Arsenal Gifts United 3 Points

Manchester United 2 - Arsenal 1
Scorers
Manchester United: Rooney (pen 59), Diaby (og 65)
Arsenal: Arshavin (40)

Team: Foster, Brown, Vidic, O'Shea, Evra, Fletcher, Carrick, Valencia (Park 63), Nani, Giggs (Berbatov 86), Rooney

My word, that was one lucky win. Arsenal were all over us from the start and really were the better team on the day. Only god know how they let us back into the game and eventually lost it in 7 crazy minutes in the second half.

The starting lineup spelt a totally defeatist attitude. Ferguson opted to play Rooney upfront along with Giggs and, Nani and Valencia on the wings, as support. For the uninitiated, you would think we were playing at the Emirates instead of Old Trafford. It was conservative and more important, showed the lack of confidence of the manager in his strikeforce.

The game went according to how the managed planned it. We were under constant threat from the very mobile Arsenal forwards, and only desperate defending and lucky deflections keep the scoreline at 0-0. Our passing was utterly horrible, giving the ball away again and again, putting pressure on the defence. How players like Carrick still manage to get into the team is a mystery for the the Hardy Boys to solve. Giggs and Fletcher were no better at passing either. But in their defence, they made plenty of effort to win the ball back. In fact, Fletcher was the ultimate destroyer. He was Keano in that department.

True to the way the game was going, Arsenal took the lead via an outstanding long-ranged thunderbolt from Arshavin. Had Foster been a split-second faster, he might have saved it, instead he only fractionally got a finger on it as it burst into the net.

Foster, however, made amends early in the second half, instinctively sticking out a leg to save a point blank shot from Van Persie. Arsenal were all over United at that point in time and made for terrible viewing for us, United fans.

Yet against the run of play, Giggs supplied a beautiful angled pass that Rooney latched onto. One on one with the keeper, Almunia brought Rooney down resulting in a penalty. This time Rooney stepped up instead of Carrick and sent Almunia the wrong way, and United the right way.

7 minutes later United got the second. Giggs' freekick from the right was header into his own net by Diaby. Diaby was under no pressure but yet his wayward header fooled Almunia and flew straight into the net.

The game threatened to explode into more goals but neither team had their scoring boots on and good chances were missed on both sides. Van Persie did put the ball into the net 5 minutes into injury time but one of his teammates was caught offside in the preceding play. Wenger was sent to the stand for probably saying something or kicking someone and the whole incident took up all the time that was left on the clock, saving us a few more heart-stopping seconds.

On the final analysis, we were frankly rubbish for large portions of the game. We were sloppy in possession and our passing on the day was simply abysmal. Possibly only Fletcher shone as our only outstanding player. His passing still leaves alot to be desired, but his industry and tackling is top-notched.

Next week is the international weekend and we only get to play high-flying Spurs in a fortnight. It's probably a good thing, we need plenty of time to work things out. Despite winning 3 games, there are plenty of aspects about our play that needs to be worked on and a short break, even this early in the season might just do us some good and give us time to reflect on our mistakes.