I think he's referring to the FA Cup.
FA Premier League
Manchester United 2:1 Arsenal
Old Trafford
- Kick-off
- Sun, 29 April 2018 @ 4:30pm BST
- Status
-
Closed
Discussion Your Lineup Prediction
-
- Status
This has nothing to do with the game but can someone help me out with something? Percentage wise roughly how many people in Manchester support City and how many support United? My brother and I have a difference of opinion on this.
I can't give you a strict percentage, but I would say that City are not even the 2nd biggest club in Manchester. Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool have big followings here as well.
Some people forget that Manchester is a multi-cultural city. Lots of people in Manchester are immigrants and migrants that settled down here.
If I were to guess, I would say that about half the support is for United, while 10% is for City. The remaining 40% is for other clubs.
Maybe 10-20% support City I'd guess considering any time I'm in Manchester, you rarely meet a City local.
Thanks for your reply, I appreciate it
Thanks very much for your reply
FA Cup Semi. Wasn't specifying all EPL, just consecutive head to heads.It's funny how the fixtures have panned out, our last 7 games of the season are all against sides from the South, Watford being the closest.
- Bournemouth(a)
- Spurs(*)
- Arsenal(h)
- Brighton & HA(a)
- West Ham(a)
- Watford(h)
- Chelsea(*)
No its not important to beat them. THis result will have no bearing on our FA cup final and the next season. If there has been any meaningless game for us, then this is the one.
What's so funny? Honestly, I'm there twice a year which is usually a drunk fueled lads holiday so you get talking to all sorts. City or United always comes up in conversation and I've only met 2 City fans, a bouncer and a lad who works in a pub up the road from Wetherspoons
Is Valencia fit for this?
Expect a 433, maybe Rashford or Martial in the left Sánchez in the left.
Seems like only Romero going by the press conference. Still not very certain given these journalists hack never press on game related things.
I don't understand your formation though.
What I expect
Sánchez - Lukaku - Lingard
Pogba - Herrera
Matic
Young - Smalling - Bialy - Valencia
Ddg
What I want
Martial - Lukaku - Sánchez
Pogba - Herrera
Matic
Young - Smalling - Bailly - Valencia
DDGHalf expect to lose this. The way this season has been, every time we've gotten confident, in very good spirits, expecting a nice easy win even though it's Arsenal (though it is arsenal...), we've lost. Lost to Sevilla after those big wins and just beating Liverpool. Lost to West Brom right after beating City away. Got hammered to Spurs then lost to Newcastle right after we were on a very good run of form, and then signed a world class player in Sanchez so everybody was fully optimistic. Also with it being Wenger's last game against us... slight feeling he'll finally get something against United and Mourinho when it doesn't really matter for much.
Saying that... we really should win this one by a few goals and without many worries. They have nothing to play for and are fully focused on the Europa League semi finals, we are at Old Trafford, full of confidence (or should be), have everyone fit and only relatively important game until the FA Cup final. Don't feck it up.
Sanchez to get 2 goals, Lukaku 1 in a 3-0 win.
De Gea
Valencia Smalling Jones Young
Herrera Matic Pogba
Lingard Lukaku Sanchez
Interesting game this one, lots of talking points:
- Potentially Arsene's last trip to Old Trafford as an opposition manager (at least for Arsenal). He won't want to lose, the man has too much pride and arrogance about him. However, I think they have to rest players.
- Arsenal have a tough trip to Atletico just a few days later which can basically define their season. To Arsenal, it's much more important to win that game and they know they probably need to go there and score at least two goals if they want to progress (which they couldn't even do against a 10-man Atletico side). They'll need everything they have to get to that Europa League Final, but if they get there then I'm almost certain they'd win it, hence it's their most important game of the season.
- Their Premier League away record in 2018 is abysmal, while we have one of the best home records. However, their away record in the cup games is pretty good (their only away defeats in cup competitions all season were against FC Koln & Nottingham Forest). They can play on this confidence, but it's more of a reason why they can believe they'll best Atletico rather than ourselves.
- Regardless of what happens here and in Madrid, Arsenal have Burnley at the Emirates to play still. So, even in a worst-case scenario, they have the chance to put to bed any potential embarrassment of Burnley finishing above them in a Premier League season.
- Despite Arsenal's shortcomings, this is probably our best chance of a 'dress rehearsal' against a bigger side before the FA Cup Final. Expect Jose to pick his best side and the one he expects to pick for the Chelsea game even though he won't admit that. He is definitely managing his squad for that game as early as now.
Hope we put them to the sword to send Arsene off in proper style.Didnt we play Arsenal in the latter stages of last season and Jose publicly said that its a write off game. He is not focussed on Top 4, Europa league only.
As the tables have turned it will be interesting to see Wengers approach
This would be the correct way to send Wenger, off into retirement.Probably Arsenal will play their second choices bar Auba and Cech, a comfortable win for us. Premier League is over btw, so whateverI think they'll be making some changes. A guess of their team would be:
CechWe should be able to beat this team.
Chambers--Mustafi--Holding--Kolasinac
Xhaka--Elnenny--Willock
Iwobi--Aubameyang--Welbeck
Hope we're not complacent because of two games in hand over the scousers. I'd like to beat Arsenal and give Wenger a respectful farewell.
Good question
Cheers for the perspective. I've been to Manchester once to watch United and that corroborates my experience through the city. Granted that's one visitors experience, I'm gladly going to pump this information through the US whenever I see City fans, regardless of it's avcuracy.
Was that the season that Vidic and Van Der Sar played every minute when we broke the record for consecutive games/minutes without conceding a goal ?What a midfield four it was! Da Silva twins on either flank with Gibson and O'Shea in the center. Awesome match. But that defense and GK was a class unit, yet not even first choice, but bordering on it!!
No. That was 08/09.
That picture is 10/11.2nd is all but assured for us. We have a good cushion.
Now these games should just be a marker for next season. Beating Arsenal would be great and it shouldn't be difficult considering they will have one eye on the Europa.Hope Arsene gets some sort of sign of respect from the match going fans. For all he was at his pomp he was great manager and pushed Fergie and United to even greater heights.
This ..
He is in need of a last old trafford drubbing.RedCafe must be in good spirits. Going by the score prediction, it looks like more than 90% of us think we're beating Arsenal, myself included.
The State of PlayTelecast Schedule and Info
............VS.............
Date - Sunday, April 29 2018
Kickoff Time - 1630 Hrs BST
Venue - Old Trafford, Manchester
League standings and form guide
2. Manchester United: WWWLW
6. Arsenal: WWWLW
Previous Meetings
Arsenal 1—3 Manchester United
Arsenal 2—0 Manchester United
Manchester United 1—1 Arsenal
Manchester United 3—2 Arsenal
Arsenal 3—0 Manchester United
All-Time League Record
Manchester United wins: 82
Arsenal wins: 69
Draws: 46
Pre-Match Pressers
José Mourinho
Arsène Wenger
Team News
Manchester United
Sergio Romero ruled out. Eric Bailly doubtful.
Arsenal
Mohamed Elneny and Santiago Cazorla ruled out. Henrikh Mkhitaryan doubtful.
Know the opposition
Arsenal Football Club (also known as The Gunners), are a professional football club based in Holloway, London. In late 1886, a gaggle of workers from the Woolwich Arsenal Armament Factory decided to form a football team. They called themselves Dial Square as a reference to the sundial atop the entrance to the factory. On December 11, 1886, Dial Square romped to a 6-0 victory over Eastern Wanderers; the first game in their initial guise. Shortly afterwards the name ‘Royal Arsenal’ was adopted. Today, Arsenal are one of the most successful and popular clubs in the history of the English league, with a trophy haul than includes 13 League titles, 12 FA Cups, and 2 League Cups.
When Henry Norris decided that Arsenal needed a new manager in the summer of 1925, he could never have anticipated the impact of his next appointment. After flirting with relegation in the previous season, Chapman set about reinventing the Club with almost immediate effect, and in a broader sense helped move football from the amateur era into a professional one. In his first season at Highbury, the new manager steered the Gunners to an FA Cup Quarter Final and a second-place finish in the First Division; the highest league placing in their history. And unlike many of his contemporaries in Britain, Chapman was a fan of the continental game and counted among his friends Hugo Meisl and Jimmy Hogan, coaches of the Austrian Wunderteam of the 1930s.
In the mid '90s, they appointed another visionary in Arsène Wenger with former vice-chairman David Dein bringing him to the club in 1996 - Dein actually wanted to appoint him a year earlier before Bruce Rioch but the old school board did not want a foreign manager - and the next 20 years have been a remarkable and unforgettable period in the club’s history - with Arsenal building a reputation for playing an attractive, streamlined style of football that rivals some of the best teams in Europe while winning three league titles and seven FA Cups and boasting the likes of Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Vieira, Robert Pirès, Cesc Fàbregas and Robin Van Persie in their ranks.
The club plays its home games at the Emirates Stadium, and has a bitter sporting rivalry with neighbors Tottenham Hotspur in a match termed the North London Derby, apart from a competitive rivalry against the other major clubs of the Premier League, especially Manchester United - in an affair that peaked in the late 1990s to early 2000s period.
Familiar Faces
Daniel Welbeck (at United from 2001-2014)
Referee
.
We are in a very good position to get the 2nd place Mourinho is after, 6pts from the remaining 12 available should be enough, with this game against Arsenal the hardest game on paper left for United to deal with. The pressure is not too high, but with he FA Cup final in the bank the focus can be on getting the job done in the league before we start to prepare for the Chelsea game on May 19th. Arsenal are there to be beat, their motivation for this game won’t be as strong as normal because they will be targeting success in the Euorpa league. They are in the same boat as United were in last season, "The Gunners’ season has been similar to our last season [in 2016/17]. I think when you fight to try to win in Europe, you are a bit punished in the league. Probably, without the ambition to win the Europa League, they would have a few more points and they would be fighting more for the fourth position. But, in the same way we did last season, I think they put everything in the Europa League to try to win it and that’s why they are in the semi-final and still have a second leg to fight for [against Atletico Madrid].” Mourinho said in his pre-match press conference. United should be in confident mood after last weekends win over Tottenham, they should be fresher physically and mentally than Arsenal after having time off this week. “We have had a good week since Wembley. Mourinho added “For the players, better than for me because they had more time off than I did but that’s just the nature of the job and I think they deserve that little rest. The majority of them, after the last match [against Chelsea in the FA Cup final], they will go to their national teams and to the World Cup, so to have a couple of days without football, I think it was nice for them. They come [back] mentally fresh, happy and ready to get that point we need to finish fourth and the seven points we need to finish second [in the Premier League] and ready to go to that final.” The problem is you never know what United will turn up, for every performance like they produced against City there has been a performance like we saw against West Brom. This United team needs to mature mentally and it is something they are aware of, Paul Pogba insists it’s vital that the performance level remains high. “It was an objective of ours to be in the final in the cup. We had a very good result and a very good performance,” Pogba told MUTV. “That was the performance we were looking for, and the mentality and the teamwork we are looking for until the end of the season.”
The Tactics
It will be interesting to see how much Wenger rotates for this game. Arsenal understandably must focus on their match with Atletico in the Europa League on Thursday, but this will be Wenger’s last match at Old Trafford and he won’t want to get another 6-1 or 8-2 hammering. He's likely to bring in Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang upfront, because he's cup-tied for European competition and doesn't need to be rested. Aubameyang has had a mixed start to life upfront, but has the speed to cause serious problems. Mourinho will ask the team to defend closer to the penalty area allowing space in midfield rather than push up the pitch and press which would allow space in-behind. I would expect Ozil to be rested, so I think we could see Iwobi, Welbeck and Ramsey line-up behind the striker. Arsenal will certainly carry a counter-attack threat with those three. Welbeck and Iwobi are powerful runners and could cause Valencia and Young problems, both have been solid this season, but lack the spped of their younger years. Ramsey can charge forward excellently which will test Matic who has looked rather immobile as the season has progressed. There are fewer better players in the Premier League at timing runs to the edge of the box than Ramsey so Matic will have to track his runs.
Mourinho is unlikely to deviate from the 4-3-3 system which has worked well recently, with Paul Pogba playing from the left of midfield. This should be the type of game that Pogba grabs by the scruff of the neck and dominates. United should get a grip on midfield against an Arsenal side likely to lack attacking threat from that zone. Ramsey doesn't offer control and isn't particularly imaginative with his passing, Mohamed Elneny is out, so Arsenal are struggling for numbers in the centre of midfield. Granit Xhaka may retain his place, perhaps with youngster Joe Willock making his second start of the campaign with Jack Wilshere rested. United do have a well-balanced midfield trio. Matic offers defensive quality and positive distribution, Ander Herrera offers mobility, tactical intelligence and the odd bit of creative, and those two provide a decent base for Paul Pogba to push further forward. Pogba now has no excuses for not shining but it remains to be seen whether he steps up.
Defensively, Wenger does have options. Calum Chambers, Rob Holding and Sead Kolasinac should all feature. He'll need to find another defender from somewhere - Ainsley Maitland-Niles may deputise. The changes should mean Arsenal’s defensive cohesion suffers. Eve with their first-choice defence Arsenal are generally vulnerable to the counter-attack in big matches. Granit Xhaka's positioning is questionable, while the centre-backs both become tempted forward out of their positions too easily and the full-backs Hector Bellerin and Nacho Monreal continually get themselves into poor positions to defend quick breaks. Arsenal, you suspect, are there for the taking -Alexis Sanchez will play wide-left and will presumably be particularly keen to get himself onto the scoresheet against his former club. Expect Romelu Lukaku to lead the line, and while Jesse Lingard is in good form and seems likely to start the cup final on the right, Mourinho will probably take the opportunity to give minutes to Marcus Rashford, with Juan Mata and Anthony Martial also in the picture. It's United's counter-attacking speed that will be most dangerous, but in stable possesiion we are still dependiant upon individuals for our attacking play.
The Line-Up
Subs - J.Pereira, Lindelof, Darmian, Fellani, Mata, Lingard, Martial.
Mustafi, Koscielny, Wilshere, Ramsey, Özil and Lacazette are not in the squad.
Elneny injuried - Mkhitaryan probably in the squad again after his injury.3-0. You just know how irrelevant Arsenal are when Mourinho is giving Wenger high praise.Love to see Martial Rashford and Sanchez as our front 3 but it will mostly be Lukaku and Lingard.Last edited by a moderator:I'm more threatened by them not having Koscielny and Mustafi against us.
Tbf that’s because he is leaving
Or probably has got to do with the fact that it will be Wenger's last game as Arsenal manager at OT.Hector Bellerin
Reiss Nelson
Eddie Nketiah
Jordi Osei-Tutu
Danny Welbeck
Petr Cech
Calum Chambers
Alex Iwobi
Konstantinos Mavropanos
Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Joe Willock
Granit Xhaka
Sead Kolasinac
David Ospina
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
Ainsley Maitland-Niles
Rob Holding
This is the squad apparently. Look at the state of that. Please Jose, for once just go for the kill. Show them no mercy.
I think we will. We went for the kill in the away game even though we were pretty defensive against pool and Chelsea. I doubt mkhi will start either. Just back from injury. Though he is better for us while startingDe Gea
Valencia Smalling Jones Young
Herrera Matic Pogba
Lingard Lukaku Sanchez
Subs: Pereira, Darmian, Lindelof, McTominay, Fellaini, Martial, Rashford
Would like to see Darmian (I know) and Shaw for Valencia and Young but I think that's unlikely. With 2nd place all but secure I guess we might see a bit of rotation in some places though, probably an easy win whoever we put out given they'll be resting players for the Europe League.Would be brilliant if Sanchez can turn it on and score a few against Arsenal. That will shut up the Arsenal fans who say they got the better deal with the swap.- Status
Man of the Match
Runners-up
-
18%
Victor Lindelof
-
14%
Nemanja Matic
-
13%
Marouane Fellaini
-
11%
Anthony Martial
-
7%
Ashley Young
-
3%
Alexis Sanchez
-
2%
Ander Herrera
-
2%
David de Gea
-
2%
Romelu Lukaku
-
1%
Chris Smalling
Player Ratings
Total Average Rating
Highest Rated Player
Lowest Rated Player
Compiled from 327 ratings.
Score Predictions
404,13,24
- Man Utd win
- Arsenal win
- Draw
Detailed Results
- 29% Man Utd 2:0 Arsenal
- 17% Man Utd 3:1 Arsenal
- 16% Man Utd 2:1 Arsenal
- 14% Man Utd 3:0 Arsenal
- 4% Man Utd 4:0 Arsenal
- 3% Man Utd 1:0 Arsenal
- 3% Man Utd 4:1 Arsenal
- 3% Man Utd 5:0 Arsenal
- 2% Man Utd 1:1 Arsenal
- 2% Man Utd 0:0 Arsenal
- 1% Man Utd 3:2 Arsenal
- 1% Man Utd 2:2 Arsenal
- 1% Man Utd 1:2 Arsenal
- 1% Man Utd 0:5 Arsenal
- 0% Man Utd 5:1 Arsenal
- 0% Man Utd 1:3 Arsenal
- 0% Man Utd 0:1 Arsenal
- 0% Man Utd 0:2 Arsenal
- 0% Man Utd 4:2 Arsenal
- 0% Man Utd 4:3 Arsenal
- 0% Man Utd 5:5 Arsenal
Match Stats
- Man Utd
- Arsenal
- Possession
- 59% 41%
- Shots
- 16 8
- Shots on Target
- 3 3
- Corners
- 9 0
- Fouls
- 12 7
Referee
Kevin Friend
Man Utd Lineup
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
replaced by Marouane Fellaini
-
replaced by Anthony Martial
-
-
-
replaced by Marcus Rashford
