EPL - Man Utd v Arsenal - Mon. Dec. 13 | 20:00 | SS1

[dreamLord]

Squid had a few moments, Kos not so much. All in all, with the constant pressure they faced from our inability to control the ball, they did well.

Aye, but I would have expected more. Rooney was the perfect lone striker yesterday imo - didn't rely on too much support from the midfield, was always there to win long balls, showed creativity and vision throughout.

 

[mo50]

I don't know what game some people were watching - Rooney made a muppet out of both our CBs on numerous occasions. United look dangerous on every ******* counter, because none of our CBs had the strength to stop him from controlling,turning and passing throughout the game.

Rooney did **** all. They only started countering when we were chasing the game and, obviously, pushed men forward, leaving space behind.

Rooney was shut down by Koscielny. He was made to take pot shots. Kos deserves his praise and he dealt with Rooney admirably.

Once again, I'm left wondering what Squillaci does. The guys always anonymous. You just don't notice him when he's playing. Actually, I remember him clearing a header straight to Nani.

 

[AnthonyG]

But he neither scored nor assisted. I don't know what kind of perfection people are seeking in this instance, but given our set-up, and given that we constantly turned the ball over for ManU to pump it up field, our marking of Rooney was successful.

I've seen it suggested that Rooney is so out of form that his play was beyond what it should have been. That doesn't wash. We look at this game alone.

Furthermore, when you force a lone forward to knock it down you need someone from the midfield sweeping up. Jack did a pretty good job of this before being forced off the field, Song had his moments, but nowhere enough, and Clichy - defence I know - when he was the mop after a CB came across to disrupt an aerial threat failed to close his man down until he'd crabbed his way into the box.

I think Koscielny and Djourou deserve a shot together with Vermaelen out.

 

[marco]

wenger is so boring!!!! the pitch!!the ****ing pitch!
how about your team not ****ing moving your team going forward.
we are the slowest team in the league.
man utd are poor **** **** but we dont capitalise.
everything evra said was 100% right!! trainign ****ing ground.
song has been the most disappoitning player of 2010.
clichy is the gradest A **** ever!!
3 subs made no difference we got ****ing worse.
a day off work to watch that pile of poor old **** with wenger and his **** excuses.
do me a favour

 

[HollandGooner]

Vermaelen was missed yesterday, we could see how strikers bullied our CB,s. Vermaelen is pure power

 

[redwhiteAustrian]

Was a bit shocked when I saw Arsène complaining about the pitch in his PM interview.

Maybe he had a point (players did slip a lot), but in the end it's just another typical Arsène-excuse after yet another poor defeat against a big-boy.
He really should've kept that to himself.

 

[Yousif Arsenal]

also jack from his twitter he said the pitch was awful LoL

 

[HollandGooner]

I am disgusted by Wenger claiming that the pitch was awfull awfull excuse

 

[AnthonyG]

Yet another Jacky excuse.

 

[Tony Montana]

Again, if you don't like it, there are in-built board mechanisms for dealing with it. Foe me or move on. This is monotonous.

No need to foe you.

 

[USArsenal]

why are people (HollandGooner) saying that their forwards (i.e. Rooney?) bullied our CB's? i didnt find that to be the case at all.. they got pretty lucky with their goal, and other than that, they had a few chances, but it wasnt due to anyone being bullied.. in fact, i would say that our CB's kept Rooney pretty much quiet the whole game

it was Clichy, for me, that was considerably our weak link at the back yesterday.. was our worst player on the pitch. Nani ate him for dinner, handled the ball in the box (weak pen though, TBF), misplaced most of his passes, generally everything he did was poor

-Chesney was decent other than his woeful distribution
-Squid needs to direct his clearance headers away from the middle of the pitch
-Kos actually played pretty decent
-Sagna was not great, but not as bad as Clichy
-Song was pretty crap..
-Rosicky was pretty much useless..
-Nasri didnt have his best game (even though he created our best chance of the game that Chamakh failed to follow up on)..
-Arshavin was pretty much useless..
-Jack was decent for the first half.. dropped a bit in the second, and then got hurt..
-Chamakh worked hard, but when he's the only one in the box with 5 ManU shirts around him, hard for him to do much.. did fluff a golden chance as well
-Cesc, clearly off the pace..
-RvP, clearly off the pace..
-Theo, put in a dangrous cross, took a couple of terrible shots, and was generally ineffective (we werent trying to utilize his speeds anyway)

meh...

oh, and I actually agree with Wenger in that the pitch was a disgrace.. from the first minute of the game, i kept saying "their pitch looks terrible, everyone's slipping and sliding all over the place on both teams".. NOT an excuse for our lameness in attack though

 

[mrsvanpersie]

Gutted that I missed the game due to an awards ceremony but having watched the game, it was a poor performance and pretty uneventful - same old stuff as usual:

-We struggle against pressing/long balls/aerial threats
-United aren't exciting and haven't been for a long time - their unbeaten run is one of the least impressive
- Webb’s refereeing is shockingly biased

To be fair, Park's goal was good, but the kind of goal he would not score again if he found himself in a similar situation. The penalty was harsh but very glad that Rooney didn’t score.

Re: Wenger’s post match comments – if you listen to the full interview as opposed to a small excerpt, Wenger seems to be saying that due to the state of the pitch, neither team could achieve fluidity but that’s not an excuse for our shambolic (virtually non-existent) attacking (RvP's not in form, Arshavin- well the less said the better)...

On a positive note, the CBs and GK didn’t do too badly.

 

[redwhiteAustrian]

Yesterday has been our 47th defeat in the Premier League since our unbeaten run ended in Oct 2004.

I'm normally not superstitious, but maybe it'll take two defeats more, until we win something meaningful again?

 

[USArsenal]

wow, that's stretching RWA.. heh

 

[Herbas]

I think Clichy played fairly well yesterday. ManU were clearly focusing on his flank and he had hundreds of duels against full-speed Nani on extremely slippery field. In my opinion, once you are running at top speed against your defender, you have roughly 50-50 chance to go past him. Clichy won far more duels than Nani managed to go through him.

 

[arsenallegends]

People saying Clichy had a bad overall game are off . Having said that, I think he screwed up on the goal by inviting pressure too close to the box and allowing service to Park. A perennial offender of this act and not only does it grow tiresome, it negates one from being able to value his positive contributions.

 

[redwhiteAustrian]

I'm just desperate, US.
:wink:

 

[Gonner_88]

Yesterday has been our 47th defeat in the Premier League since our unbeaten run ended in Oct 2004.

I'm normally not superstitious, but maybe it'll take two defeats more, until we win something meaningful again?

Wouldn't it be awesome to reverse this curse

 

[Humble Rex]

Clichy made one big error defensively yesterday, when he let Nani win the ball back after having taken the ball beautifully in the first instance. Other than that he dealt with Nani well.

Trying to blame him for the goal or that joke of a penalty call is just wrong.

I would like to see which FB would have dealt better with Nani being left one vs one the way Clichy was. All hypothetical of course!

Our problem defensively is NOT Clichy, but rather how exposed he is to one vs ones on a regular basis.

Look at the lack of space Nasri and Arshavin were given. They were facing a FB AND either a winger or a CM pretty much every time they got the ball. Where is Clichy´s help?

 

[Bossa]

Clichy made one big error defensively yesterday, when he let Nani win the ball back after having taken the ball beautifully in the first instance. Other than that he dealt with Nani well.

Trying to blame him for the goal or that joke of a penalty call is just wrong.

I would like to see which FB would have dealt better with Nani being left one vs one the way Clichy was. All hypothetical of course!

Our problem defensively is NOT Clichy, but rather how exposed he is to one vs ones on a regular basis.

Look at the lack of space Nasri and Arshavin were given. They were facing a FB AND either a winger or a CM pretty much every time they got the ball. Where is Clichy´s help?

Rewatch the goal. Clichy basically invited Nani in the box. Thats unacceptable but then again Nani is the best RW in the league and Clichy got no support from their midfielders whatsover. So Song also gets a -1.