Manchester United – Arsenal Match Thread

nope, it was the referee favoring Manchester......let's make a complaint about this referee and hide the real cause of this team disaster.

@Gooners

Well we're successfully been kicked out of 3 competitions in 2 weeks by sides that we really could have beaten. Awesome.

I love this team but this has been ridiculously frustrating. Seriously, has there ever been a more underperforming team than Arsenal? Wenger is a fabulous coach and I would give him a lifelong contract if I were in charge but jesus christ, can we at least lose after meeting our potential?

I don't mind an empty trophy cabinet but I do mind a team that consistently drops games to sides they should be beating. Don't keep riding the "Oh we'll bounce back next week" line because pretty soon the whole damn season will be over. Get some mental strength! Get some fire! C'mon Arsenal!!

So you think this "fire" will be spontaneous? Do you think Wenger should change nothing about the way he manages the team, and that we'll win something eventually?

I'm not going to pretend I am worthy of giving Wenger tips about how to run a team but I don't think it's his coaching style. I think it's the lack of leadership among players. Cesc is hardly an inspiring captain and I think that void dampens the spirits of young players more than people think. We all know how skilled each player is, but as a team they are seriously lacking mental strength. I dunno, thats just what 1 fan thinks.

Oh for heaven's sake, I can't believe some of you guys saying that this is the end of the world, that this team is crap, that Arsene should get the sack and Arsenal Football Club has become utter rubbish and has absolutely no hope. Well first of all, it's been a bad fortnight and we all have to agree about that. But whoever thought that we had a chance when we were drawn against Barca was thought to be mad at that point in time. The first leg filled us with hope, but the rationalists knew that it was going to be a massive task against Barca. The Carling Cup final? Most of these guys never had played in a cup final before, and maybe the pressure got to them, I don't know. But a final depends on one game - you only have one chance, and if a team has a bad game in a cup final, consistency and form wouldn't matter. It's the performance in that sole game that counts. The FA Cup? Yeah, we weren't that good. But Van der Sar kept us at bay and I wasn't disappointed with our performance. FFS we had 7 shots on target at one point, and I guess this increased as time went on. Remember that we played at Old Trafford, and ManU remain unbeaten there.

As you might have guessed, I kinda look to the bright side of life. I know Denilson and Diaby are utterly useless. And I know Djourou's injury probably means the end for his season, and we have to challenge for the title with Squizz at the back. But unlike most of you, I prefer to reserve my whining and keep my mouth shut until the end of the season, but for now, I take heart from those chanting Gooners at Old Trafford, who sang their hearts out when we were 2 - 0 down and with 10 men. So I suggest you stay patient, back the boys and remind yourself that Arsenal will become great again.

"Arsenal , we love you "

It's not the end of the world or future Arsenal glory but can we at least lose after playing up to our potential? Is that too much to ask?

Us gooners should think about a letter to the club, really.
They will lose (I hope not me but one nbever knows hen you get tired of supporting a winning team that made you fall in love and that doesnt win anymore) fans and thereoffre money...no good borad, no good AW.
So anyone shares the wish of maybe start talking AWs replacements? I know I know, I am th 1st one to admint...who can replace him, but I think its a question, a serious quetion now.

Please try to proofread next time, I can barely understand what you're saying.

I disagree it's a serious question. I think AW just needs to realize that while his plans - both micro and macro - are generally good in a vacuum, they don't always work in the real world. He had a plan for this season and has a plan for each game but does not show a willingness to adapt to changing situations. In the same way the team has a tendency to not show a killer instinct on the pitch, Wenger did not show a killer instinct during the transfer window to buy a couple players that would have added some redundancy to a team he knew would be stretched.

I think AW is prone to believing that if he plays the game the "right way," victory is somehow owed him. And I think the players have a tendency to play that way too.

I heard rumours that Arsenal and Barca have an agreement for the sale of Fabregas for around €50m this summer. If it's true is Wenger going to use any of this money to buy wolrd class player or spend stingy as usual. Recently we sold Henry, Hleb, Toure and Adebayor for a fortune and did we get some confirmed top player in return. NO

In all honesty, I would leave Arsenal too if I were in that situation. I wouldn't mind not winning trophies but I would mind my teammates consistently giving lackluster performances. Only 2 or 3 players play like they actually want to win. That's not a team where you can build a career and look back on with pride when you hang up the cleats.

ok, so I am not a pessimist, I am a realist.
Facts: our B team is just not good enough/ We cant bounce back with that team/ we need to be more agressive and shoot more often (buy a true effectiv striker wont be bad either/ check our medical staff / check our psycholoigical staff/ and I d add...try to change a game whenever possible, and please oh please...start trying to keep up instead of being an oberver when plays are bounced...

Future facts, we wont win the league, we will struggle to keep our 2nd spot, we wont win all he games that still remain.

I hope for a UCL spot at least.

Wishes: AW stop being stubborn. Your plan is good, it just wont work with a short list of players. Wishes: a decent Bteam and a garage sale of mediocre players.

My heart is broken, but I wont whine anymore, its just the facts, I ust really, really hope we can be in the top 4 at the end of the year.

Go ahead, throw your killer comments on me....

Wenger anger is the biggest loser.....his tactics are a piece of crap....and Nasri is a dirty player was put on pitch to fight with the referee in every game. Arsenal sucks really, they lost all competitions.

meh...

at least Ramsey looked decent.

Hang on I don't think the guys played badly. I mean van der sar wan motm so that can't be bad. Just unlucky. Anyway if arsenal are gonna start winning trophies again then two things need to happen:
1. Arsenal need to be bought over.
2. Arsene has to accept he's taken the club as far as he can and step down nicely. He'll still be much appreciated.

Arsenal players are so naive tactically and often dumb. Wenger is also responsible because he preaches beautiful football but everytime the team plays face a strong opposition you don't see any beauty in their game.
Are the players going to apologise to the fans once again? I am so angry at some of them they don't work hard except for Nasri, Wihshere, RVP, Kosh and Djourou who are doing their best the rest to the bin.

I'm in love with a fucking loser named Arsenal. He fucks up all the time, always breaking my heart and embarrassing me in the process. He has so much potential to be better, at times I see this great potential, but more so often I see his fucking loser side. My friends love winners line Manny and Barc, but I can't get my love to do anything but lose.

I don't know if Wegner is the man for the job anymore. I really dont. His philosophy has cost us dearly over the years. I'm worried we will lose players like Nasri, Van Persie, and more possibly Cesc. Over the years, the purchases that he has made has been a joke, players like Koscielny, Scillaci, has been jokes. Its a damn shame we can't buy players that will help us and not fuck up all the time. Sorry but to go from 4 trophies to 1 (unlikely), is a fucking disaster. If it were any other team, a new manager would be on the horizon. I think Wegner has led us as far as he can take us. Time for change.

You know why there's no threat on Wenger's head. Because he buys young and cheap players making them good enough players so that he can sell them a fortune. He's not spending much so the board is happy even though we haven't won any trophy for 6 years. But as a fan you want your teasm to be successful but apparently not all the organization which is interested in the financials. We've been qualified in the CL for so many years and we sold a lot of players for a lot of money but still spending stingy. When was the last time Wenger bought a world class player?

Normally I would say that any calls for Wenger to spend big are useless because that's just not how the man is. But, now... shouldn't he at least reconsider? Djourou is injury prone and now likely out for the season. Our front-line is as fragile as it is dangerous (when TvNG is on, of course.) Wenger KNOWS his players are injury-prone yet he does shit like rushing them back for one match, leaving them out for much more after, or not re-stocking the team sufficiently when he has the chance. Squillaci and Kos are now our 1st choice CBs for the rest of the season and TV5 will probably never come back to the now legendary heights he was last year. Yet, Wenger will most likely just promote Bartley and Miquel and do nothing more.
Oh well, as long as we beat United in May and win the title i'll be happy. But at this rate? Looks damn unlikely.

EDIT: Oh, and fuck Denilson.

/rant

Fuck you Arsenal. Goddamnit, really? Manure's line up was terrible, and we don't score? For fucks sake, I'm tired of watching young players like Gibbs and Wilshere give their all while more experienced players like Diaby/Denilson and Rosicky sit around and pick their buttholes. Oh yea, Denilson how does it feel to know that you single-handedly killed us in a game against Manure, again?? Chase back and pressure the ball of defense! I'm 16 and I understand that as a holding midfielder, you're gonna have to pressure the ball on fast-breaks. How come you don't understand that Denilson? I'm sick of you're shit, I hope you and Diaby get sold over the summer. And it was great to see Ramsey again, but it looked a little weird with Jack and Ramsey on the field, they both looked a little lost.

/end rant

I hate to saw faces of those whinning losers anymore. Arsene was great for all those years and could still be great, if he's a man big enough to realise his current philosophy is just crap.

utds team isnt that impressive yet we got whooped... y?? rvp can do all his magic vs small teams but when we play man utd the same shit happens.... even nasri(apart from the 2 goals he scored vs united), wat has cesc done vs man utd? atleast when we had viera henry bergkamp and co if one wasnt having a great game the other 1 picked up.. but in this team there just looks 2 be one great player and that kid is wilshere... other than that no1 is even bothered....

out of 3 comps in 2 weeks, talk of quadriple before that.

In arsene we trust, lets carry on buying freebies and developing youngsters for another 6 years.

Here's how I sum this week up: two humiliating defeats, could've been even more humiliating had Almunia not pulled two straight MOTM performances. That should tell you how utterly, hopelessly terrible we were.

I like it better when we win.

Unfortunately, I think that having a squad that consists of this many young, inexperienced, and unreliable players isn't enough to win us any major competitions.

As much as I hate to say it, some major money needs to be spent before next season.

Well, that was horrible, horrible, HORRIBLE. Out of 3 competitions in 2 weeks, our injury list grows to a more regular (for Arsenal) length, and Djourou is out maybe for the rest of the season
Only two really, really, really small positives:
- The damn Pea didn't score.
- Almunia again had a decent game.
We need to bounce back. West Brom away becomes our perennial game of the season. Then the Int. break will come at no better time.

You have be a masochist to still have hope for this team this season. I always knew the quality of the team was average and today it was so clear. Only RVP, Cesc, Nasri, Wilshere, Vermalen and maybe Walcott are top class the rest well just average to ugly.

At least Almunia looks sharp...

Sagna, get the fuck out of there. If the ref tells you to get out of his face, do it.

Umm... and some people call this Arsenal Barcelona Lite?

The effectiveness of Barcelona is >>>>> Arsenal's.

When I saw the line-up of ManUtd, I thought "Ok, this time Arsenal can win". But you cannot. You can dominate matches against ManUtd, but you always lose. Pathetic!

I would die as an Arsenal fan. HOW THE EFFING HELL CAN YOU LOSE THIS MATCH? And you are losing such matches since 6 years!!! Damn it!

No. Peopl call our first team Barcelona lite, but back in the day when Batza was hiring "Pitbull" Davids to save Barza from a lower then 6th place, we were already playing the likes of Overmars (ahem bught by Barza ahem) and Van Broncklhorst and Petit and Henry,,,wait was hat a Barza lite already?

And Rosicky misses a sitter. This is a Spuds' fan's wet dream made real

with these kinda performance, i cant see us winning the league... got 3 really hard games... spuds, manure and liverpool... no way we will win it

This team is imploding. I can't even watch anymore. Every week is just another disappointment. What the fuck is going on?

I can't believe how shitty we have been since we beat Barca. Did the players really think they were done with playing after that game?

They just always want to take one touch too many near the box.

Yes, agree with you there. Time for Arsene to shove it as the Chairman has said. Wonder what excuse he'll be using this time.

Wilshere, bless him, keeps on trying. Love the man, Arsenal's finest.

10 men arsenal get a 2-2 draw... common guys do it for djourou!!!

Tim for Wenger to go. No more hiding behind referees!!! OUT WENGER OUT!

Game over. And Djourou possibly out for more than a few weeks. Fan-fucking-tastic.
At least Verm is close to a return.. only 3 more years!

Great now Sagna may have injured Djourou by far our best defender. It's fucking ridiculous I want to laugh. We look like a team of clowns.

And there goes the title challenge.

I think there is someone who has voodoo dolls of all our players and keeps injuring them through those dolls. IF only we could find apprehend that guy

I didn't think it could get much worse.

Then I remembered that this is Arsenal.

And our requisite serious injury for the match. Djourou :(

FUCK. Djourou down.

And the fact that Djourou is arguably our strongest defender at the moment.

Thank god VDS is out at the end of this season

Finally looking better, couple of shots/headers at goal.

Wilshere looks like he wants this more than anyone else.

The good thing about being an Arsenal fan is to have the certainty to be humiliated a couple of times every season. Barca and now ManU. And I am sick of these players always saying we are learning from our defeat and the coach saying this team has character. Wenger chose the strongest team possible and Ferg took half the team from the regular players at the end of the bench. It tells you a lot about the rosters quality.

Some of our A team and many of our B team (Arshavin, Eboue, Diaby, Denilson, Chamakh etc) are the definition of mercurial, and when the majority of them are 'off' at the same time, this is what happens. Almost completely unthreatening.

If we compare players I wonder whether Rosicky, Denilson, Eboue, Arshavin, Chamakh and Squillaci would have a chance to be on the bench of ManU for a carling cup game. I am not so sure. As for Diaby I think he's good player but he just need a bit of time after all the injuries he had this year.

I like taking out Diaby but why why why take off Arshavin for a useless Rosicky and not Bendtner?

I like taking out Diaby but why why why take off Arshavin for a useless Rosicky and not Bendtner?

Welcome back Rambo!!

I think we all know our best XI can do it. Their backups? Not so much.

OMG RAMBOOOOOO!!!!!!!!

Rosicky for Arshavin ????

I'm cheering this sub, but mor because Diaby is coming off.

EDIT: Wow, our sub bench is light, if Ramsey and Rosicky are our saviours when we need two goals.

COME ON AARON!!

atleast decapitate rooney!!!

PLEASE score. PLEASE win. I'm getting sick of being let down again and again by this team.

Next season dude!! This team requires some serious rebuilding and injury cover and better physical resilience before a cup can be won!! Till then...Come on Arsenal!!

no hope... almost ur first team and cant beat 2nd string of man utd players... we really are bad..!!!

Could someone pls tell Diaby that when you are trying to hit Man Utd on the counter you DONT JOG

I'm getting the sickening feeling that AFC is the victim of being good enough to qualify for the top competitions but not good enough to compete in each of them with the inevitable injuries/fatigue.. and it's ruining their chances to win any of them.

Why cant we have someone like van der Sar??? For heavens sake he's 40 and already has 3 glorious saves inside 60 mins.

Because we have the two Poles. One if which, Szczesny, has excellent potential to be a top keeper and between our sticks for years to come

3 down, 1 more to loose !!! Come on Arsenal

Good to hear the Arsenal fans singing. Keep it up, boys!

we are being humiliated!!!! amazing... how can an arsenal fan not cry after seeing all this rubbish!!!

I never want to see Denilson and Diaby in an Arsenal kit ever again. I'd rather have an unfit Ramsey out there. They have no heart of work ethic. Two of the laziest unambiguous players and they are our "holding" midfielders. Wow.

Unambitious. Stupid auto correct

amazing... denilson doesnt even wanna track back!!1

FFS... we need Cesc. and Theo. Denilson get out.

I hate my life

2-0

Great start to the half by our lads. Come on the Arsenal!

EDIT: How poor was that timing...

Kos.. so close!!!! Liking the 2nd half so far

We (arsenal) should know better than to be suprised and shocked bye evras and rooneys game. and if we did the same we would have a man sendt og. but thats not why we are behind in this game. we dont have strong enough players when diaby and denilson are team regular. sorry guys but really.... i hope denilson and diaby are on their way out this summer and that wenger will try something else... its not working now and it has not worked for some years now.. He just have too much faith in a few shitty players who would not fit any premiership teams..sooo stop beeing a economic consultant and concentrate on the game...

valencia coming on to peg us back

Why is Sagna always ahead of Nasri on the right side when he provides absolutely nothing offensively and leave us in danger on counter attack. Where was he when ManU scored the goal? Training to make a decent cross? Something he hasn't learned after so many years in Arsenal.

Have you been watching Arsenal play this season? He has offered tons going forward this year, and has two goals and three assists so far.

ManU 1-0 Arsenal at the half.

One defensive lapse. Balls. Here are the stats from ESPN:

ManUtd Arsenal
4(2) Shots (on Goal) 7(4)
2 Fouls 3
1 Corner Kicks 1
5 Offsides 2
40% Time of Possession 60%
0 Yellow Cards 0
0 Red Cards 0
6 Saves 1

one defensive lapse is good even 2 kill the game... vs barca in the inj time we conceeded... now this... man utd dont even deserve the lead....

Good possession from Arsenal but all the real chances on goal were from United.

Chamakh and/or Bendtner will be a welcome substitution.

Nasri and Wilshere, RVP are top class players. The rest is just poor. And Arsenal doesn't how to put pressure on ManU defense and the other end everytime Arsenal defense had the ball you could feel they could lose the ball very easily. Nasri needs to go in central position it's obvious.

Maybe Chamakh can come on in the 2nd and add something more to our attack

Disappointing 1st half from us though. Need to step it up.

I'm getting pretty sick of all the offhand slights about our defending. Yes, we gave up 4 against Newcastle, but we have a better defensive record than Man U. Fuck off.

Wow Denilson totally fouled one of the da Silva twins there

We seem to have let our heads drop a bit since the goal

why not play nasri in the middle and rosicky on the wings??

Well, wingers' job are to make good runs and also make some killer passes. And how long has it been since Rosicky last did either?

Diaby and Denilson have little ambition. Only seeing energy from Wilshere in the middle.

Um...is Rooney allowed to just bodycheck Sagna like that?

Yes, because he's the motherfucking sweetheart of England and Fergie.

Gotta get RvP more into the game. Still time to nick a couple, come on Arsenal!!

Way to go Denilson to put yourself totally out of position and in no mans land to mark no one and allow that through pass totally uncontested to set up the goal.

STUPID FUCKING DENILSON!!!

Fuck. Djourou just lost Hernandez and neither Koscielny nor Gibbs followed Rafael/Fabio.