Weekend to forget (vs Arsenal)

By: Shaun | May 1st, 2011

ramsey 1 This was not a good weekend for us.

Chelsea grabbed all 3 points against Spurs in somewhat controversial fashion with a little help from Gomes. We then went out to the Emirates and got beat by a rampant Arsenal side who started off the game playing the kind of football that has won them a multitude of admirers.

Brief impressions:

1. I know that we’ve been a less than convincing side away from home this season, but we looked to be completely taken aback by the pace at which Arsenal were moving the ball around to start the game today. We surrendered possession almost immediately after getting the ball and it doesn’t bode well if this is the way we approach our potential CL encounter against Barca.

2. Glad that the handball by Vidic wasn’t the determining factor in the game today. In all honesty, I didn’t even notice it until the replay was shown. In normal speed (and without my United tinted glasses on), it looked like a last ditch well-timed header by Vidic to get to the ball before RVP.

3. Our defending on the Arsenal goal was pretty poor. They played it forward quickly and everyone seemed a tad lost on who they needed to pick up. Credit to Ramsey for the cool finish. A well taken goal by a player who could very well have been in a United jersey this afternoon had we played our cards right in recruiting him.

owen penalty 4. Fabio had a pretty good game going forward and could be establishing himself as first choice in the rightback spot ahead of his twin brother. We’re finally seeing him come good on that potential that people talked about early on especially the point about how he was the more talented footballer between the two.

5. We barely got a sniff of their goal today. With the exception of a great run by Fabio down the right, the rest of our efforts were free kicks or shots that were blocked. It just didn’t look like we had the ability to create anything substantial and that’s exactly how it played out to the very end.

Well that’s over and done with. Hopefully, we’re able to pick ourselves up and play to the formbook at OT over the next 7 days. If we can get the positive results we need from our next 2 home games (in the CL and PL), the events from this weekend will be quickly forgotten.

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Category: English Premier League, Manchester United, Match Reports

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Swapnil

i dunno if i'm the only one to think this but SAF told the players to conserve their energy and play with less aggression so that our performance does not drop in the next week.nobody seemed to be closing down or make lung bursting runs.also in the end SAF didn't see too disappointed with the result.maybe it was a well calculated performance!!
also totally agree about fabio!!! looks like he's gonna be better than rafael maybe....
Doug

We should have dropped Rooney to CM when Berbatov came on. Rooney drops back on his own, so it would have been better than moving Park.
vlad

Hi Shaun!

What do you think of SAF's decision to remove Anderson for Valencia? IMHO, I think that midfield hole was one of the key reasons why Ramsey scored. Secondly, I think the change of Carrick for Owen made it worse. We could not string passing moves together, nor keep possession anymore. Just my opinion of course.

Oh well. Let's hope we dominate Schalke and kill off the EPL against Chelsea.

Thank you for all your entertaining posts.