Kevin Whitcher
In a certain respect, this game was fairly similar to the reverse fixture in the autumn. Home team largely controlled matters, but did not have to be that good to do so. Not a great deal of solid chances, and a sense that something was missing from past encounters between the two sides. The difference was that at Old Trafford, the home team converted one of their few genuine opportunities.
Arsenal did fathom enough chances to have won the game last night. But a failure to beat De Gea, or a goal-line clearance from a corner, was compounded by headers going wide or Giroud’s failure to connect with a delicious ball whipped across the face of the goal.
We were witnessing two teams with different aims. United’s was to come away with something and if they could nick the game on the counter attack, even better. This was result football and ultimately David Moyes achieved the minimum he had set out to do. Arsenal on the other hand, although wanting and needing the win, were very conscious of the dangers of the counter attack after last weekend’s scarring. They did not take too many chances with numbers going forward.
Now I am not going to say whether this was right or wrong. But what the game did expose was how the side this season have heavily relied on the runs that Aaron Ramsey was making from deep. Although Jack Wilshere at times attempts to replicate this, he is less effective at doing so, perhaps with a natural inclination to play a bit deeper, or maybe, after Anfield, under instruction not to leave Mikel Arteta isolated too often. Walcott is another injured player who might have provided something different. Certainly pace seemed generally lacking. I also felt that Flamini, as the deeper player, makes the team tick a bit more than Arteta. He seems a bit more dynamic and keeping things moving. However, his absence was due to no-one but himself.
The Gunners had been handed a lifeline by Chelsea dropping two points at West Brom and Manchester City’s doing the same at Carrow Road last weekend. Even City having their game last night postponed worked in Arsenal’s favour, as they could be looking at something of a fixture pile-up if they continue their progression on all fronts.
Yet Arsenal failed to take the opportunity to re-assert themselves. They do not play again in the league until the visit of Sunderland, and matches against Stoke and (depending on the FA Cup) Swansea will give them the chance to at least stay in the hunt before the sequence of crunch matches begin in March. The Champions League is a potentially worrying distraction if only in that the manager may field weakened selections for the games around the Bayern ties. But then again, could players coming in do any worse than those that failed to score yesterday? One assumes Podolski did not enter the fray against United because Arsène Wenger was more concerned with not losing than winning. I suspect we will see a front line of Podolski, Bendtner (or Sanogo?) and Gnabry on Sunday in the FA Cup.
Arsenal did seem a bit lethargic yesterday evening, although this could have been that they were playing deliberately with Wenger’s metaphorical handbrake on. Zip and creativity were too easily snuffed out. Granted, Ramsey and Walcott are out, but should the side with Ozil, Cazorla, Rosicky and Wilshere be running out of creative steam? Goalscoring has not been much of a problem up to this point in the season, but there is a feeling it is starting to become one now. Realistically, to win the title, Arsenal probably need their top scorer to net 20 goals. Olivier Giroud has scored ten in the first two thirds of the league campaign and there are 12 matches left. He needs to find more consistent form unless Yaya Sanogo is going to hit the ground running. This assumes Nicklas Bendtner is not the answer to all the problems.
The highpoint of the match for the home fans was probably the halftime announcement of the travel problems that would face the away fans returning home, with trains out of Euston not running and motorway closures in the north west. Football can be a cruel game, although someone quipped that services to Surrey were running ok, so what was the problem? Of more general concern to United fans will be the state of their team at the moment. Mata has been added, and Fellaini came at the start of the season, but aside from that, the players that won the title by a street under Alex Ferguson have turned into… well, Arsenal. Their focus on clawing their way into a top four spot. And for that very reason, they were there for the taking. That Wenger’s men have taken one point out of six from them this season may well come back to haunt them.
However, for now, events have conspired to mean that the Gunners are still very much in the hunt and that the five points gleaned from the last 12 available, although not title form, have not killed off their ambitions. There is a feeling of a flickering candle at a time when we were looking for a roaring flame but there is still hope, if perhaps a bit less in terms of belief. Ultimately though, I suspect the real conclusion of last night is that Arsenal are not quite good enough. It was a ‘seize the moment’ kind of occasion, and the moment was not seized.
Before I finish, I am going to just raise the planned card display, organized by REDaction for the Bayern Munich home tie next week. I will mention this again in the piece after the Liverpool game and there will be a separate exclusive about it. The idea is to bombard people with the message so that word spreads and everyone makes a huge effort to get in the stadium by 7.30. That way, even the latecomers will make it in and at 7.35, a full ground will mean the planned display will not end up like a damp squib with half full stands as everyone arrives at the last minute. More details after the Liverpool game on Sunday, but please make plans to get in the ground by 7.30 next week and tell everyone you know who is going to do the same.
The current issue of The Gooner can be bought online here. Issue 241 goes on sale at the Liverpool FA Cup game.
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