t get three points for it. He knows that April 12th is the big one at Old Trafford. This season, as always, the head-to-heads are vital arithmetically, and also psychologically.
When the draw was made I was excited and said, “Wow ! It’s the Cup Final come early! If Arsenal can beat them at Old Trafford, they can beat anybody.”
But now I doubt that Arsene will play his strongest side on Saturday.
Would he play Bendtner and rest Adebayor ? People wondered why Bendtner was sitting on his own on the bench on Monday night, away from the other players and the staff. Does he have an ego problem? Does Bendtner have the biggest ego at the club?
Is he part of Arsenal’s future? I hope so because he’s a very good centre forward. But he is peripheral lately. And Arsene isn’t even using his bench at the moment. Monday was another game where he didn’t use any subs.
The fact that Jens Lehmann has come back into the team at this critical stage of the season has passed almost without notice. It’s interesting that Lehmann is back in the side but I can’t quite explain why he is back. Will he play in Manchester?
Sir Alex will have hated the flak he got after losing at home to Man City for the first time since 1974. If this was a league match he’d pick his strongest team and come out with all guns blazing.
He missed Rooney against City because Rooney, really, is the leader of his team. He has the biggest appetite. He’s first into training every day, sometimes having breakfast with the staff, and he’s the first to put his hand up when the armband is up for grabs. He wants responsibility, even though Fergie laughs and gives the armband to somebody else. Rooney has good games and bad games, he gets wasted on the left wing, he misses chances. But his energy-levels are phenomenal and United perform much better when he’s there. Fabio Capello likes his fighting spirit and wants the whole England team to shows the same aggression.
I would love both managers to pick their strongest teams for this FA Cup Fifth Round tie. It’s the biggest game of the round, obviously, and when the tie was drawn I had a feeling that it would be a thriller. That there would be plenty of goals because neither side would play carefully to avoid losing.
Sometimes not losing is a huge priority. But, at 5.15 this Saturday afternoon, I don’t think that will apply so much.We have to accept, reluctantly, that neither manager sees the FA Cup as a big trophy.
SUMMARY : Man Utd-Arsenal is impossible to preview because we don’t know what sides Wenger and Ferguson will put out.
We all know what Arsenal are good at and what they’re not so good at. I write 200 pieces a year here telling you exactly what Arsenal are good at and not good at.
If I was Sir Alex, I’d have realised by now that what I should have done on Sunday against Man City was to have Ronaldo attack Michael Ball, their weakest player, and the one least protected by the winger in front of him, Petrov, so that Michael Ball was reduced to a state of collapse after 50 minutes, and wrecked City that way.
But Munich, the memories of a lost team, the massive media coverage from all over the world, the church services, all of that impacted on Sir Alex and his players, and they lost the focus they needed to win the derby.
A week later, Ferguson is thinking more about Lyon than about Arsenal, I reckon.
That’s what the Champions League does : it distorts domestic competitions. It affects the game before the Champions League game.
This weekend it devalues the FA Cup. And that’s a shame. But Sir Alex and Arsene think : I can win that anytime I want. The FA Cup is only six matches, it doesn’t prove anything.
So that’s what I’m saying, really. If they’re only half into it, how can I be fired up for kick-off? It’s impossible to preview it. And it’s impossible for me to be more into it than the managers.
I hope they play their strongest teams. But I know they won’t.