PL W FA Premier League

Arsenal 1:2 Manchester United

Post-match discussion

Sat, 22 November 2014

vi1lain said:
Did people complain this much when we played terribly under Fergie but still won? :wenger:

Bizarre reactions.

We won away to Arsenal with a back line of Smalling, McNair & Blackett.
We won.
And now we're in the top 4.

But crucially, we won and now we've taken 4 points out of 9 from Chelsea, City & Arsenal - it could be better, but it could've been a lot worse.
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This.

And let's be honest we were good for a point even with 10 men against City in my opinion, with 11 who knows. Against Chelsea as well especially in the first half we looked very good.

The good thing is even despite our terrible luck with injuries, another new manager and backroom staff, a large turn over of players in the summer coupled with the fact we haven't played anywhere near our potential with the quality of player at our disposal, we are still in the top four. That could be down to the fact that others around us have been equally as bad but we are currently in the driving seat and in my opinion have a good chance catching both Southampton and Man City.
 
Shocking first 35-40 minutes in which arsenal should have been 5-0 up but for poor finishing and a monster of a goalkeeper. We were a bit lucky that their chances fell to spastics like Wilshere and Mertesacker and also that Ramsey is way out of form. Ramsey if last year would have scored a hat trick.

Saying all that, I thought after that period we were the better team and deserved the win. Great to watch an in form Rooney combining with Di Maria.

Only negative for me - Blackett seems like a nice lad, but is one of the worst defenders I've ever seen at United (at first team level). I hope he kicks on but I suspect he should be moved on at the end of the year.
 
Wasn't a good performance but I'm just relieved we got three points out of that. Thank God for David De Gea, we easily could have been 2-0 or even 3-0 down at half time but lucky for us Arsenal were not very clinical and we had a beast in goal.
 
The reason we were so shit in midfield is because it was 2 against 3. I hate to say it, but RvP needs to be rested for a couple of weeks to give Herrera a run out.

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vi1lain said:
Did people complain this much when we played terribly under Fergie but still won? :wenger:

Bizarre reactions.

We won away to Arsenal with a back line of Smalling, McNair & Blackett.
We won.
And now we're in the top 4.

But crucially, we won and now we've taken 4 points out of 9 from Chelsea, City & Arsenal - it could be better, but it could've been a lot worse.
Click to expand...
I know, you'd think we lost :lol:

We just bet one of our main rivals for top 4, away from home, after they went 15 months unbeaten.
 
Hilarious result :lol: .. apart from a feck up for Di Maria and a once in a million strikers from Giourd it would've been 3-0 and the funniest thing about that is we were shite defensively, every ball lumped in on top of us we shat ourselves and when it came to them attack we stood off way too much afraid to tackle! Disgraceful disfensive display but feck it, a win is a win and it was a great win at that.
 
van Gaal had the team set out to do the best we could with the players available.

De Gea had a good game of course. But he did not have to make the wonder saves he did againt Everton for example. He did what any top keeper did. Narrowed the angles and got well behind the shots.

Arsenal were simply cack. They used to be a team with a soft center. Now they are just soft.

We played on the counter and should have won 3-0.

We were simply the better team.

....and all the ABU rewriting of history will not change that.
 
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I woke up this morning still laughing about the result. Insane game, hilarious! We had absolutely nothing on them, but Arsenal had their image to defend, and defend it they did. This was one of the biggest bottle jobs of a team that I have ever witnessed.

Happy with the result, obviously. After our spending spree in the summer, we fielded an absolute joke of a team, with the exception of RvP through no fault of our own. Thanks for the three points, I'll be off enjoying top4 and waiting for the next game. So far, so good.
Oh, and by the way, if Fellaini can keep up his newly found form as a half-decent midfielder, I won't be complaining too much.
 
Buzzing still after that result. Yes we seriously rode our luck in the first half but after that I though arsenal were lucky to escape only conceding 2 goals. Their attempt to throw every man and his dog forward should have been punished more.
 
TwoSheds said:
Shocking first 35-40 minutes in which arsenal should have been 5-0 up but for poor finishing and a monster of a goalkeeper. We were a bit lucky that their chances fell to spastics like Wilshere and Mertesacker and also that Ramsey is way out of form. Ramsey if last year would have scored a hat trick.
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Personally i thought it was only the opening 20 minutes where we looked really stretched, after that i thought we started to feel our way back into the game. And as for chances i can only really think of the Wilshere shot and Welbecks header where i was really worried. Outside that they had a lot of possession outside the box and a few shots but nothing that really worried us
 
I don't get all the negativity here. Everyone harping about how lucky we were and how without DDG it would've been 5:0 at half time. Were we really that lucky? Arsenal was on top for the first 25 minutes and so what - for all their domination they had only one clear cut chance, which Wilshire fecked up. The rest were shots from 20 yards or from the byline. I don't think DDG made any superb save the whole game - all the shots were right at him.

Our first and Arsenal's were both freak goals, so things are pretty even there, but lets count the clear cut chances during the game - Wilshire's miss, Rooney's goal, ADM's miss, Smallings's miss and Rooney's false offside, which would've put him one on one with the keeper. Out of the 5 clear cut chances one was Arsenal's and four ours. Add to that the fact there should've been a red card for the hard man Wilshire and the "we were lucky" line gets even more mindboggling. If anything Arsenal was the luckier team.

Come on, stop the negativity and enjoy - with a decimated squad we just beat a direct rival, away from home, after they've been 15 months unbeaten, to put us back in top 4. I can see only positives :)
 
Its funny, I felt they had the passes but not the finishing to punish us. We on the other hand had the finishing (Di Maria apart) but not the passing to finish them. The amount of through balls they played in behind us was very worrying.

There was a period just after we scored and it was all Arsenal, G Neville said "its been all Arsenal in the last 5 minutes but if United have anything about them they will score next". This was my exact same feeling and it was so frustrating that we couldnt get more goals on the counter. They went super gung ho as soon as we scored and left a criminal amount of space in behind. Our passing was just so bad on the day that we couldnt make more out of it. Lucky enough Fellaini and Di Maria sorted that out enough to combine for the second and killer goal.

A better counter attacking team (us a few years ago/madrid/dortmund) would have slotted in 3/4 goals against them in the second half.
 
Entirely nerve wracking, our defenders were all over the place, stating the obvious if de Gea wasn't in goal we would have been done & dusted. Credit to all involved for believing that we could get something from the game, now let's put a run together. Well played all
 
Has anyone mentioned this yet?

Wine thrown at Manchester Utd coach
United had just celebrated their first goal of the match, in what would turn out to be a 2-1 win for the team, when coach Louis Van Gaal and the rest of the staff were splashed with wine thrown by an angry Arsenal fan sitting behind them.
The fan was subsequently arrested after officials at the Emirates Stadium called on the stewards and used CCTV footage to track down the individual, who stands to receive a ban if charged with antisocial behaviour.

Both teams are labouring through the current season with Manchester United having clawed their way to fourth after a slow start to the season and Arsenal languishing at eighth.

It is not known if van Gaal is much of a wine lover although his famous predecessor at United, Sir Alex Ferguson, certainly is and earlier this year sold part of his wine collection in Hong Kong for over £2 million.
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http://www.thedrinksbusiness.com/2014/11/wine-thrown-at-man-utd-coach/

Only at Arsenal :lol:
 
Ferguson would of loved them throwing wine at him!
 
Positives - with a injury struck squad we beat a rival
- Rooney continues decent scoring form
- Fellaini had a reasonably good game again
- De Gea was brilliant
- Young did well when he came on
- Strategically counter attacks were quick and worked
- We're now top 4 after a difficult run - Huge positive

Negatives - Positionally we were terrible for 30 mins, and in the last 15 mins how we left so much space in midfield I'll never know, Arsenal played one square ball when we were theoretically backs to the wall but they still had 10 yards of space 30 yards from our goal. Shape wise we still need a lot of work
- RVP poor run of form continues
- Back line looked slow at times and got found out a bit
- First half still looked slow in attack when got to final third had no creativity
- Our second goal was our first shot on goal (tells a bit of a story)

Hopefully the team builds from here, but I wouldnt say this is the type of performance I want us to pursue against rivals, cos it could have been painful if Arsenal took some chances, obviously our fans would say it could have easily been 3-0 to us too. Overall 3 pts and we move on, and hope injuries start to clear.
 
SO many times, particularly during the first half, that I had my eyes wide open in disbelief that Arsenal had managed to let another good chance go begging. DDG was awesome as well and seemed impenetrable before the Giroud goal. Seemed inevitable when we got in 0-0 at half time that they'd go on to rue those missed chances. A week or so ago in the matchday thread I posted this:
LR7 said:
Buzzing now as I've just got two tickets for this. I hope our game plan isn't to try to outdo them possession wise. A similar approach to how his Dutch team played against Spain in the WC would be great (even if the result isn't as emphatic). After that game I remember LvG saying something about how he knew Spain would keep on attacking, and I feel Arsenal are somewhat similar, they only really play one way.
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I think it's a fair reflection of what happened. Arsenal killed themselves in a way by playing like we were mugs. The Rooney goal and the Di Maria miss are perfect reflections of this. They had 9-10 men in attacking positions ahead of the ball and got done on the counter. We should have been out of sight at 3-0 tbh yet they kept opening themselves up and attacking similar to how Spain did, and LvG knew the more that happened the more chances we would get as they were leaving more and more space at the back.

I'd never whinge about this result regardless of how scruffy we played. Do people think this is LvGs desired formation or that we would be playing like this if we had more players available? The injuries we have to contend with are ridiculous and people need to take this into account when reflecting on our performances atm. We are grinding out results by hook or by crook and it's understandable given the circumstances. We arent going to see considerable improvement in our playing style until the injury situation alleviates itself a bit and the manager has a bit more room for manoeuvre and a bit more of an opportunity to play an XI consistently. Until then any win just has to be good enough regardless of how we perform.
 
United rode their luck and won. It happens in football sometimes. Arsenal should look at themselves for all missed chances. All it matters is 3 points.
 
All the 'Arsenal should have been 3:0 up after 25 minutes' is bollocks too. Wilshere had a real goalscoring chance, however, the rest was De Gea making comfortable saves from speculative long-range shots. There was no other very good chance other than the Wilshere one, just typical Arsenal busying themselves doing feck all.
 
I can not believe how bad teams played, everything was done too fast, people were running a lot and that goes against playing the game of football properly. A match to forget.
 
We were poor for most of the game but considering the injuries it was always going to be tough and it was a bonus 3 points, Arsenal were awful as they failed to capitalise in that first half hour when our defence and midfield were all over the place. The longer the game went on the more likely it looked we could get a result and what a difference it made having some players who could actually counter attack with pace, finding more players with that attribute is essential.

We still don’t look like a good side though and table flatters us at the moment especially when one draw or defeat will so see us drop a few places, having said that if we can find some form we have a great opportunity to claim 4th spot and if we don’t capitalise on the poor form of our rivals we might regret it later on.
 
Scrappy away win with a mountain of injuries against one of our rivals, , had a few of those over the years , what more do you want?
This talk of "we might make 4th if we hit form"?!? Who could finish above us other than City and Chelsea - Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs? If we hit form am looking a bit higher up than 4th
 
Paul the Wolf said:
Scrappy away win with a mountain of injuries against one of our rivals, , had a few of those over the years , what more do you want?
This talk of "we might make 4th if we hit form"?!? Who could finish above us other than City and Chelsea - Liverpool, Arsenal, Spurs? If we hit form am looking a bit higher up than 4th
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Arsenal shot themselves in the foot and the win owed more to that than anything we did, it was a good result but that’s about it.

Why can’t any of those teams finish above us? They could all argue that their form can improve just as much as ours and why can’t Southampton? They have some tougher games but do they have much to fear playing us or Arsenal?

We are 4th but we are also level on points with Newcastle who were in the bottom 3 a few weeks ago and only a couple of points ahead of a big chasing pack, we could easily be 8th in a few weeks time. Until we find some form and consistency I think we won’t be looking higher for a while.
 
Roboc7 said:
Arsenal shot themselves in the foot and the win owed more to that than anything we did, it was a good result but that’s about it.

Why can’t any of those teams finish above us? They could all argue that their form can improve just as much as ours and why can’t Southampton? They have some tougher games but do they have much to fear playing us or Arsenal?

We are 4th but we are also level on points with Newcastle who were in the bottom 3 a few weeks ago and only a couple of points ahead of a big chasing pack, we could easily be 8th in a few weeks time. Until we find some form and consistency I think we won’t be looking higher for a while.
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With the teams we have been able to put out this season we haven't done that bad to be 4th at present - and fortunate in a way that other than Chelsea and Southampton all teams have had indifferent results, but we have much more scope to push on now and this result was the most important however ugly it was.
As much as I like Southampton I believe by the New Year they will not be where they are now, Newcastle are just as likely to lose 5 in a row as they have won 5 in a row. I believe we have a better squad than all our "rivals" excluding City and Chelsea and see no reason why with a settled defence we couldn't go on a long run.
Frankly I would be extremely disappointed not to finish at least 3rd
 
At the first half, our 3-man-defence left us quite exposed and made it difficult for us to play our football.

However, in the second, half, as we reverted to something like a 4-3-3, we were more structured and tougher to break down (only after we scored, though). Blackett looked more comfortable in the left back role as did Valencia in his right back role, and Fellaini was very useful in breaking down Arsenal's attacks with his aggression and tenacity whilst we had a good shape about us. In the end, with the few shots that we had, we were still able to see out Arsenal due to Wenger's naive approach to this match.

Carrick doesn't have the legs that the Arsenal players have, and it showed with how easily he was closed down and how often we were forced to hoof it forward. Having said that, though, he should have had more support from another midfielder so that he could have some more space to distribute the ball with. I bet that even Blind would have struggled to play the ball given how our back 3 and defensive midfielder were completely separated from Fellaini, the wing backs, and our attacking players. This is where Herrera would have been more useful.
 
TwoSheds said:
Shocking first 35-40 minutes in which arsenal should have been 5-0 up but for poor finishing and a monster of a goalkeeper. We were a bit lucky that their chances fell to spastics like Wilshere and Mertesacker and also that Ramsey is way out of form. Ramsey if last year would have scored a hat trick.

Saying all that, I thought after that period we were the better team and deserved the win. Great to watch an in form Rooney combining with Di Maria.

Only negative for me - Blackett seems like a nice lad, but is one of the worst defenders I've ever seen at United (at first team level). I hope he kicks on but I suspect he should be moved on at the end of the year.
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I hope you are a script writer for Michael Bay.
 
5-0 is an exaggeration, but that first 30 minutes was appalling. We could quite easily have been 2 or 3 down.
 
Micha said:
I woke up this morning still laughing about the result. Insane game, hilarious! We had absolutely nothing on them, but Arsenal had their image to defend, and defend it they did. This was one of the biggest bottle jobs of a team that I have ever witnessed.
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:D
This is a brilliant quote.
I'd love to sign up to an Arsenal forum and post this. I'd probably get lynched.

Micha said:
Happy with the result, obviously. After our spending spree in the summer, we fielded an absolute joke of a team, ...
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Falcao
Blind
Shaw
Rojo
Herrera.

All injured.
Only Di Maria has survived.

Shocking.
 
Lawro's prediction
"Long injury list or not, Manchester United just do not have the players to go to Emirates Stadium and sit there and be hard to beat. This looks like being an open game, which will suit Arsenal, and I do not know how United are going to cope with in-form Gunners striker Alexis Sanchez."


feck off you cnut
 
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