Another defeat to blog about. Yippee! Shit, I forgot that sarcasm is lost on the Internet. Anyway this is the one match I dread each year. Last years 8-2 defeat will be hard to beat but this game, despite the scoreline being more generous gave me just as much to be frustrated about as a Gooner. In all honesty Man Utd were not that good themselves, we were just worse.
The game got off to the worst possible start when Robin Van Persie scored after two minutes after a mistake from Thomas Vermaelen saw his half arsed clearance (and that's being generous) fall straight to him and he slotted in the far corner. We all knew he would probably score. If you had bet your house on him scoring you would have only got an extra 50p back on top, such were the odds. Arsenal never took the handbrake on to be honest Utd didn't do a great deal either until the end of the half when Cazorla was judged to have handled in the area. The Spanish midfielder was clearly trying to block his face from being hit by the ball but at Old Trafford you can't get away with anything in your own box. Up stepped Wayne Rooney who hilariously put it wide.
That wasn't enough to boost Arsenal in the second half. We had a bit more of the ball but still couldn't muster a shot on target. Valencia missed an open goal for Man Utd who did eventually make it two. Mannone made a great save after an offside Van Persie tried to place a shot past him but moments later Evra nodded in a cross after the resulting short corner. Cleverly and Wilshere were both booked in the match and both were looking in danger of being sent off. Ferguson swiftly took Cleverly off for Anderson but Wenger kept on Wilshere and the young Englishman was sent off by card happy Mike Dean for a second yellow card. Some people may blame Wenger for this but you can't take off every player on a yellow. Wilshere should have known better. He will now miss the Fulham match.
Arsenal finally had a shot on goal after 92 minutes, Giroud had one saved at close range and a couple of minutes later Santi Cazorla scored an unlikely consolation goal with a nice finish into the top corner. Once again we went to Old Trafford and came away with nothing. It wasn't so much the result that frustrated as the lack of passion, energy and drive from our players. They just never got going a midfield of Wilshere, Cazorla and Arteta who are on paper at least better than the Utd midfield should be creating chances. No shot on target until the 92nd minute is appalling. I don't know what has happened to my club since the international break but they just look lazy. I don't agree with the tactics we keep insisting on using either. That itself if worthy of a future blog post.
Credit to the away fans who were in fine voice throughout as always. I didn't like a couple of certain chants towards Van Persie despite them being deserved. The C word definitely shouldn't be used at any football match as there are young children present and the 'She said no' chant is tedious and boring. Still I can't help but love hearing our away fans drown out home fans at almost every away match. Not a hard thing to do at Old Trafford though. The fans will have a long trip back to London as will the traveling Arsenal fans. See what I did there?
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