Gooners goon

Michael and Wayne celebrating the stupidity of the Gooners

Man Utd vs Arsenal matches in the past 3 seasons or so have been awfully quiet and free from incidents ever since the Battle of the Buffet and Tunnel Scuffle in the past. This season's first encounter however promises to return back the glorious antics that characterises the meeting of both titanic teams. Fergie employs 4-3-3 for this match, with Nani and Valencia supporting Rooney and Giggs, Fletcher and Carrick at midfield. With the absence of van der Sar, there would of course be some worry to the capabilities of the goalie and the defence in coping up with the Gooner's free-flowing attack.

Passing from both sides were sloppy at the beginning since the game was interrupted constantly by the ball going out of play. Arshavin was close to scoring in the first half but he was closed down by Fletcher just in time. But in the 40th minute, Arshavin stunned the Old Trafford crowd with a piledriver shot from outside the box. You gotta say that was a superb goal, even from a United fan. At the second half, the Gooners had several chances to go another one up but they were most unfortunate in one van Persie free kick which hit the crossbar. United had the fortune of the Gooners bungling when Almunia spread himself to bring Rooney down. Referee pointed at the spot and that was a relief for the United players who had been trying hard to get the equalizing goal. Rooney took the shot and sent the keeper diving to the wrong direction. It was still all to play for at 1-1. Then at the 64th minute, man of the match Diaby beautifully heads in a free kick cross from Giggs into the net. It was such a marvelous header that Almunia just had to stand there to watch. I bet his teammates ain't gonna talk to poor klutzy Diaby in the dressing room..haha. From then on, it kinda swung to United's favour and Man Utd could easily kill the game off with two very good late chances. But Nani and Berbatov just had to squander it.

The amount of yellow cards shown in this match is tremendous. The Gooners theatrics were funny. Sagna wanted to have a go at Nani but his gay air punch was seen disapprovingly by the refereee who wasted no time in giving him yellow. Manager of the year candidate Wenger was the best. The Professor was cheering like he's just won a World Cup when van Persie's apparent equaliazing goal was ruled offside. He was just ecstatic one moment and astounded on the next, That blew him up but the referee is having none of his French nonsense by sending him off. The United fans around him sarcastically applaud him as he made his way back to his place (which he shouldn't do since he's sent off)..haha. Classic Arsene comedy. It seems that Wenger's rantings did not stop at the match. He went on to claim that Man Utd were playing "anti-football" by sending in Fletcher to do all the dirty tacklings eventhough statistics showed that the Gooners were making more fouls. Wenger should just stop sulking and suck it up.

The Gooners have no one to blame but themselves for their embarrassing turnaround. However, Man Utd have little to be proud of because they were rather sloppy too in many departments. Berbatov and Nani could seriously do better in their finishing at the last few minutes. Midfield was just not commanding enough to pass some good killer balls into the final third. Overall United posession was kinda bad because I thought that the Gooners were passing around more frequently than chasing it. Oh well, a win is still a win and it's a good bubble to pop by Man Utd. =D Let's hope that they'll do the same against another 100% high-flyer, Spurs for the next match.