Apr 14
Man Utd v Arsenal: United End Arsenal’s Season
The regulars to this site might be left wondering, and for good reason, why there wasn’t a preview to yesterday’s game posted on this blog. Dear readers, kindly accept my humble apologies. My internet for some reason decided it deserved a holiday — with it being a Sunday and all — and politely conked out so conveniently, just as I started writing the first few lines of the preview.
Well, not only was I denied the chance to write a preview to the game, I just wasn’t allowed access to the game yesterday, as I rely on internet streams usually. An hour was spent arguing with the ISP for this untimely ‘inconvenience’ and I spent some more time crying like a madman, before I realised that I could go to a nearby pub that showed the game. I made it, but could barely see enough to write a match report. It wouldn’t be honest of me, would it?
Anyway, I soothed myself with the MotD highlights and hopefully my agony will be assuaged to some extent once I finish downloading the whole match and watching it. Oh, the internet is fixed now. But the pain of not having watched United terminate the Arse’s season live would still remain.
So once again, accept my humble apologies. I would however defer you all to the excellent comment thread of yesterday (post-match) that had quite a few detailed, and intelligent, analyses of the game. Anyway, I still have some opinions, not necessarily of the match, but some over-arching incidents and issues that could be discussed.
Primarily, was it just me or could others also see the amount of pity showered on the Gunners, by the members of the Fourth Estate, after United effectively ended their season? Fine, they played some good football. They started the season brilliantly defying the same press that wrote them off. But they tapered off because of their thin squad. What I didn’t get was journalists (especially the one on MotD) asking Queiroz and Ferdinand if they felt sorry that Arsenal’s hard work this season has amounted to nothing. I am not trying to say that Arsenal didn’t deserve something (maybe a league cup?). But why does this sound like United, by defeating Arsenal, have destroyed the one team that had the core of footballing principles at heart?
While Queiroz played the diplomatic line, I liked what Rio said — that this is not a time for sentiment. And that, had Arsenal been in our position, they would also have never wasted time feeling for the fallen team. It is this ruthless streak that has seen United keep their head so far and the very lack of it that has seen Arsenal slip by the wayside.
The other thing that follows from the above is the way we won the game today. It’s almost unanimous that we were below par, and Arsenal, indeed, had chances to increase the lead by a larger margin. But we held on, and we won a game where, perhaps, a draw could have been a fair result for Arsenal’s effort. And, yes. United are still discovering more match winners as the season is drawing to a close. Sir Alex will be, no doubt, proud at the way some other players have risen to the demands. Today it was Hargreaves’ free kick and his energetic second half — interestingly, he was started on the right wing — and Anderson, who had a few quiet weeks, who seems to save up his energetic best for the big games.
Blackburn, Chelsea, West Ham and Wigan, I suppose, then. Hopefully Brucie does us a favour today as Chelsea take on Wigan.
But from now on as I’ve said before, United would need to go on a horror run to throw the title away. So c’mon you reds! Make us all smile again, and again, and again.
To end this, here’s an image from yesterday to brighten up your Monday.
Related items from Red Rants:
- Porto it is then…
- Rooney Out For A Month
- GOAL VIDEOS: Manchester United v Arsenal
- Man Utd Blog 2007/2008 Home Kit
- Will United Rebuff Arsenal’s Revenge Quest?
Tags: Match Reports
Opti (541)
Stephen (479)
RedDevilEddy (459)
Craig Mc (345)
Moscow is my heaven (272)
MOTD here
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Look, the bottom line is that Lehmann was the fist choice keeper for a long time so as I see it he had a right to bitch because Wenger stabbed him in the back. Nobody complained about him being a bad teammate for years and after many games that he won for them between the posts. And to all of you, this is relevant on a United blog because we just played them, they are our second biggest rival. As well, the Lehamann controversy may have been one of the major factors for Arsenal being out of the race. Sitting your top keeper for a scrub is more destabilizing to a team than listening to Lehmann bitch about the injustice of it all. And managers are not always right. They have ego’s and stubborn streaks that occasionally block out their common sense. To be honest, rather than complain about me talking about Arsenal, I suggest that some of you out there offer up some stimulating topics. I don’t exactly see too many others offering interesting topics for conversation or debate today. So give me a break fellas! In fact I am little disappointed to see how few of you took part in any blogging after yesterday’s game. It’s like nobody cared. At least I’m offering something to debate. So when are we going to talk about Blackburn? Does everything have to be a one sentence statement that really doesn’t offer up much for debate?
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You are a professional, you don’t bitch about the team in public and then expect to be selected. Period. And he’s been given enough respect, he’s like what 39? — one of the oldest players Wenger has stuck with, Seaman apart. And it was his own decision to stay back at Arsenal, during January. And about his selection for Germany, I am sure Wenger and Ferguson can’t care for a players’ international future that much given how much is at stake for their respective clubs. Wenger has long pooh-poohed the international game in it’s quality levels.
Goal keeping has been least of Arsenal’s troubles this season.
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Wigan just equalised! Brilliant!
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Wigan scored 1-1 right as I turned it on. To quote Queen “We are the champions”
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HESKEY!!!! Chelsea draws!! Beautiful!
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whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!
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Wigan scored! Wigan scored! Hallelujah!!! What an important moment this could be in the title race. I am soooooooooooooooo happy now! You are proved wrong RR! Finished 1-1 at the Bridge! Essien 55, Heskey 93! CHAMPIONE, CHAMPIONE, OLE OLE OLE! We wont lose this now! I love ya Brucey! You did it again!
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WHOOOO HOOOOO Brucie you beauty!!!
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we should sign heskey just as a thank you for handing us the league.
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YEAH YEAH YEAH!!! WOW!!! The title is United’s once more!!!
Come on United
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Wigan baby the best team, but please don’t score against us. great day and thank you very much
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Frickin Wigan I love Steve brucey Whoooooaaaa THTS the title Baby go screw urself bloody CHELSKIANS
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To make this night better, FANTASTIC News: RIO HAS SIGNED A NEW CONTRACT! Just half an hour ago!
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Grog – I was too happy to say anything but ‘fuck yea’, and the only overwhelming desire at the time was to shove something down the throat of arsenal fans, something I’m saving for the end of the season. hence the private celebrations
Grant is going to have a lot of fun now with his fans…
Odds for Everton to win and end Chelsea’s season?
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Serves them just right
They couldn’t expect to have many more 1-0 wins right? Their luck had to run out sometime! Woohooo! I’m in office hence couldn’t watch it LIVE, but kept refreshing the page every 60secs..almost jumped out of my seat and screamed when I saw it became 1-1! (Hope I’m not fired tomorrow!) 
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Great news RedDevil man i stll feel sorry for the Arse fans. I know I know I should hate them, but at least they play positive football and my hate is spread only for the other 2
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yeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssssssssssss!!!! yeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssssssssss!!! hope we win it in their backyard
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Yeah! Their luck had to stop sometime. Finally they lost some points. If they lose against Everton and we win, we are Champions!
Where did you hear about Rio Reddevil? Nothing on the Manutd page or SkySports.
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Get in there legend Steve Bruce !
Before the match
“If we win at Stamford Bridge then I am sure Fergie will have a little drink,” he told the Sunday Mirror.
“Mind you, I’d hope to get more than one bottle sent from Old Trafford myself if we beat Chelsea. They haven’t lost at home for four years, so I’d expect to get a case of the good stuff if we get a result down there.
A Legend !
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Yup he’s right:
Rio Ferdinand signs new Manchester United contract
Wait and see, until we get official quotes. But looks reasonably credible.
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Here Eddie: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article3746867.ece
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I think its almost done. We just need to do the job at Blackburn this weekend. If we win, Chelski will be too deflated to do anything at SB. It’ll be like the draw we played out last year
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Table.
1st 34 Manchester United FC 80 points plus 54
2nd 34 Chelsea FC 75 points plus 35
3rd 34 Arsenal FC 71 points plus 35
4th 34 Liverpool FC 66 points plus 34
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So guys The title should be ours if we win Against Blackburn next week then its off to Barca”"”
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Hey guys, hang on for a second. The title is NOT ours if we win at Ewood Park next weekend (even if Chelsea lose to Everton). It’ll still be a 8 point gap with 3 games remaining. Techincally possible. It would be fitting to win it at the Bridge..would be just bloody brilliant to break their record too.
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Interestingly Oliver Kay wrote the story about Hargreaves poor time keeping, which was quickly dismissed as a pile of crap. Funny how stories in the press seem to gain credibility when they are positive news
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Hahaha..I just re-read my comment last week when all hell was breaking loose here after the Boro game. Here it is —
————–
“Dudes, would y’all just calm down a bit?!! We just drew a game – it’s not like we blew a 2-0 lead and lost it!I agree with Utsav, the title isn’t lost/won based on this one game, we still lead Chelsea by 3 points, and I’m positive they’ll drop points too. Maybe we just gave them a bit more hope now, but things can look really different if we beat Arsenal and they draw Wigan next week.”
—————
Ah, things do indeed look better now!
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should’ve took a trip to the bookies ey
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You have to give Chelsea a lot of credit over the fact that they don’t lose more considering that Grant is a complete muppet as a manager. Watching the game today I could not help but feel that Mourinho would have stood up and yelled at players as well as make tactical changes on the fly in the first half. Instead Grant and his crew looked like they were testing out new prescription sleeping pills. I honestly cannot believe that team is still a threat to us. If they were to steal the championship they would have to go down as one of the least entertaining and most overrated sides of all time.
Thank goodness for old Stevie Bruce. Now will he lay down for us on the last day of the season? Probably not because he is a competitor. Hope he enjoys that fine bottle of wine Fergie sends him. He did us a big favor today and I for one thank him. Now if the Scousers at Everton can play up to their capabilities and end this thing early by downing a confidence riddled Chelsea on Thursday.
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[JB]
True, very true indeed. I did have some doubts which is why I left the link with a cautionary remarks. But I think it’s rooted in my subconscious that Rio must (and will) sign it soon enough.
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I heard grant say that they still have a chance if they win the remainig games”That frickin ostrich told the press earlier that man utd will crack under pressure Well after commenting on us just 24 hrs later looks like chelsea have cracked well good to know the ostrich is still got a good sense of humour frickin pussy”"”Oh AV
GRANTED us the title”
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well, saf said that 85 points would do it, we are 2 wins away from that, chelski are 4, that means they have to win ALL their remaining games while we have to win 2, things are looking very red for us.
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[Mas_ter]
Not ostrich, he’s a toad.
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[Mas_ter]
I guess we would have to force the words out of his mouth by winning at SB.
Haha, what else would he say mate? That the title is gone? They’re already queuing up to have his head!
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wow antsboy, you joining me in making prophecies related to united, i tell you what, yours was more impressive than me predicting the scoreline for yesterdays game
do you mind predicting who we’re going to sign this offseason, (please add hunterlaar in said prediction)
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Funny ainnit? Just when we were running out of things to talk about today…
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To everyone who’s acting like we’ve won the title: shut up.
Wigan did really well today, and yes, Chelsea dropped three points. But if Chelsea win all their remaining games (which they can do) and we lose to Chelsea and another team (and let’s face it, we lose more than draw) then they’ll finish 1 point above us. If we lose or draw at Blackburn then the title race is wide open again. We’re in a fantastic position, and I highly doubt we’ll throw it away now, but anything can happen. An injury to Ronaldo, Rooney, Carrick, Evra or anyone really could change things completely.
Grognard: you’re completely right about Grant. It looks to me like even he can’t believe he’s managing one of the biggest clubs in the world. He’s got less confidence than Arsenal.
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Agree with Michael’s 1st part, but not the 2nd. No matter how many words we call him (muppet, toad) the fact remains that he is still in running and I don’t even want to hear that it’s all due to Mouriniho (sorry for spelling). We should stop underestimating them. Today Wigan got lucky, so let’s hope for more luck for Everton
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Completely irrelevant to the discussion I know, but just found out that we are still keeping the same home shirt as this year for next season too! A bit less of this ripping off of fans will do nicely please Mr Glazer…
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Lehmann said everything i’ve talked about in public. When i called him a prick, that was my personal opinion yes, but he really does strike me as not being much of a team player. He can’t be good for morale surely? You believe wenger stabbed him in the back by dropping him, but lets face it, he let wenger and his teammates down with his mistakes early in the season. It would not have been fair on almunia if lehmann wasn’t dropped. After that almunia was consistent so you can’t drop a keeper who’s doing nothing wrong.
As for the bendtner chance, you are the only person i’ve met who disagrees with me, including all the opinions of folk i respect and look up to.
You are quite right though, there’s nothing wrong with talking about lehmann or bendtner after we just played arsenal. What else should we talk about? Grant will probably be sacked at the end of the season too.
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Taron: it’s not all due to Mourinho, but to me it seems that a huge part of it is. Avram clearly knows a bit about football; he managed Israel and was director at Pompey. But this Chelsea team was built by Mourinho for one purpose: to win games. Avram’s attempts to preach entertainment seem to have confused them, and a manager with more force of personality is required, to FORCE them to do things his way.
Agreed about Everton, but my hopes aren’t high.
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Tevez: I agree with you about Lehmann’s behaviour, but I disagree with you about the fact that it would have been “unfair on Almunia” if Lehmann had been put back in the team. Lehmann should have had his second chance before Christmas, and the only reason he didn’t was because of his constant whining. But he had some fair points: Almunia has looked rash and uncommanding in goal, whereas Lehmann would have brought solidity and familiarity to the defence. And Lehmann performed well in all the bit part games he got thrown, and baring one error, did well for Germany too.
Nino: The kits last season were commemorative for 50 years of Utd/English football in Europe. Clubs are legally required to keep the same kit for a minimum of two years, to stop fans being ripped-off, and we had to get special permission to have that one with its retro look. But yeah, it was basically the Glazers milking us. But hey, Tevez, Nani, Anderson, Carrick, Hargreaves, Evra, Vidic, and ticket prices are still much lower than Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal… can’t complain too much.
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Tevez; Two football experts made the point that EVDS made a great save off “a fine Bendtner header” on tv last night. I think I’ll take their view and expertise over you or your friends thanks. Also, I have watched Bendtner enough to know that he is a pretty damned good header of the ball and a striker with great promise. I just don’t think it’s with Arsenal.
And yes, we certainly can agree what seems pretty obvious by now, Avram Grant is history. Abramovich once can proved a point I have made many times in my life. That millionaires or billionaires are some of the stupidist people in the World, yet they have made a ton of money. Where is the justice?
Michael; About Lehmann, well said mate. It’s all about being fair and Wenger let his own arrogance lead him to disaster.
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[Mr. Muzohi]
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves mate, let’s stick to predicting scores now. There’s plenty of time to predict off-season transfers
[Michael]
Absolutely agree with you mate on asking us to shut up. I think people here were just elated at the unexpected result, and that’s why we let it go for a while..but you’re right, it ain’t over till the fat lady sings (or for Chelsea’s case, the toad croaks)…I think this weekend is very, very crucial.
[Grog]
I haven’t got involved in the debates yet mate, but I agree with you on Bendtner. VDS pulled off a world class save at the death, else surely Bendtner would be a hero for them. It’s funny eh, how one player can make another seem not-so-great?
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Good morning everybody! Thank you Heskey for making me sleep even better that I thought was possible
Moving on; Fergie has said that he will spend this summer. After January I have been looking at other teams, of cource United too, so I could find out about a player that would be a great buy. Call me a scout if you want. Benzema played well in France until we knocked them out in March. He has been shite after that. He looks like a confidence player and does magical stuff when he is on top. He scores goals, but his all around play has been worse than it was until February. It looks like he doesnt want to do anything down the field. But that may just be because Lyon has clinched the title.
Dutch games are shown on the telly every week here, espessialy Ajax. And I have to say, KJ Huntelaar is class. I think he is the most complete striker in the whole world right now. I think he is better than Torres too! His finishing is cool as a Ronaldo penalty, his heading is powerful like Vidas and accurate like Rios, and his volleys are better than last seasons Drogba. But his best skill is to get away from his marker and still be in the best goalscoring positions. He would be an amazing buy. His negative: He doesnt work down in the field, but he makes up for it by being the best striker in the world right now. I think he has scored 7 hat-tricks this season! And he has more than 35 goals in 32 games in Holland.
The right back has been a problem. Brown will surely leave this summer, and Neville is still old. Two players that have gotten my view are Maicon and Lahm. We all have heard of Lahms qualities, but Maicon may be an unknown player to you. He is first choice right-back in Inter. He has is powerful, fast, got some tricks and great crosses…He is like a comination of Vidic and Evra. Not as good as both of them, but good enough to be our right back.
Havent found any CB that I think is good enough for United yet, but I will keep looking.
KJH: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3UXU7UqhsM
Benzema: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkvFU6QMrCo
Maicon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39zUJhGTGOk
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Grognard, which football experts mate? Andy gray agreed with me. It was still a good save, don’t get me wrong, but bendtner made it a hell of a lot easier for him.
You trust the views of a couple of football pundits but you’re quick to question SAF’s decisions. Hmm…
I’ve never been the biggest fan of huntelaar but you can’t argue with 35 goals. He just seems a bit immobile, too slow.
For right back i would still prefer a fit gary neville. I can’t see anyone better right now.
Anyone seen ezequiel lavezzi at napoli. He’s quite good, though he’s another forward who likes to drop deep and get involved in play so we probably aren’t looking for that kind of player. He works the wings well though, very quick and direct, and with excellent crossing ability.
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I trust a few pundits over your views Tevez. And Andy Gray is a tosser. He never even noticed the hand ball of Adebayour on his goal. Secondly, I don’t need the views of professional broadcasters to say that i disagree with you or to say that I feel you are wrong. And you are free to stick to your views. In time we will see who is right about Bendtner. Who knows, it may be you, but I rather doubt it. I will say this however. I think Bendtner has a bright future but I don’t think it’s with Arsenal. There are also quite a few guys who are better than a fit but still aging Gary Neville. Problem is that they will all cost quite a bit to get. If I see United go after another forward who plays like a winger or a midfielder I will have an embolism. Enough already. Get Huntelaar and end my misery.
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Gray did notice tha handball and made reference to it after the goal. It should be noted that not one of our players noticed the infringement and appealed after the goal.
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The angle on the field made it very difficult for the players or the referee to see but I think the linesman should have noticed it. And trust me, Fergie would have made a big stink of it after the game if we had drawn or lost. Regardless of whether he saw it or not, Andy Gray is rubbish.
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