Manchester United 2-Arsenal 1

By: Martin | August 29th, 2009

Manchester United v Arsenal
by cirmutan

Well…I don’t know. I apologize for the delay between the end of the game and this post, but if I had posted my thoughts immediately after the end of the match, the Catholic church would have had legitimate grounds for excommunicating me. So I tried to wait a few hours to cool off before writing anything.

First off, the officiating wasn’t great, but I’m not a big fan of blaming officiating for the outcome of matches. Rooney’s penalty honestly could have gone either way–Almunia made significant contact with Rooney’s legs without getting any of the ball, but on the other hand, Rooney appeared to chip the ball away before there was any contact, so he wouldn’t have been able to catch up to the ball anyway. It wasn’t as obvious a penalty, as, say, I don’t know, Arshavin getting his legs taken out from under him in the box with no contact whatsoever with the ball, but I don’t think it’s fair to say it was a bad call. Likewise, no matter how disappointing it was, the offsides call at the end of the game was correct–Gallas was certainly offside on the play.

The fact is that we were probably the better team on the day, but we lost. It happens, and we need to move on from it. But hopefully Wenger will stress to the team that despite losing, we went on the road to the defending Premiership champions and took the game to them–on a different day, the result could have been completely different. Here’s hoping this will be an event that the players and supporters alike can rally around for the rest of the season.

Andrei Arshavin opened his account on the season with a goal that was nothing short of spectacular. And it was karmic justice, too, since he had just a few minutes earlier been denied a clear and obvious penalty. We went into half-time leading 1-0, but we gave up the lead not long after half-time after Almunia came out and clumsily made contact with Rooney’s legs on a 50-50 ball.

Then, well…I’m not sure what to say. Diaby scored an own goal under no pressure whatsoever. Anyone who reads this site with any regularity know that I am not a Diaby fan, to put it mildly–I think he’s not a player of “Arsenal quality,” and his work rate is often suspect. His two biggest problems have always been: (1) poor decisions and (2) laziness. Number (1) once again reared its ugly head today–I have no idea how that happened, as all he needed to do was head the ball forward and clear, or at least head it to the side for a corner kick. But in his defense, I will say that number (2) was NOT a problem for Diaby today–especially after he gave up the goal, he was running around and playing hard. I’m really unhappy with this result, and Diaby seems like an okay guy, so I don’t want to run him into the ground after such a devastating result, and I DON’T want to say I told you so, but he makes this kind of mistake; he’s always made these kinds of mistakes, and I think he’ll continue to do so no matter how hard he works in the offseason.

And there it was. A 2-1 loss in a game where we should have come away with at least one point. Sigh. But that’s in the past. What’s coming up? The international break, obviously, will keep us out of action until weekend after next. Hopefully Wenger can keep the squad focused on the fact that we outplayed United at Old Trafford, and we’re still legitimate title contenders. The team has been impressive so far in dominating several opponents, but to be a champion you must have the ability to overcome adversity. This is the first adversity Arsenal has faced this season, so we’ll have a chance to see what the club is made of.

On to the ratings:

Almunia 7.5. Neither of the goals were really his fault, although he misjudged the ball on Rooney’s penalty. And every other time he was called into action, be it making a save on a shot or coming out strong on a set piece, he made exactly the right move. Name 6 other keepers in the world you’d rather have in goal. I’m still waiting.

Sagna 7. Another solid performance–did his job well down the left wing and used his skill and athleticism well in defense.

Clichy 7.5. Definitely rounding into form–good performance by Gael today, he’s certainly looking to reclaim his throne as one of the world’s top left-backs.

Vermaelen 8. He’s played 5 competitive matches for us, so I hate to go too hyperbolic too soon. But he looked absolutely comfortable dealing with one of the best attacks in the world, and at some point I do think we’re going to have to say that we have a world class center-back on our squad.

Gallas 8. Ever since being stripped/”relieved” of the captaincy, Gallas has been superb. He kept it up today with a strong performance.

Denilson 6.5. Pretty anonymous. It is, of course, tough against a team like United, but he’s got to find a way to involve himself in the action more .

Song 7. Picked up a yellow early, which may have made him sheepish, but if Arsenal are going to contend for trophies this season, we need stronger performances from him in the holding role.

Diaby 5. Generally not too bad, and I was encouraged by the way he bounced back from the own-goal. On the other hand, though, how good a game can you have had when you flat out gift one of the best squads in the world a goal? Inexcusable.

Eboue 7.5 I thought he continued his recent run of good form, although his finishing was crap.

van Persie 6. Wasn’t really making plays, and could have done better with the chances he was given. Has got to improve if we’re going to succeed this season.

Arshavin 8.5. Man of the match. Drew a penalty which wasn’t given, and then scored a spectacular goal. If he continues to play like this we have a chance at winning every competition we play in.

Ramsey 7. Didn’t shrink from the moment, which is remarkable considering his age and experience. But didn’t make anything happen, either.

Eduardo 5.5. Did all the media exposure get to him? Because he looked overwhelmed and devoid of inspiration today.

Bendtner 6.5. High energy, and was inches away from a brilliant cross in the box to Eduardo.

It’s easy to be negative at this point, and deep down, I’m pretty upset–I’m going to see “Hair” on Broadway tonight, and I’m hoping all that hippy “peace and love” message salves the wound a little bit. But since we won’t play for a couple of weeks, let’s try to be positive. The bottom line is this–we outplayed Manchester United at Old Trafford, and were a couple of mental mistakes away from beating the defending champions in their own stadium. We showed the class and skill to play with any team in the world, and if we continue to improve, we can beat absolutely beat anyone, anywhere, anytime. For a team that many pundits had predicted to finish 5th at the outset of the season, that isn’t bad. I predicted it at the outset that we would win the league, and I’m sticking by this–here’s hoping we can take confidence from the performance, if not the result, and build on this.