Arsenal – Manchester United Review – Part 1
The highly anticipated clash came to a stunning end and boy oh boy was it fought on fire.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Aaron-Ramsey-c3065, who filled in for the missing Fabregas, gave a performance of his own and scored what proved to be the winner in the 56th minute.
The title race has been ripped open in fine fashion.
With http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786, only three points behind United and equal on goal difference, their trip to Old Trafford can be a potential title decider.
The match had immense importance for the Gunners because not only their pride was at stake, the gunners were being put under immense pressure by Manchester City who are aiming for a third place finish.
This win eased off the pressure on Arsenal’s players and the club and the fear of being left out of the Champions League spot.
United it seemed had lost the tactical battle with Arsenal.
Sir Alex Ferguson did not employ a 4-5-1 formation which has seen them practically own Arsenal in recent games but selected a more attacking 4-4-1-1 approach, with Hernandez up front and Rooney filling up the gap as a support striker, an area where he has
flourished recently.
Arsenal, on the other hand, played in their usual 4-2-3-1 formation with Ramsey holding the midfield and Wilshere given an advanced role, up front, behind Robin Van Persie.
Arsenal was dealt with a mighty blow when their captain Cesc Fabregas picked up a minor injury in practice before the game and had to be replaced by Aaron Ramsey in the heart of midfield.
But Ramsey played an excellent game in the heart of the Arsenal midfield partnering http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Alex-Song-c4804 and was arguably the main reason behind Arsenal’s midfield dominance.
He, along with the Cameroonian, dictated play from the midfield and strung together a number of key passes which helped Arsenal dominate play and possession.
Ramsey played deeper than Fabregas does and this allowed him to be a linkman between defence and attack as he smoothened the transition to attack and fed the wide players, both Nasri and Walcott.
The return of the Welshman in a crunch game of this magnitude has been a welcome relief to the Emirates faithful as this truly means that he is over his horrific leg injury back in February last year and has come out of the holds to give a truly spectacular
performance. This young man is one for the future.
With a style varying from Fabregas, he controlled the pace of the game and did not look to make the killer through or such but constantly fed the ball to his front men, especially the wide players.
It was his pass to the English wingman, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Theo-Walcott-c34873 that produced an almost perfect cross from the latter which was so neatly handled by Vidic that neither the Referee nor the linesman saw it leaving a fuming Van Persie to stake his claim.
Vidic should have been sent off and Arsenal awarded a penalty. People would argue that it wouldn’t have been significant since Arsenal won eventually but picture this. Chelsea comes to Old Trafford with United playing without Vidic, truly it gives a different
shape to the title race.
Ramsey kept on with a sparkling performance in the second half which eventually saw him score the winner when the Dutchman http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Robin-van-Persie-c31380 lay off a neat ball on the edge of the penalty box which Ramsey tucked away into the far corner away from the outstretched
hand of Van Der Sar.
Article Continued In Part 2
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