Arsenal vs Manchester United: "Arsenal Will Finish Third Without Van Persie!" (Fan View)

Newly crowned champions Manchester United travel to Emirates Stadium to take on Arsenal on Sunday. There used to be a time, not so long ago, when it would have been Arsenal pushing United right down to the wire in terms of the title race. But the days of Patrick Viera and Roy Keane, days of Pizzagate are behind us. The tempestuous relationship between the clubs as well as the managers has thawed in recent times. But make no mistake, either club still would despise to lose to the other. The fact that former Gunners hero Robin van Persie rides into town brandishing his shiny new Premier League winning medal makes things even spicier. Emotions are bound to run high in North London on Sunday afternoon.

The resident team at TheHardTackle is not immune to such emotions and it is only fair that we allow the fans in us to come out in force in the buildup to this massive clash. Ai??As part of our Rival Rendezvous series, we put Sounak Mukherjee (SM) in the Arsenal corner to trade blows with United fan Arjun Some (AS). Each gets to ask the other a set of five questions, designed specifically to get the blood boiling. So hold on to your hats and enjoy the ride that is sure to get bumpy.

AS: Letai??i??s start with some schadenfreude, shall we? How will it feel to ai???welcomeai??i?? back your former captain to Emirates? Does the fact that he has a winnerai??i??s medal ai??i?? a vindication of his reason to move ai??i?? make it even worse?

SM: First of all, congratulations to you and your club for winning the coveted 20th title. Now, coming to the traitor, it doesn’t really matter to us if he wins a trophy, because he is not our player any more. The fact that he has won it right away after moving away, I would say, he had made a right move as far as his ‘career’ is concerned. Like Arsene said earlier, he was at that stage of a career where he badly wanted to win something.
Thereai??i??s a kind of timescale like a woman who has no baby at 39. She starts to think ai???I have not much time leftai???. It was the same case with him.

AS: What does a long term Arsenal fan like you think when you see Manchester United keep churning out titles year after year? There was a stage in 2004 when you would have felt like Arsenal would be the team that would dominate English football for years to come. But where did it all go wrong?

SM: First of all, since you don’t follow Arsenal,you have no idea about what exactly happened in the last 9 years at the capital of England. Nothing went wrong. We took a decision that we will have to sacrifice for the sake of the future of the club. You cannot do both! We decided to build a stadium with 50% more capacity than Highbury and wanted to reap the benefits of more Match-Day revenue. With building a new stadium, comes the downside of losing big players because you can’t renew their contracts with big money as they desire. This leads to a stage where you need to ‘rebuild’ your team. The ‘real’ fans of the club understood that and have had been patient with the development of youth and rebuilding of the team. We have lost captains and big players year after year but have still stayed at Europe’s big stage, I am not sure how many managers on this planet are capable of pulling off such a feat.

As for the present, we have finally reached a stage where we are capable of holding on to ‘big’ players like we did with Theo, for the first time in a long, long while. We have a fantastic team now,with amplified team chemistry, we can compete for all trophies next season.

AS: Of the three London teams, Arsenal are best placed to finish in the top four. But if they lose to United, do you fear that the wheels might come off?

SM: The game against United is of prime importance, it will make a huge impact as to where we will finish this season. A win can make it very easy for us, with huge confidence, we can thrash the rest of the pack if we want to. If we lose, that can hit our confidence real bad. I am expecting a win against the Champions and a third place finish this season ‘without van Persie’.

AS: Can you please explain to me, what exactly has happened to Thomas Vermaelen this season? He just does not seem like his old self anymore. He had an absolute shocker at Old Trafford in the reverse fixture and I, for one, will be delighted if heai??i??s picked to start this one.

SM: Thomas Vermaelen was fantastic in his first season at North London, but lost a bit of mojo midway all because of his ‘want’ to score goals. There was a time when he was the highest goal-scoring defender in the league. He went all Ivanovic for quite some and then realized that he was losing a lot of concentration on the defending department, his real bread and butter domain. Meanwhile, Koscielny has come to the team and has made a huge impact. He was Arsenal’s best defender last season and has gone a long way to prove that he more suited to be a partner of the Big German than the error-prone Vermaelen.
Anyway, we all hope that the Belgian stays at the club and returns to his full potential next season.

AS: How big a miss will Olivier Giroud be in this fixture? In his absence, do you see Arsene Wenger putting Theo Walcott in his preferred role upfront? Will he be any good against Unitedai??i??s formidable defense?

SM: To be honest, a huge miss! Even though Giroud is not a complete striker ‘yet’, he is a huge personality in the park, quite literally. He can climb above defenders and lay off for his team-mates, he can shield the ball for as long as he wants, he is an immovable rock.
With him suspended,I suspect Podolski should get a run-in down the middle. If you look at the stats, the German has scored most of his goals from that position. Theo is a good possibility too but he is quite out of form at this moment and will be no match for Ferdinand and Vidic in terms of physicality. So, my bet will be either of Podolski or Gervinho to play up-front against the Champions.

Having survived that round of grilling, it is time now for Sounak to hurl a few grenades towards Arjun.

SM: After winning 13 league titles, exactly how does Sir Alex Ferguson motivate himself to wake up in the morning, brush his teeth and come down for his job at the Greater Manchester? He doesn’t have anything left to win, how does the man keep on ‘ticking’?

AS: Well thatai??i??s the million dollar question, isnai??i??t it? Forget finding solution to the planetai??i??s energy crisis, I bet there is a team of top-notch scientists from around the world locked away in a clandestine location somewhere in Siberia trying to figure out what exactly keeps Sir Alex Ferguson ticking on.

I think it boils down to a combination of his passion for the game and a winning mentality. The first ensures that he canai??i??t tear himself away from football while the second means he is always thirsty for more success as long as he is in the game. The way he celebrates each and every goal gives you an indication how much it still means to him. As long his health holds up, he will keep jumping up and down along the touchline, not to mention keep haranguing at hapless officials, and almost inevitably keep collecting trophies at the end of the season.

SM: Which Manchester United football team among the 13 that won the title, makes you think come close to world greatness?

AS: That depends on what you define as world greatness. Sir Alex himself rates the ai??i??94 double winning team as his best. With Cantona at his pomp, Hughes still knocking goals in, Giggs and Kanchelskis flying down the wings, Keane and Ince stamping their authority in the middle of the park, Bruce and Pallister keeping opposition strikers at bay and Schemeichel being an insurmountable barrier in the goal, you can see his point. The treble winning team was excellent in their own right but one just got the feeling they were a bit too cavalier in their approach. The team I think that would come closest to challenging the class of ai??i??94 is the Champions League winning batch of 2008. It probable had the best defense of all Fergusonai??i??s teams and upfront Cristiano Ronaldo was simply irrepressible.

SM: Coming back to reality, with no send offs and no penalties conceded, how important do you think it is for the club to have such a great relationship with the FA? Do United still win all these titles without such an amicable bonding with the football’s governing body in England?

AS: Wow, I am impressed. Let me congratulate you for the tremendous levels of self-restraint displayed by you. You went through two entire questions without resorting to sour grapes conspiracy theories.

But now that you have done it, you leave me with no choice than to admit it ai??i?? you are right! Itai??i??s all a big plot. United and FA are in it together. Their evil nexus has infiltrated every level of officialdom thereby ensuring United keep getting favourable decisions year after year. You know like when Didier Drogba was wrongfully waved offside at Old Trafford in 2010 before he blasted in the ball into the net. Imagine had the goal stood, Chelsea might have won that pivotal fixture 2-1 and gone onto clinch the title by a single point that year. Thanks to FA, that scenario never materialized. Ai??Or even this year at White Hart Lane, when the corrupt assistant referee gave United a penalty when Rooney had the temerity to stumble over Steven Caulkerai??i??s outstretched leg. Lucky United that they were able to make it 2-0 from the spot and were no longer vulnerable to a 92^nd minute equalizer from, say, Clint Dempsey. What a debilitating blow that could have to United in the title race. But yet again, thanks to FA, the danger was averted.

SM: How important has been the impact of one Robin van Persie, this season? There are some Manks who believe that they would have still won the title if they had not signed the Dutchman. Is that true?

AS: This is a purely hypothetical question. If you consider that last season United lost out on the league only on goal difference and this season City are worse off in terms of points tally, you can argue the title would have been won without Robin van Persie as well. Also you have to factor in that in absence of RvP, United might have invested the money on someone else who could have contributed to the teamai??i??s success.

But having said all that, thereai??i??s no denying the impact the Dutchman has made. He has been sensational during the first half of the season and without him it is difficult to see how United could have established such a commanding lead by February. The fact that he scored against Liverpool ai??i?? home and away, Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal, and United went on to win all those fixture by a solitary goal, tells its own story.

SM: Does United still play their best XI in the remaining games or give some of the fringe players some important game time?

AS: It depends on how serious Sir Alex is in his quest to chase down Chelseaai??i??s record 95 point haul. I think we would see a fairly strong side for the next two games against Arsenal and Chelsea. I somehow donai??i??t fancy United winning both these fixtures meaning the 95 point target will be out of their reach after next weekend. Expect a slew of changes then for the last two fixtures of the season.

Tags: Arsenal FC Manchester United

Arsenal vs Manchester United: “Arsenal Will Finish Third Without Van Persie!” (Fan View)

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