The Soccer Blog: Manchester United - Arsenal (FA Cup) Preview

Friday, 11 March 2011

Manchester United - Arsenal (FA Cup) Preview

Manchester United – Arsenal (FA Cup) Preview - The Offside - Arsenal blog

« Wenger’s Fury & Looking At What Lies Ahead | Home | Manchester United – Arsenal (FA Cup) PreviewBy: Martin | March 11th, 2011
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Well, it’s time to put the Barcelona tie behind us and move on. And what better way to move on than with a trip to Old Trafford?

It’s been a weird FA Cup for us. We’ve made it to the quarterfinal, but we’ve actually played pretty poorly. We were drawn first against Leeds United. Drew the first leg at home 1-1, and had to play a replay, which we won 3-1. We then had Huddersfield Town, and held on to win that 2-1. Then we got Leyton Orient, drew the away leg 1-1, before demolishing them at the Emirates 5-0. So we’ve hardly been world-beaters.

But none of that matters now. Because we’re here, and if we’ve seen that this Arsenal team is capable of playing down to the level of lower opposition, we’ve also seen that it’s capable of raising its play to give any team in the world a match. So even though we’ve only done just enough to get here, we’ve done enough and we’re here, and the fact that we’ve underperformed up until this point in the competition can be put behind us.

But it’ll be a tough match. Manchester United have been pretty superb at home this year. They’re 17-3-0 in all competitions at Old Trafford, which is intimidating. On the other hand, their form is not at its best lately — they’ve lost 3 out of their last 5 in the league, barely beat non-League side Crawley Town at home in the last round of this competition, and had a dire 0-0 draw away to Marseille. And aside from the FA Cup implications, this match feels a bit like a prelude to the next 2 1/2 months, as we’re all set to square off for the title. Both teams will be looking to not only move on to Wembley stadium for the semifinal, but make a statement to the other that they mean business about winning the league.

And obviously when you say Arsenal and Manchester United in the FA Cup, it conjures up a lot of memories. Arsenal being badly outplayed, but somehow managed to keep it 0-0 and win on penalties. The five-minute cup final. And so on and so on. Ferguson and Wenger don’t like each other. We don’t like them. They don’t like us. There will always be a rivalry there, and having this kind of match in a knockout format gets the juices flowing.

This is normally the part of the preview where I talk about the opponent’s team and its strongest players. I don’t really see the point in doing that here — we know Manchester United all too well by this point. I’m not entirely sure what their injury situation is — Nani is definitely out, and given how he’s tortured us (and Almunia specifically) in the past, that’s a very good thing for us. One source I’m looking at says United’s injury list is: Nani, Ferdinand, Anderson, Owen, Evens, Hargreaves (shocker!), Valencia, and Park. Not entirely sure if that’s up to date or not, though.

In team news, the long-term guys are still out. Flaps, Vermaelen, Frimpong. Wojo is out (for 6 weeks apparently), Song is still out, Theo is still out, Cesc is back out again (don’t get me started…). But van Persie miraculously managed not to get himself hurt against Barcelona, so he’s back. Wenger has said he is going to field his strongest team against Manchester United, so here’s my best guess:

Almunia

Sagna-Koscielny-Djourou-Clichy

Wilshere-Diaby

Bendtner-Nasri-Arshavin

van Persie

Bench: Shea, Squillaci, Gibbs, Eboue, Denilson, Rosicky, Chamakh

I’m taking Wenger at his word, but it wouldn’t be totally surprising to see some rotation. But I think that’s the strongest lineup we can field. Almunia is all we have in goal, so he’ll start. Sagna and Clichy are our strongest fullback pairing, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Eboue or Gibbs get a start. I think we’ll see Djourou and Koscielny start.

In midfield, Jack will start again. Who starts alongside him? It has to be either Diaby or Denilson. I think it’ll be Diaby again — Denilson seems to be on the outs again. Also, I couldn’t figure out who to bump off the bench to include him, but Ramsey is healthy and available, as well. I think that based on what I heard about his performances for Nottingham and Cardiff, he’s not ready yet, but it wouldn’t be completely out of left-field to see him play in this one, although I still think his return will come at the Emirates after the break. In the advanced role, I’m picking Nasri, because I think he’s our best option, although Wenger seems bound and determined not to play him there. It could be Rosicky, or maybe Wilshere bumped forward, or maybe even van Persie pulled back behind Chamakh or Bendtner.

But I think it will be Bendtner on the right, van Persie up top, and Arshavin on the left. Chamakh or Rosicky could be involved as well. So who knows. There was some pretty vigorous debate in the comment threads after the Barca match about how fit and effective van Persie was, but he seemed to be moving okay, and his lack of impact on the match was probably down to Barca’s suffocating closing down as much as anything, as van Persie barely touched the ball and spent most of the match standing in the center circle observing proceedings. Let’s hope he is back, because he’s the kind of player who can score a wondergoal and really turn a tough match like this on its head.

It’s been a while since we beat Manchester United. Nasri’s brace led us to a 2-1 win on November 8, 2008. Since then, we’ve played them 6 times. Our record is 0-1-5 over those. And that 1 draw came when they only needed a draw to win the league, which they did. So I don’t take a lot of comfort from that result, either. So that’s not great. But we have outplayed them several times — we outplayed them in that 0-0 draw. We outplayed them at Old Trafford last year, until Diaby turned heel, WWE-style, and put a brilliant set piece header into his own net. I have to admit, Barcelona is a team that I never really felt we could hang with, but I don’t feel that way about Manchester United at all. We haven’t shown it in the past 2 years, but we can definitely beat these guys. And there would be no better confidence boost going forward in the FA Cup, and the league, than having proven that we can beat them on their home pitch.

It’s also kind of interesting in terms of fixture congestion and rotation policy. On the one hand, we had to play a Champions League match in midweek, and they didn’t, so they have a big advantage because they’re rested and have had a week to prepare. Advantage them. On the other hand, our CL is out of the way now, we don’t have another match for a week after this one, and so we have no real reason to rest anyone, whereas Manchester United have their match against Marseilles on Tuesday — and they managed to get a 0-0 result away, which isn’t too bad, but not getting an away goal may come back to bite them, so they’ll definitely need to focus on that match Tuesday to avoid getting knocked out. So they may have fresher legs and be more rested, but they also may be keeping one eye on Tuesday, whereas this is the only match on our minds at the moment. Advantage us.

It’s going to be a tough match. We know Manchester United will always give us a very tough match, and that any mistakes we make will be punished. But we have outplayed them several times at Old Trafford, our guys will be looking to put the recent disappointments behind them, and if we can get by them, we’re headed back to Wembley for the semifinal. What else is left to say? — this one doesn’t really need any hype. It’s been a little weird — the Barca stuff has distracted everyone and overshadowed this match, because I can’t ever remember an Arsenal – Manchester United match getting less build-up than this one. It’s Arsenal and Manchester United, for God’s sake — snap out of it, people, forget about Barcelona, we’ve got a chance to knock Manchester United out of a competition, put ourselves in great position to win a trophy, and let them know that we intend on returning to our rightful perch as league champs this season. You’d think that would be something people would want to talk about, instead of talking about van Persie’s sending off for the fourth consecutive day…

Not sure what else to say, really. It’s going to be really tough, and Champions League match or no, I can’t really see Fergie fielding a weakened squad against Arsenal at this stage of the competition. And I can’t see Wenger doing it, either, especially since everyone will have a full week to rest before traveling to West Brom. A win may be a tall order, but forcing a replay wouldn’t be a bad thing, either. I read somewhere (and this is not necessarily reliable, so take it with a grain of salt) that if we force a replay, it would have to be next weekend, because they want the semifinals set before the international break, which would mean that Manchester United would have to play us next weekend at the Emirates, coming off a Champions League match mid-week. That wouldn’t be a bad position for us, and if nothing else would allow us to push one more league match until after the break, when hopefully guys like Cesc, Theo, and Song are back fit again.

Television info. In the USA, it’s live on Fox Sports Channel and Fox Deportes. Canada, it’s live on Setanta. In the UK, live on ITV1.

And that’s it, really. Massive match-up, and if we can find a way to get through, it will put us in a good position to win the FA Cup, and serve notice to United that we think this is our year.

Victoria Concordia Crescit. Come on Arsenal.

And one final note — please keep the victims of the devastating earthquake and tsunamis in Japan and elsewhere in the Pacific Rim region and their families and loved ones in your thoughts and prayers. Really puts “tragic” events like losing a Carling Cup final and seeing van Persie wrongly sent off in perspective.

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Category: Arsenal News, FA Cup, Fixtures, Manchester United, Preview

Tags: Arsenal News, FA Cup, Fixtures, Manchester United, Preview
Tweet « Wenger’s Fury & Looking At What Lies Ahead | Home | GunnerlurkerMan U's site has Ferguson saying Valencia will not play and with Nani and Park out we really can't complain too much about our own injuries. My biggest concern is Diaby/Nasri/Arshavin/Bendtner is significantly less physical and defenisively minded than Song/Cesc/Nasri/Walcott. We will need even more defensive commitment from the wingers with Cesc and Song not in the middle, but if we can get the tracking back and challenges we need then we are in good shape. I know I will lose all credibility with some for saying this but I would consider starting Eboue instead of Bendtner or Rosicky. And I both agree entirely with Sairax's comment AND appreciate sincerely the very important perspective you add at the end of the post.MartinThanks. I feel like Song, in particular, weill be badly missed -- this is going to be a physical game where things could be pretty tight in midfield, and we'll miss having a guy to muscle some of United's players off the ball and help us win back possession. We don't really have anyone else who can do that like he does.Junichi Ezechiel BennettHi Martin, I think the goalless draw was on the Old Trafford pitch, if I remember it was just after the CL semi final and Evra's stupid comments over the men and the babies. In that game he got a few kicks, which was a great stuff to see !MartinGood catch -- you are absolutely right, and I fixed it. Thanks for pointing that out. I really must stop relying on my memory for these things, I am obviously slipping in my old age.SairaxGod, I want to win this game. I really, really want to beat them.Alex PresidioAs a member of a small band of Arsenal fans in a city of Man U and Chelsea fans I must say that I fear for my safety whenever I go to the only bar that shows EPL games. But my god I too want this victory.blog comments powered by Disqus