Two Manchester teams faced North London outfits with one motive ai??i?? asserting the territorial dominance in English Football. Manchester City had already opened up a gap of six points when Manchester United stepped onto Englandai??i??s second largest club football stadium. Arsenal, beaten and bruised in their last two league games, needed a victory and a revenge for the calamity that happened at The Theater of the Dreams at the beginning of the season. With so much at stake, the home team, in Nigel Winterburnai??i??s words gave ai???the worst home performance of the seasonai??i?? in the first half. The half ended with Antonio Valencia pouncing on veteran serial-crosser Ryan Giggsai??i?? beautifully weighted cross.
The second half was different with Arsenal showing much more fortitude and urgency to get the equalizer. A classic Arsenal counter-attack gave them what they wanted ai??i?? Koscielny blocking at the back, spraying it to Rosicky, the Czech finding Oxlade Chamberlain in space, the youngster cutting back in to find a reverse ball for van Persie. The Dutchman finished with aplomb to bring in parity to the game. It had to be a defensive calamity that would kill the game for Arsenal ai??i?? a characteristic of them in recent seasons. Valencia, again, driving forward from the right wing, with only Arshavin to beat, somehow managed to lay the ball in Welbeckai??i??s path. The United top man finished to take back home crucial three points and a ai???Season Doubleai??i?? over perennial rivals ai??i?? Arsenal.
Manchester United Strategy And Gameplay
How They Started?
Lindegaard, Jones, Smalling, Evans, Evra, Carrick, Valencia, Giggs, Rooney, Welbeck, Nani
The Red Devils fielded a team that came to win at The Emirates ai??i?? Their away form matching Arsenalai??i??s form at home. In the absence of Fletcher, Ryan Giggs, who has now started ai???owningai??i?? his new midfield position, gave company to Michael Carrick in the middle of the park, clearly dominating the Gunners in the first half. The veteran still possesses enough pace, in one occasion he was seen beating a very young Aaron Ramsey in pace, clearly showing his legendary stature with the United faithful. The flanks were paraded by Nani and Valencia. The two kept on troubling the Arsenal Full Backs throughout the game, especially the right side of Arsenal, with a Center Back needing to do ai???Full Back dutiesai??i?? with the injury crisis at Arsenal.
The United defense had a hiccup in the beginning when Jones had to be stretchered off with an ankle injury. Rafael came on and fulfilled Full Back duties with more proficiency, incidentally a former scorer at The Emirates. Up ahead, Wayne Rooney and Welbeck started again ai??i?? clearly showing they are the ai???Top Twoai??i?? for Unitedai??i??s attacking plans this season, with Chicharito, Berbatov and Owen down in the pecking order. Rooney, in his customary role, dropped down, picked the balls and sprayed across the park and kept possession whenever the team needed him to. Evra and Nani combined really well, often forming a telepathic understanding, beating Djourou with comparative ease in many occasions.
Top Performers ai??i?? Valencia, Carrick, Evra
Arsenal Strategy And Gameplay
How They Started?
Szczesny, Djourou, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Song, Rosicky, Theo, Ramsey, Oxlade-Chamberlain, van Persie
Arsene, in the absence of Mikel Arteta, decided to go for an attacking line-up, with Oxlade-Chamberlain getting his Premiership debut much to the satisfaction of the home fans ai??i?? a crowd favorite already. Thomas Rosicky started in the middle of the park alongside seasoned campaigner Alex Song. The two young Englishmen flanked the field with van Persie the lone striker up front. Aaron Ramsey occupied his usual position in the hole trying hard to link up the forward play. The midfield had a quiet game in the first half as far as creativity went. Rosicky showed few sparks with his mazy runs and did very well throughout the game. The missing link in the first half was Arsenalai??i??s front-manai??i??s inability to get involved into the game. Van Persie gave possession away very easily and tried a bit too hard to do things on his own ai??i?? sometimes players in that kind of form do tend to do so. The second half saw a more determined performance from Arsenal, trying to force things in the final third.
The Center-Backs had a ai???field dayai??i?? but still conceded two goals, which werenai??i??t their fault in entirety. Per Mertesacker was easily playing the best game of his life, a number of brilliant headers, an incredible goal-line clearance and ten minutes of being a striker were some of the highlights of his game last night. Koscielny was a ai???monsterai??i?? too in his own right, often outspeeding United frontmen, and snatching balls away with ease. Vermaelen was clearly playing at a position he is not comfortable with, while Evra overlapped all day along, the Belgian didnai??i??t deliver a single ai???overlappedai??i?? cross in the entire game. The same applied to Djourou, who was left at Nani and Valenciaai??i??s mercy often beaten by pace and trickery. He was subbed in the second half by Yennaris who had a decent outing, quite poor with his crossing though. Van Persie, Rosicky and Ramsey had better second halves but Theo failed to impress, often running straight into defenders like a blind man.
Top Performers ai??i?? Mertesacker, Oxlade-Chamberlain, RosickyAi??
The Biggest Talking Points
- The biggest talking point has to be the substitution of the best player on the pitch. There were boisterous boos, arguably the loudest one heard in the history of Arsenal Football Club in the event of a substitution. It was clearly a preposterous decision by the manager with Arsenal tied at 1-1 and Oxlade-Chamberlain being in the middle of all good things for the home side. Even Van Persieai??i??s shocking expression could not be hid when he saw the young Englishman was subbed off. It reminded football fans of Rafael Benitez’ subbing Torres and Gerrard reacting with absolute shock in one the games a few seasons back.
- Rooneyai??i??s penalty claim, Songai??i??s push was very soft. Not a penalty.
- Arsenalai??i??s penalty claim with Evra handling in the box. He was just in the way of a fierce drive; not a penalty!
- Songai??i??s ai???hand in the faceai??i?? challenge on Rooney, experts believed it was rash and a booking or even a red card was a possibility.
- Van Persieai??i??s miss, clear in front of goal after Rosicky had done brilliantly to set the Dutchman up. He is human after all.
TheHardTackleai??i??s Man Of The Match
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain
.
The speedstar from Southampton’s famed academy was everything that the rest of the Arsenal team wasn’t – creative and direct! Every time he had the ball in his feet, his intentions were to pass it forward and create goal-scoring opportunities. He used his shielding power a lot and almost had a flawless game, with no incorrect passes at all. He is already so matured that Arsene doesn’t need to worry about ‘exposing’ him to the Devil of the Premiership. His performance was so appreciated by the Emirates faithful that his substitution brought huge jeers from the fans; they were clearly unhappy with the manager’s decision, more so because the player to come on was out-of-form man Andrei Arshavin, who did nothing after coming on. Wait, he did help in United’s second goal though.
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