Déjà vu for Arsene Wenger and the Gunners? Part 1
Once again, it was déjà vu for Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger and his side at Old Trafford.
First it was a 3-1 drubbing at the hands of Manchester United at the Emirates Stadium in January, last season and then it was the two legs of the Champions League semifinal. It has happened a lot in recent seasons. Last night’s
victory at Old Trafford was another one that Sir Alex Ferguson would be remembering for a long time as the blue print of the previous victories was simply brought out and deployed by the wily Scotsman.
His plan has always involved flooding the midfield to support Wayne Rooney, so that he can make a very quick break. The very effective 4-3-2-1 formation closes down the centre of the field and almost always exposes Arsenal’s full
backs through quick surges from the left and right flanks.
South Korean international, Park Ji Sung scored for the third successive season against Arsenal. The 29-year olds’ 6 year career has seen only 22 goals but he has got a knack of scoring in important matches. Nani, excelled at
the Emirates last season, almost 9 months ago and this time, the Portuguese international dominated the duel with Frenchman, Gael Clichy. Anderson, who is reportedly unhappy at the club and had an injury hit these last few months, when paired up with Darren
Fletcher, a regular for Sir Alex Ferguson in the starting lineup, combine to trigger the midfield. The Gunners were precisely out-gunned because of the midfield dominance of Darren Fletcher and Anderson.
There was a time when the Premier League’s most distinguished managers of the two most prestigious clubs could never see each other eye to eye. The same was the case with players during the time of Roy Keane, Patrick Viera and
Ruud Van Nistelroy, Thierry Henry and Gary Neville. But now it seems that Sir Alex has got the measure of his French adversary.
Sir Alex stressed that in major games such as this, a team has to perform and was right in believing that his side did well last night, had a good first half and played composedly throughout the entire 90 minutes. Manchester United
played a simple, yet, effective game, although the pitch didn’t help as both sides were committing technical faults.
Arsene Wenger was quick to discourage the thought that when it comes to big teams, Arsenal is slightly lost.
But this is exactly what’s wrong with Arsenal. Every season, they play well against normal or average Premier League sides but when it comes to big sides like Manchester United, Chelsea, Tottenham and even Manchester City, they
simply choke. This issue has been raised by many football pundits and Arsene Wenger is always quick to move away from these suggestions.
They always hit a brick wall against serious title contenders. In Chelsea’s case, Didier Drogba almost always turns out to be Arsenal’s arch nemesis and they seem to lose the thinking to plot a path to get one over Manchester United.
These failings and some might call deficiencies, will again cost an Arsenal side that has so much promise, another title bid. Perhaps, Manchester United Left-back, Patrice Evra was right to suggest that his team was going to play
against the boys after suggesting last season that they played against babies when they beat Arsenal 4-1 in the semifinal of the Champions League.
Arsene Wenger may blame the pitch for the loss but in all honesty, he shouldn’t be ignoring the fact that his sides’ conquerors were also playing in the same pitch yet they dominated the stretch of the game.
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