The Soccer Blog: Arsenal - Manchester United

Saturday 30 April 2011

Arsenal - Manchester United

Arsenal – Manchester United - The Offside - Arsenal blog

« Wenger’s Pre-United Press Conference; Verma Back For Reserves Match | Home | Arsenal – Manchester UnitedBy: Martin | April 30th, 2011
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Manchester United

Position: 1st, 21-10-3 (73 points, +39 goal differential)

Away Form: 5-9-3 (+5 goal differential)

Recent Form: WWWDW

Last Meeting: Manchester 2 – Arsenal 0 (March 12, 2011) (FA Cup)

Remember when this was the “match of the season” and something we were looking forward to, rather than kind of dreading?

Well, not so much any more, eh? After a monumental collapse after the win over Barcelona, we’re now just more or less playing out the string, trying to make sure we finish in the top 3. Fans are already more interested in which players will be jettisoned and which players will be brought in than the results of these last few matches.

But pride is at stake, and it’s Manchester United, and a good result tomorrow will bring us a measure of salvation and something to build on and feel good about going into the final run-in and offseason.

I’ll be honest — this will be a short preview. I just don’t have a great deal to say. I’m still so disappointed by the way we’ve thrown this season away. Realistically, we don’t have that much to play for. I am worried that if this collapse continues we could find ourselves in a real dogfight with Manchester City for 3rd place. They are 5 points behind us with a match in hand and a lot of momentum. They’ve got West Ham at home tomorrow, a match you’d really fancy them to win. So if they win, and we don’t, and they win their match in hand, they’ll be even or slightly ahead of us on points, which is hardly inconceivable. And it really would be a shame for us to ruin what was a pretty decent 6 months from August-February with a terrible last three months, only to find ourselves trophyless and fourth place again.

The major drawpoint from that, practically, would be having to play an extra two matches just to get into the Champions League group stages. We could find ourselves in the position of having to play a team like Villareal, Lazio, Lyon, or, worst case scenario, Bayern, just to get into the group stage, with 30 million or so pounds in CL revenue at stake. If nothing else we could avoid the extra fixtures that early in the season. So let’s avoid that, shall we?

If nothing else, I think certain players may really be playing for their jobs. Guys like Almunia, Squillaci, Eboue, Denilson, Diaby, and Rosicky have been pretty disappointing this season and may very well be on the way out — but a couple of good performances here at the end of the season could sway Wenger one way or the other. It will be interesting to see if any of those guys get a run out in these last 4 matches, and if so, how they do.

Other than that, I’m not sure what to say — Arsenal and Manchester United is always a big rivalry, it’s always a big match, and at the very least it would be nice to throw a wrench in their coronation parade. Plus, it’s fun when they lose, and it would make us feel a lot better about our team.

In team news, we’re actually pretty fit for this point in the season. Diaby and Flaps are out. Vermaelen is actually fit, but given that he played his first competitive match in a long, long time on Thursday for the Reserves, and I can’t imagine Wenger would throw him into the fire so quickly. It is good to see him back, though, and I expect we will see him back in match action before the start of the season. Rosicky apparently has some sort of illness, and may or not be fit. Here’s my best guess at a lineup:

Wojo

Sagna-Djourou-Koscielny-Clichy

Wilshere-Song

Walcott-Cesc-Nasri

van Persie

Bench: Lehmann, Squillaci, Eboue, Ramsey, Arshavin, Bendtner, Chamakh

Wojo is the man in goal. I think we’ll see Sagna and Clichy at full back, and Djourou and Koscielny filling out the rest of the backline.

In midfield, I think we’ll see Song and Wilshere, and Cesc in the advanced role. It’s hard for me to really see anyone else starting there, although it will be interesting to see who makes the bench, because I’m not sure there will be room for both Ramsey and Denilson. Frimpong is technically back, too, we could see him make at least the bench for a match before the end of the season.

Up front, I think we’ll see the other 3 of the Theo van Nasregas foursome. Arshavin could see some time, too, but I think Wenger has gotten pretty set in the idea that if those four guys are healthy, Arshavin comes off the bench.

I guess it could be interesting to see if there are any changes to the formation or tactics — Wenger has gotten pretty set in the 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 we’ve used all season virtually without exception, but I know a lot of fans (including many of you commenters) who would really like to see us move to a more conventional 4-4-2. I guess it wouldn’t completely surprise if Wenger experimented a bit between now and the end of the season, but I can’t really see it happening tomorrow against Manchester United.

Speaking of that, it will be interesting to see what kind of tactics they use. They’ve generally had us pretty much figured out the last several times we’ve played — jam up the middle with good defenders and defensive midfielders, play a single striker up top, and hit us quickly on the counter by moving the ball quickly out wide or a long ball over the top. It’s worked like a charm against us the last 3 seasons, but with United playing so well with Hernandez and Rooney playing together up top, it’ll be interesting to see if they may try to be more attacking tomorrow.

They’ve had our number in recent years, although there have been several times we have outplayed them. Unbelievably, there’s a very legitimate chance of them winning the double, because I think they actually haven’t been that impressive this year.

Will the slide continue, or will we pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, play for pride and actually put in a good performance? We’ll see.

Come on Arsenal.

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

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