Arsenal 2:0 Manchester United

Valar Morghulis said:

Luke Shaw is a poor man's John O'Shea - Change My Mind

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Thats insulting to John Oshea tbh. Sheazy was good with both feet, always committed and never 3 stone overweight during a season.

Regarding movement; Lingard, who apparently excels at this, had yet another shocker. Some interesting comments from Giggs, that when United were in possession, Lingard would run towards the ball, thus, closing down and crowding the ball instead of holding his discipline/position and finding space in his position as a result of stretching them. He was actually doing the Arse defenders jobs for them by playing like an 11 year old, following the ball.

Also interesting that Ozil chose this game to cover more ground than he has done in the past five years. Not saying this in defence or criticism but teams and players clearly lift their games vs United. Probably always have but this lot are so. fecking spineless, they can’t rise to it.

Denis' cuff said:

Regarding movement; Lingard, who apparently excels at this, had yet another shocker. Some interesting comments from Giggs, that when United were in possession, Lingard would run towards the ball, thus, closing down and crowding the ball instead of holding his discipline/position and finding space in his position as a result of stretching them. He was actually doing the Arse defenders jobs for them by playing like an 11 year old, following the ball.

Also interesting that Ozil chose this game to cover more ground than he has done in the past five years. Not saying this in defence or criticism but teams and players clearly lift their games vs United. Probably always have but this lot are so. fecking spineless, they can’t rise to it.

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Ozil and Aubameyang have been working overtime in the last couple of matches as well. It's more to do with following Arteta instructions rather than them raising their games for utd. Both of them covered the max distance in our team.

My boss, who is an Arsenal season ticket holder, thought Lingard was our best player yesterday and was the player most likely to cause them trouble. He was happy when he was substituted.

Did anyone else think this? How about our resident Arse fans?

I said we'd be happy to sell him to them.

The real worry about the first half was the simple errors; the misjudgement of simple passes; no idea of positional play, chasing shadows, on top of that lethargy in movement. Balls played forward were at a premium. Fred and Matic laboured manfully in midfield but neither had the room or awareness to hit balls to the front runners, who were merely ambling into position, the movement was abysmal.

Ole got his tactics wrong, if they were playing Kolasinac who had come back early from ankle injury then the attacks were going to come down the right flank and good though he is AWB couldn't handle Aubameyang who drew him away and Kolasinac who exploited the space, on his own. James was powerless to help and for a while it didn't register with him that he was the only player beside AWB on the righthand side and hence therefore was supposed to do!

Normally, our greatest asset is the speedy counter attack, but it never really materialised until the last quarter of the game, but by then Arsenal had it all sown up.

Solskjær is desperate for Lingard to find the form he had under Solskjærs first couple of games where he admittedly seemed to thrive. But Lingard doesn't have the level. He can peak for sure and at times he looked like a decent game raiser against bigger teams but both Lingard and Solskjær needs to move on.

Fred had a solid game and Matić actually had an ok game I'd say. Looked comfortable on the ball, at times maybe a bit too comfortable though. I'd say it was the four forwards that failed us a bit yesterday. Martial was the only one who actually dared a bit. Rashford and James seemed to hide a bit and were anonymous and then Lingard were... well.. Lingard. Lots of feck ups and just underwhelming.

But overall the entire team perfomance wasn't really in sync and just poor. Looked clueless.

Just so bitterly disappointed, that would have been a massive three points.
How much was Maguire again? His transfer fee is weighing him down, no wonder city walked away. Two steps forward and one step back. I'd seriously look at getting Pellegrini, he's got pedigree and experience, this team aren't west ham.

Sassy Colin said:

My boss, who is an Arsenal season ticket holder, thought Lingard was our best player yesterday and was the player most likely to cause them trouble. He was happy when he was substituted.

Did anyone else think this? How about our resident Arse fans?

I said we'd be happy to sell him to them.

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My friend whose an arsenal supporter said the exact opposite

He used to think Lingard was a big game player, i told him its a myth! The guy is trash.

Sassy Colin said:

My boss, who is an Arsenal season ticket holder, thought Lingard was our best player yesterday and was the player most likely to cause them trouble. He was happy when he was substituted.

Did anyone else think this? How about our resident Arse fans?

I said we'd be happy to sell him to them.

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Does your boss happens to be Ole?

Galactic said:

I thought we were decent. Not great. But I'm not too disappointed. We kept the tempo up at a reasonably good rate and kept getting at them. We needed that luck that arsenal received but we didn't get it.

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Are you an Arsenal fan ? Please let me know what you thought was decent about that first half from United, I'm genuinely curious as I saw nothing.

We also really need to start getting goals from set pieces. It's such a valuable weapon when you struggle a bit in open play. A goal from a corner or indirect free kick can give that boost and believe.

It was Xhaka who went to the left to overload our right and none in our coaching staff saw it happening. In the past SAF would be on his feet screaming his head off for the player/s responsible to cover that. In this case either Lingard or James should have done so and Ole should have been screaming his head off to get them to do it.

Honestly I cannot even believe that some people still have faith in him. To do what? Clear the deadwood they say. One man's deadwood could be another man's meat. I am not saying Lingard is going to be a world beater but I am sure that this lot could play a lot better than they are doing now.
Maguire looked pissed off at what is happening in front of him. Much as I like Martial he is not a player who can fight and hold the ball up front the way a typical CF does.
I think the old boys club is getting too much involved. I never heard during the time of SAF, any ex player saying that SAF should play this player in this position or that position the way those players are doing now.

There is nothing new here. This squad is filled with players that don't belong, such as Lingard, Mata, Matic, Pereria, Lindelof & Young. The current United squad is quire awful, lacking in quality in just about every area.

As long as Woodward is in charge of football operations, including transfers, it will never improve.

We need to invest another 200M for more squad depth. Let alone the 200M more to exchange players that arent good enough.

We havent managed to buy any player in the last 7 years that turned out to be great. Its a shame

Sassy Colin said:

My boss, who is an Arsenal season ticket holder, thought Lingard was our best player yesterday and was the player most likely to cause them trouble. He was happy when he was substituted.

Did anyone else think this? How about our resident Arse fans?

I said we'd be happy to sell him to them.

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Ask you boss what was he smoking? Lingard was a waste of space yesterday. People who like him just like him for two reasons maybe, one he is a manchester born and bred and second he runs a lot , therefore fooling people to believe he is working hard. There were many moments yesterday when he had zero understanding of the game and was just running like a fool. The guy has been having a mare and Ole needs to let the boy off his misery.

For the benefit of any doubt, I did say to him that Lingard is barely a footballer.

Just wanted to know if any Arsenal fans saw anything other than a waste of space out there yesterday.

Has noodlehair posted his players ratings here? This thread is only good for it especially after a defeat @noodlehair

fps said:

Any player can get injured. But from an outsider’s perspective surely they have mishandled the injury if Pogba has now tried twice to come back and not been able to last a match without a huge recovery period.

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Perhaps, but it can happen that you're just not right after the rehab, hence why they are looking at surgery.

It was alarm bells for me when he didn't start his second game back. He's not usually a player that needs to be eased in so he obviously had a reaction from the first 30 mins or so he played.

I'm not sure if he would have come on at all if it wasn't for Mctominay doing his ligaments.

Although, I am concerned that pushing for the surgery now is so he can be fit for France in the summer and obviously he'll also be in the shop window.

The worst part about yesterday's game was not even the result. I expected us to lose but the fact that we did not even try in the first half and made this Arsenal side look much better than they are was a joke. We looked semi decent in the second half. WHy couldn't we have come out like that in the first.

Sassy Colin said:

My boss, who is an Arsenal season ticket holder, thought Lingard was our best player yesterday and was the player most likely to cause them trouble. He was happy when he was substituted.

Did anyone else think this? How about our resident Arse fans?

I said we'd be happy to sell him to them.

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Tell your boss he should lay off the crack pipe mate

Denis' cuff said:

Regarding movement; Lingard, who apparently excels at this, had yet another shocker. Some interesting comments from Giggs, that when United were in possession, Lingard would run towards the ball, thus, closing down and crowding the ball instead of holding his discipline/position and finding space in his position as a result of stretching them. He was actually doing the Arse defenders jobs for them by playing like an 11 year old, following the ball.

Also interesting that Ozil chose this game to cover more ground than he has done in the past five years. Not saying this in defence or criticism but teams and players clearly lift their games vs United. Probably always have but this lot are so. fecking spineless, they can’t rise to it.

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Any hope and optimism surrounding United right now comes directly from our game raising performances too to be fair.

Who the fcuk deserves a mom recognition out of this shower of shit!! No one , getting more ana more angry with these CNUTS

I have taken my time to reply on post match thread, as I wanted to be as objective as possible. There are several players that don't have the right mentality to be a success at Man Utd - Lindelöf, Shaw, Lingard & Rashford all seem mentally weak to me. I like what Ole is trying to achieve but its one step forward two steps back all the time, and that's on the mentality of the players, no one else. We have wasted hundreds of millions of pounds, getting recruitment wrong, yet the board still have overall say on the sporting side of the club, its messed up. We need a review a thorough review of the playing staff and be brutal, make tough decisions. Back the manager financially and let him finish what he is starting. Pogba and his agents antics are a joke and we need to sever ties with this guy, regardless of how good he thinks he is. The foundations have got to be built for success to happen, the foundations haven't been put in place yet - its going to be a long road..

I thought Arsenal did a fantastic job of shutting down Fred whenever he got the ball especially in the fist half. He is our only creative outlet and when he was shut down, our forwards struggled to get the ball. Lack of Pogba really showed in this game.

oreon said:

Please don't bring up that snake. He's taking an opportunity to take a piss at the club. The sooner him and Pogba are gone the better. We needed Pogba today and all indications were he was going to play. But out of nowhere he's ankle is hurt after his agent attacked the club publicly a few days. Who knows if he's really hurt, or he is trying to force his way out.
The Glazers and Woodward are problem, the recruitment structure is a problem and greedy agents like Raiola and selfish players like Pogba are also a problem.

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This.....
Rolo's comments are utterly self serving and designed to manouevre his client out of the club whilst the pair of them make as much money from United as possible....again.
Time the French peacock grew a pair and officially asked for a tansfer so that the whole 3 and a half year failure of a saga is ended and we can all move on.

With our midfield options so weak, why did Ole play 4-3-3, it screamed out for 4-5-1 or 3-5-2.
DDG
WB- Maguire- Williams
Fred-Tuanzebe
Dalot Greenwood. Davies
Martial. Rashford
Pace and guile aplenty

Josep Dowling said:

RVP and Ferdinand have basically said the players aren’t being coached properly.

If they were they would see the runs Rashford is making and actually attempt a forward pass. There is no risk takers in this team. Shaw especially refuses to go forward or pass forward. You can’t create attacked constantly going sideways and backward.

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Just a total lack of quality throughout the team. I would only keep

OohAahMartial said:

I was close to falling asleep too.

The players are tired. Our squad is weak in numbers, and quality, so we can neither rotate enough, nor rotate without a drop-off in quality, and even the 1st choice players aren't quite up to it. Andreas isn't good enough, but Lingard is literally a whole league worse. Brandon is our best LB but he's actually just a rookie, while Shaw isn't good enough for even the squad. Maguire has been overplayed, but Rojo and Jones are sick notes and not up to standard anyway. Rashford is also overplayed, as is James, but we have no strength in depth their either. Let alone the midfield, which without McTominay now, and likely Pogba too for a few weeks, will just burnout Fred, while Matic is already past it.

Next couple of months is just one tough game after another, and with our squad in this state, we'll be going out of the Cups rapidly, and season over by end of February, as usual.

We know recruitment has been lousy, and if Ole underestimates the need for numbers, it'll be his downfall, as Woodward will never accept his responsibility and resign.

Looks to be another long year ahead.

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I agree with most of what you have said. Woodward needs to be moved sideways and focus on marketing. Cant understand why we appointed a manager with no track record. He is clueless. How have we managed to buy so many players who look good ...until they start playing for us? Magic and Mata legs have gone. Jones and Rojo are permanently injured. Shaw and Lingard are not good enough. Martial has one good game a month. Pogba is pure poison...get rid.

I can't believe how sh@t Matic and Shaw were, absolutely hopeless.

Poor result and performance. I don't blame the players too much because this kind of inconsistency is up to the management to sort out - prioritising which players for which games, giving players rest when they need it, having a recruitment plan that can survive some injuries to key players, developing a playing pattern that works against teams that are worse than you are and are happy to sit back, being well coached. Over to you, Ole.

It was just a bad day at the park. Apart from McTominay, this is exactly the same United team that outclassed Man City at the Etihad. Mentally the players were totally convinced they will completely overrun an out-of-sorts, struggling Arsenal. But after Arsenal's brilliant first half performance vs Chelsea, Arteta's team are definitely a changed side. If they build stamina and play with the same intensity for 90 minutes, they will be a very strong side again soon.

Godfather said:

We just spanked out 80 millions on an underwhelming centre back in the summer instead of focusing on our most pressing need. A proper CM.

Plus look at our player material and tell me we shouldn't have done better than we have. Not talking about Arse now as they had better players available but in general.

And all of you in the Ole in brigade always ignore the main arguments against him. What is his style of play? Is it any different than what we saw under Mou? Counter attacks is not a proper strategy most of the time. Especially not against deep sitting sides.

He won't succeed here. Not now and not with a better squad. He just isn't a good manager. Yes our squad needs proper investment. Nobody denies that and nobody expects him to win the league with the players he has. But a proper manager would get us playing better football.

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Agreed. Of course results might improve slightly if the owners invest a few hundred million pounds in the next two windows, but the football will not improve. We will remain at a significant disadvantage to other sides with actual top managers, who, by the way, will also spend to improve their sides.

The most infuriating moment of the match came at the very end of the first half.

Harry is completely unmarked at the back-post and has a free header from Fred's fk. It is a tight angle so it was far from a tap-in if he decides to power his header on goal, or he could have also headed it firmly back across goal to cause some danger and possibly find a teammate or a deflection off a defender. Who knows what could happen. But this is (one of) the reasons we splashed the cash on Harry, right here, right now, when we need it most. Get that "slab head" of his and crush this header!

We had just given up a horribly soft, amateurish goal to go 2 down and hope was almost completely lost. So stealing a goal here, right at the end of the half and completely undeserved, could have been so huge! We would have gone into half time with a little bit of hope and optimism that we could come out and turn things around. Right, that first 45 was shit but the big man Harry got his first goal with a powerful header and we can now pick it up and show the world that this United has balls!! It could have changed the game.

Instead.....he completely fluffs the chance and somehow manages to cushion a feather of a fart back to their keeper. I think the pathetic nature of the header startled the keeper and caught him off-guard. He thought he might actually have to move to make a save there.

Pathetic. Infuriating. Do you think one single person said anything to him at half? Hey slabhead, what the feck happened there? Did you close your eyes? Do your f'ing job!

Just watched the game back a second time. Shaw and Lingard should receive a rating of zero. Nowhere near good enough. Ole got his team selection badly wrong last night. Williams and Andreas should have started

Che Guevara said:

It was just a bad day at the park. Apart from McTominay, this is exactly the same United team that outclassed Man City at the Etihad. Mentally the players were totally convinced they will completely overrun an out-of-sorts, struggling Arsenal. But after Arsenal's brilliant first half performance vs Chelsea, Arteta's team are definitely a changed side. If they build stamina and play with the same intensity for 90 minutes, they will be a very strong side again soon.

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Ah the old just a bad day at the office ritual again. Let's put it in the cupboard with all the rest this season, West Ham, Watford, Bournemouth, and all the other shite we have lost to.

I knew that we’d lose after Chelsea won there the other day.

An Arsenal loss would have meant they were genuinely in a relegation battle so they were always going to be desperate for a result.

Our team is also absolutely spineless and can only handle it when they are the underdogs. After Arsenal lost the other day and because they’ve been absolute shite all season we were the favourites to beat them. This team crumbles then when there is any expectation in them. The fact Spurs, Chelsea and Wolves lost also meant a win would have been a huge step towards top 4. This team doesn’t deal with that extra pressure. We’ve been doing that for years.

Combine that with the injuries we’ve got and we get beaten easily by the worse Arsenal team in recent memory. I wasn’t surprised.

Ole keeps saying he is getting a team ready for next season. Lindeloff, Maguire, Shaw, Matic, Andreas, Lingard, Mata, Jones - that is a large amount of players to replace in 2 windows (first team and second). This team and manager are a shambles.

mitchmouse said:

not very clever runs... watch what Leicester do, let alone City and Liverpool

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I’ll take Van Persie’s word that they were good runs over yours cheers

fps said:

On paper Arsenal had a better team than us, in my opinion, yesterday. I’m confused by people suggesting they didn’t although I’m happy to discuss it.

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I don't agree at all Arsenil have a better team than us. 1 win in their last 16 games and their first home win in 3 months goes a long way to suggest that.

It's been said before but what won them the game was a combination of 2 things. Tactics and them wanting it more than us. You could say it was the new managers bounce but Arsenil got their tactics spot on. They moved as a unit, knew when to press, know when to stay back, knew when to counter. We didn't. It's that simple.

First 5 mins we were good, Rashford goes for a shot when he should have rolled it into Martial. James made good runs getting fouled a lot , then the silly goal goes in, a heel pass from Lindelof, And Slab head trying to play offside. All over the shop from then on In 1st half.
Huffed and puffed with no quality in 2nd half, this was worse than Watford away. If there's no CM brought in in Jan can't see a top 10 finish. Wolves on Sat in cup can see us getting easly rolled over in that game. There CM will run us ragged. Mctom big miss ..

cyril C said:

Not trying to defend Ole at all. But what choice does Ole had other than Matic? McTom was bench because of poor performance? Pogba was rested because of heavy (party) schedule? I thought Shaw was a natural choice but the 2 rested fullbacks had too much party time apparently.

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You're right. Didn't mean to include Matic in that list, we really didn't have another choice with McTom's injury. Shaw and Lingard should have been on the bench though