The Soccer Blog: Manchester United - Arsenal Preview: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Sunday, 12 December 2010

Manchester United - Arsenal Preview: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Manchester United – Arsenal Preview: Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger - - The Offside - Arsenal Football Club Blog

« Looking Ahead To A Clash with Old Rivals | Home | Manchester United – Arsenal Preview: Harder, Better, Faster, StrongerBy: Martin | December 12th, 2010

Manchester United

Position: 2nd, 8-7-0 (31 points, +19 goal differential)

Home Form: 7-1-0 (+18 goal differential)

Recent Form: WDDWW

Last Meeting: Arsenal 1 – Manchester United 3 (January 31, 2010)

Well, tomorrow is a huge, huge match that needs no build-up. This is a rivalry with such a contentious history and so many vivid moments that stick in the memory that just a few words can conjure up exactly where you were and how you reacted when it happened. The five-minute cup final. The points deduction brawl. Overmars beats Schmeicel. Keane & Vieira in the tunnel. van Nistelrooy’s penalty miss. Rooney’s dive. Pizza-gate. Lehmann and Vieira in penalty kicks. In recent years, there was Gibbs’s slip and Diaby’s own goal. And now that both teams are top of the table? Yeah, this is a big one.

And it won’t be easy. Manchester United are unbeaten in the league this season. And haven’t lost a league match in 20 fixtures. And while you can certainly say they have hardly looked unbeatable this season, they have looked pretty much unbeatable at home, going 7-1-0 at Old Trafford. Their attack at home has been lethal — they have scored at least 2 goals in every home league match, and 24 all together. With our shaky defense, that is a major, major concern.

If it’s any consolation, they have looked shakier at home in other competitions, like the Champions League. They went 1-2-0 in their 3 home matches in the Champions League, and did not score more than a single goal in any of the 3. So maybe that’s some hope. And while 4 out of their 8 home league matches have been clean sheets, they have shown some vulnerability — both Liverpool and West Brom (the only team to have gotten a point at Old Trafford this season) scored 2 goals there.

So they may be a bit vulnerable, but it will be very, very tough. I think it will be crucial for us not to concede early. United will come out looking to probe our defense and strike early, and given what we’ve seen from our team psychologically, I don’t feel at all confident that we wouldn’t let our spirit drop if we concede early. We just need to establish ourselves and get settled into our game, and from there anything can happen.

You know Manchester United team’s well enough that I don’t need to break it down much. Edwin van der Sar is an excellent keeper. Vidic and Ferdinand are one of the best, if not the best, center half pairing in the league (Ferdinand picked up a niggling injury that some were saying could keep him out of the match, but all reports are that he will play). Evra is certainly one of the top left-backs in the Premiership, and Rafael da Silva, while prone to the odd moment of idiocy (which he showed against Bayern in the Champions League last season), is still talented.

In midfield, the man who has been Manchester United’s most dangerous attacker this season, Nani, will be on the right. He’s been superb this season, leading the league in assists, and Clichy will have his hands full. If he has any “Clichy moments,” Nani will make us pay, as he did in the corresponding fixture last year when he scored, although Almunia did flap that one in a bit. He’s capable of both cutting the ball inside and shooting and delivering hard, pin-point crosses. And given that Clichy will almost certainly make a few mistakes out there, the “holding” midfielders and center halves need to keep their heads on a swivel and be prepared to cover for him.

His counterpart on the left will likely be Park, whose work rate helps them a lot defensively and who has played well against Arsenal in the past. In the center of the pitch, they have several guys they use, but it will probably be two of the group of Scholes (who is doubtful with an injury), Giggs, Fletcher, and Carrick. I continue to think this is Manchester United’s achilles heel, as I’m not sold on Carrick and Fletcher and think that Scholes and Giggs are limited by their age. I think this is an area where we could have an advantage so I hope we press it.

Up front, it’s pretty nailed on that Berbatov and Rooney will start. I really frakking hate Berbatov, but he is the Premiership’s leading goalscorer this season, so we need to be careful. Although it should be pointed out that he’s had a weird season for a “leading goalscorer.” 5 of his 11 goals alone came when Fat Sam’s Blackburn team decided to bend over and spread ‘em for the Mancs like they always do. He scored an admittedly-impressive hat-trick against Liverpool on September 19. But he didn’t score at all between September 19 and November 27, so while he’s talented and needs to be closely watched, he is a headcase that often drifts in and out of games.

As for Rooney, well, what can you say? He scored 34 goals in all competitions for Manchester United last season, and 26 in the league alone. He’s always given Arsenal fits, especially on the counterattack. But he hasn’t scored from open play since March, has had all kinds of problems with injuries, his personal life is a shambles due to his predilection for the members of the world’s oldest profession, and his head doesn’t seem right. I’d be lying if I said he still doesn’t scare the hell out of me, but if you have to play against Rooney, you probably couldn’t pick a much better time than the present. But it seems like a player like him that thrives on emotion may very well pull it together and bring his best efforts to a huge match like this.

As for team news for us, Almunia, Frimpong, Vermaelen, and Diaby are still out, although Diaby is supposedly nearing a return. Gibbs is out for another couple of weeks. Fabregas is facing a late fitness test, but I think that, given how long the season is and how many important matches we have coming up, we should rest him. He has a history of coming back too soon and exacerbating the hamstring problem, so unless the physios are 100% sure that his hamstrings are 100% healthy, I’d rather him sit this one out and try to get back for Stoke on Saturday.

Here’s my best guess at a lineup:

Flaps

Sagna-Koscielny-Squillaci-Clichy

Song-Wilshere

Theo-Nasri-Arshavin

Chamakh

Bench: Wojo, Eboue, Djourou, Denilson, Bendtner, Rosicky, van Persie

Flaps is pretty nailed on to start, as are Sagna and Clichy. Which brings us to the center half pairing. Squillaci has played every minute of every match, excluding the Carling Cup, since he’s joined the club. I don’t see that changing. Who will join him? Well, Wenger seems to prefer Koscielny, so I suspect he will be there, although he’s certainly given us plenty of worrying moments thus far. It’s a bit of a shame, because Djourou has really rounded into form and is playing well at the moment, and is bigger and stronger than the other two. Honestly, if it were me, I would think seriously about pairing Koscielny and Djourou — they’ve been paired together for all our Carling Cup matches, and have only conceded a single goal in 3 matches. Squillaci has been a decent pick-up, and I like his durability, but honestly, what has he done that deserves an automatic starting spot? His calling card is supposed to be his experience and organization, but I don’t see that our back-line is any better with him in the line-up. The last two goals Arsenal has conceded have been a result of his poor decision-making, and it’s fair to say that Manchester United will put us under a lot more pressure at Old Trafford than Fulham and Partizan put us under at the Emirates. Free Johan Djourou!

In midfield, I think that despite his recent good play, Denilson will start on the bench. Which means that it will be Wilshere and Song in the “holding” roles, and they will need to take those ironic quotation marks I just put around holding away. They need to focus on maintaining possession and shielding the backline; anything they can add going forward should be in the back of their minds. The easiest way to shut down Rooney is to deny him service. To that end, the fullbacks should be closing down the wingers, which often leads to wingers cutting in and necessitating one of the midfielders to get back and cover. And as I said, I am not convinced by United’s central midfielders; if Song and Wilshere play them tight and physical I think we can really shut down the link between backline and frontline. If that happens, Rooney will get frustrated and start dropping deeper and deeper into midfield to get the ball himself, which is exactly where we want him. United have also scored several counterattacking goals on us over the last few seasons due to Denilson jogging back when he should be running. Song and Wilshere need to watch tapes of that and make sure to bust it full-speed back when United break.

To RvP or not RvP? That is the question. I think if he starts it will change things around. If he plays, I suspect he will once again play in the “Cesc role,” which is where he has been playing lately, but the fact is he’s coming off his first 90+ minute performance in many many months midweek, and he has not been effective in that role. And I just don’t see Wenger pulling off a guy like Chamakh, who has been so good for us and has the physical strength and aerial skill to cause guys like Vidic and Ferdinand problems. I say he stays on the bench.

In the forward midfielder role, I think it will be Nasri, even though he hasn’t played there in a while. But it could be van Persie or Rosicky, too. I have Arshavin starting in his customary spot on the left, but given how United play, I wonder if that’s the best idea; Arshavin is crap at closing down and tracking back, and we could really use whoever is in that role to help try to shut down Nani. I wonder if it wouldn’t be better to have a guy like Nasri or even Theo out there. And after his good display midweek, I think Theo could get a start there. He has been effective against United in the past, and if nothing else he should pin back Evra to where he doesn’t get forward in the attack as much, which will help alleviate a lot of pressure United will try to pile on top of us. But if Rosicky or van Persie starts in the middle, then Nasri will almost certainly start on the right.

The situation is this. Manchester City beat West Ham, which puts them even with us on points, but we’re still ahead on goal differential (and the match tomorrow is a match in hand). United are one point behind us with a game against Blackpool in hand, so functionally you’d have to say they are ahead of us, although a win tomorrow will put us well and truly in first place.

I want this one so bad my stomach hurts. We’ve outplayed them several times in the last few seasons, and have let them off too easily. We were too soft, or lost concentration at a crucial moment, or just weren’t ready to grab the moment by the throat. But I’m sick of that — I’m sick of losing big matches and I’m sick of not winning trophies. Yes, we still have 21 matches after this one in the season, but we can make a statement here, that this Arsenal team is different. We’re tired of all the quips and jibes about pretty football but can’t win anything and five years without a trophy. And these guys aren’t THAT good. We’ve got the team to beat them — like my man Kanye says, we just need to be Harder. Better. Faster. Stronger. (h/t Sairax for the video)

We can do this. Come on Arsenal.

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Category: Arsenal News, Fixtures, Manchester United, Premiership, Preview, Video

Tags: Arsenal News, Fixtures, Manchester United, Premiership, Preview, Video
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