Who Says You Can't win With Kids

Arsenal 2 - Manchester United 1
Scorers
Arsenal: Nasri (22, 47)
Manchester United: Rafael (89)

Team: Van der Sar, Rio, Vidic, Neville (Rafael 63), Evra, Carrick, Anderson (Giggs 72), Park, Ronaldo, Rooney (Tevez 77), Babertov

If there was one game we needed Fletcher, this was it. It's a terribly disappointing result considering the frontline Arsenal was able to put out due to injuries and suspension.

We had the better of the opening exchanges, alot contributed by Almunia's jittery goalkeeping. He handled a backpass in the opening minute and gave away a freekick in the penalty area. But we squandered the chance to take the early advantage.

He then spilled a Rooney strike that Babertov scored from, only to be flagged offside. It was all going well for us at that point. We were controlling midfield and Arsenal were pegged back.

Then it all fell apart. Narsi's strike was deflected off Neville and into the goal. It sparked wild celebrations from the Emirate crowd and Arsenal grew in confidence.

Right at the opening of the second half, slack marking allowed Narsi to add to his goal total. The defence went to sleep and Nasri scored the second. Arsenal were good value for their lead. They had held us back comfortably and struck well on the counter.

In fact midway thru the half, Narsi could have had a penalty when Vidic yanked and pulled him down, but the ref waved play on. Although we had the lion's share of the possession, Arsenal were the ones that looked like scoring, threatening to sweep us away with good counter-attacking play. I felt their midfield outplayed ours, and without the workrate of Fletcher, we were second best. I wonder what happened to Fletcher as he was not even on the substitute's bench. I can only assume he's struggling with some injury, which is a shame.

It wasn't until near death that substitute Rafael pulled one back with a strike that showed good technic. He chested the ball and let fly from outside the box. It was a strike that put our expensively assembled strikeforce to shame. But it was way too little, way too late. It's startling just how dry Rooney has gone after being redhot for sometime and Tevez just doesn't get enough games to even get warmed up.

I can't seem to remember when was the last time we won at the Emirates. In fact our record against the 'big four' away, barring Liverpool has been rather abysmal. I think in our last 13 away games against Chelsea and Arsenal, we've only won once. It's quite a damning statistic. I suppose at least the silverlining here is that we've played all three teams away this season. It's imperative that we need the full compliment of points when the reverse fixtures come to have any hope of a hattrick of titles. And given the way we continue to jerk off in defence, that's going to be a tall order indeed.