Tearing Arse A New One

Manchester United 4 - Arsenal 0
Scorers
Manchester United : Rooney 16, Fletcher 20,74, Nani 38

Team : Van der Sar, Evra, Rio, Vidic, Brown, Anderson (Scholes 72), Carrick, Nani, Fletcher, Park, Rooney (Saha 71)

No Ronaldo. No Tevez. No Giggs. No Problem.

Fergie opted to save some legs for midweek's Champions League game against Lyon and it paid handsome dividends with a freshened lineup.

Arsenal, without their regular fullbacks, was tormented and torn apart down the flanks by a rampant United side, trying to put the nightmares of the past couple of weeks behind them.

A couple of early goals headers from Rooney and Fletcher in the first 20 minutes set the tone. Despite a healthy lead in the Premiership, Arsenal was no match for a spirited United. Park, Anderson and Fletcher were simply at their awesome best in midfield, giving the boys from London no chance whatsoever.

Nani added a third in the first half as United stamped their authority on the game. To put it simply, United were literally destroying the gooners.

Any hint of an Arsenal fight back soon evaporated early in the second half when one of the dirtiest bastards in mordern football tried to maim Evra with an x-rated tackle that would make Edison Chen blush in shame. Referee Wiley had no choice but to show the red card to Eboue. How the hell anyone with the right mind can argue with the decision is beyond me, as Eboue hung around, refusing to acknowledge the colour of the card. I'm willing to bet that Wenger probably didn't see the tackle as well.

With Arsenal down to ten men, and their spirit completely broken, United sprayed passes around in midfield and threatened to add to the scoreline. And it wasn't long before Fletcher added a fourth with a header from a really acute angle. United could very well have added more but a 4-0 result was good enough to peg Arsenal's confidence back and secure a place in the quarter finals of the FA Cup.

This is the United that we know. Utterly ruthless. For some reason, we've not been performing up to par for quite sometime and let's hope we continue to show such desire for the rest of the season.

A huge part of today's performance is probably due to a world-class performance from Fletcher. He's a big game player. Whenever he gets a chance to play in a big game, he performs. He did it against Chelsea a few years back and last year against Roma and AC Milan. I'm praying that Fergie recognises his efforts after today's game and that he gets a decent run in the team, despite our riches in midfield.

Credit must also be given to Anderson, Nani, Park and, in no small way, Carrick, who all harassed the Arsenal midfield, not allowing them any space to play their brand of football.

And Anderson needs to start, period. I had my doubts about him when we got him, but he's bedded in well with the team and is our little terrier in the middle of the park. I'm really pleased with how little time he's taken to adjust to the English game....and he's only 19!

I'm really looking forward to the next game in France. We've not been doing too well against French opponents in recent years. Lyon looks particularly dangerous with frontman Benzema. If we play the kind of footbal we're so capable of playing, I'm sure we would bring a good enough result back to OT for the second leg.