devday
Match Day Live: Manchester United vs Arsenal
Posted on Saturday Aug 29, 2009 by devday
87 WOA's
Manchester United v Arsenal
Barclays Premier League, Old Trafford
Saturday, August 29, 2009, 17:15
Afternoon all – it’s match day and match day live, which means we’re online and ready to attempt to give an online update of what’s going on at Old Trafford. It’s been a little bit of a difficult week with the Eduardo stuff going on, but I hope it’s all forgotten for the moment.
Arsene feels this will be the biggest test so far for us and I’d have to agree. It’s going to a very tough game today, but I am really really looking forward to it… I won’t spend too much time building it up – I’ll leave that to Sky Sports and the comments… but it will be a better contest this year with us flying and United without Ronaldo and Tevez…
“I believe that nobody, not even the specialists, know what kind of effect [the loss of] Ronaldo can have on Manchester United’s result. It takes time to adapt but in our case [when we lost Henry] we had someone, Adebayor, who scored 24 goals in the season that followed. Also we had players who gained a little bit of charisma, like Hleb. Personally I believe even though he was good last year he was not the Ronaldo of the year before. It was for two reasons. Firstly, he was injured at the start and had a little surgery on his ankle and secondly he was certainly already thinking to move. Then again when you look at his numbers you’d think I have the wrong opinion. He didn’t look as convincing as the year before but when you look at the number of games he played and the number of goals he scored, he was still as efficient as before. So we’ll see what happens. But I still believe Man United will miss Ronaldo. Will they find a new balance in the team and will Rooney pop up with 20 goals or Berbatov with 20 goals? That can happen. When a player becomes too strong in a team, sometimes the way of a game goes too much through him and others are a little bit isolated or forgotten. When he disappears suddenly other players turn up because the way of the game goes through different players and they maybe are capable to do that. Nobody knows really. In the end, Henry had a big weight in the team. No-one could refuse to give Thierry Henry the ball so sometimes the play becomes a bit more diversified when these players go.”
Not to forget that United have the likes of Nani and Valencia, but all in all, Arsene’s sentiments are very true.
My predicted line up today is:
Almunia
Sagna – Gallas – Vermaelen – Clichy
Song – Denilson
Bendtner – Diaby – Arshavin
Van Persie
With Mannone, Traore, Eboue, Silvestre, Wilshere, Rosicky and Eduardo on the bench.
United are most likely to field a 4-4-2 with the following XI:
Foster
O’Shea – Vidic – Brown – Evra
Flecter – Scholes – Carrick – Valencia
Rooney – Berbatov
If you’ve picked up a paper today, you’ll a lot of articles about Arsene and Fergie being friends… they may be better acquanted, but they will certainly not be friends today…
News, official line ups and comments will follow shortly…
Come on you Gooners…
Line ups confirmed…
Almunia
Sagna – Gallas – Vermaelen – Clichy
Song – Denilson
Eboue – Diaby – Arshavin
Van Persie
Rooney Starts up front with Giggs, Nani and Valencia in midfield.
Verminator wat a legend putting Rooney off the ball
30 minutes pass and Arsenal is not their self yet.
Arshavin is having a shocker
Get Eduardo On Eboue Off and start the game!!
ARSHAVIN!!!!!!!!!!!! 1-0
U wee beaut
WOW ARSHAVIN!!!!
Yes! Yes! Yes! Go Arsh!
It should have been a penalty too.
Screamer! Haha Go Arsh!
penalty was completely unfair.
They have done nothing yet they earn a equalizer. I have some bad feeling now..
our boys must show their mental strength now.
BAD LUCK… RVP hit the bar!!!
2-1… that’s it?
We need a better goalkeeper
Haha.. what can we say now? Own GOal?
MU deserved nothing, now 3 points in their pocket.
C’mon gunners.
I will quit football if MU win this game. Completely unfair
2 tottally unnecessary goals. Unfair.
Please put Eduardo on for god sake
They have been unlucky but we gifted the 1st, Almunia should have done better
Put Diaby off and switch Arshavin to the centre.
ref is a big MU fan!
Wenger have to do something. PLz
no waaaaay
This is the worst match I will ever see in my life. I thought Arsenal vs Barca in 2006 is pain ass but this 1 I won’t even wanna glimpse at it again
After a terrific first half and a beautiful goal, it was our own mistakes that were our undoing today. The fact that we had injuries, and that we played midweek just goes to show how important it is to be fresh for games like these. Disappointing, but can be improved upon. On to the next game.
unfair & unjust. we have no one to blame but ourselves & the f#$@ing ref.
Damn…
we lose to our own players and not opposite…
Anyway, nice performance from V.Persie and Arshavin…
What a nice game despite the 2 unlucky goals.
Did you guys see how dudu and wenger treated just now…
Very frustrating…
Damn ref! Rooney was half way down when Almunia touched him!
I say bring the charges on him as they do on Eduardo!!!
Good match by the lads though.. unfortunate that Diaby should put it in our own net since he had a fantastic game
At least I wasn’t proved wrong!!!
well this is football, sometimes we win and sometimes we loose. But we were very unlucky today. We played much better ( untill the moment we concede the penalty) and really should have won. i like the way we approach the oppenents half, passing the ball around with sublime skills and full of confidence, making them looks like small boys chasing shadows. Frankly ManU really looks very ordinary to me today. We played very well, so no worry. Just continue playing well, keep our composure and concentration for a full 90 minutes for each and very game, i believe we are the side more likely to win the league than MU come May next yr.
Come on gunners!!!
im devastated and so were the 250 other arsenal fans in my local. so this is our “karma” for the celtic game i see. o well
we were unlucky, but we need to pick ourselves up! BRING ON NEXT WEEK!
Win, Lose or Draw, Gooner for life
agree with you Jien, man u looked distinctively average
we were very unlucky today.. we need to bounce back in two weeks time against man city.
for gods sake this was sooo frustrating i want to kill diaby first for that own goal then for missing up a golden oppurtunity. we played soo well just got tired and frustrated. stupid offside i was off my seat. wenger is soo pissed off hes going to kill the refere and diaby and place their heads ona stake outside the stadium to warn anyone else. we were doing so well and we needed this. man u have turned to bribing the ref and escaping unbelievably again. god i want to die right now!!
any coments?
Yes we were unlucky and it sure was not a penalty…however I think we need a new goalkeeper, Almunia is no Seaman or Lehmann…with 3 days to go I would be looking for avetern goalkeeper…both goals were due to him particularly the second when he should have come out and claimed it…United may have been ordinary but they still won whichsgows they still have lady luck…
But we move on and lets take down the blue half of Manchester…i think these lads should be proud of themselves and it’s only August not May so put your game face back on and show why anyone shouldn’t leave Arsenal…
I meant another goalkeeper
oh, by the way, regarding the incident where Fletcher clattered into Arshavin inside the box, the whole world and he himself knew that it was a clear-cut penalty. Maybe Mike Dean was focusing on a hot girl in the stands during that moment and he SOMEHOW miss it. Then Fletcher got back on his feet, and ‘pretend’ that he hasn’t fouled Arshavin and hacked the ball clear. Should the FA charge him for “intent to cause a match official to make an incorrect decision” by pretending that he did not commit the foul on Arsh? Opps, sorry Flecth, i forgot that u are a Man U player, and surely u won’t be facing charges like this from the FA.
Marc Callan – Another keeper? be realistic man; the first Goal I understand might have been his fault but the second am sure was not his. Yes its natural to find fault when you loose; I personally dislike Diaby, but I thought he played well, he showed strength as well though my opinion about him still remains strong. Am more worried about Arshavin’s injury than the loss and again how we play in the next few matches can really really make our season, after all Man u lost so early against us last season and still won the league .
Sorry Berth but that ball floated in and noone attacking it and he just stands there were you usually get a keeper coming out to claim it or punch it…I am not saying he has ruined the season for us but I just don’t think he commands the area like Cech or Van De Sar…I just think what’s the point of having a really good back 4 if the last man is our weakest link (much like Foster was for United)…furthermore I am not basing this on this game but this and last season, I just don’t think he is Top 4 material…
Regarding Arshavin I hope he is better andnot another long term absentee for our team…
G-U-T-T-E-D! Absolutely hurting at the moment. Shud have won easily. Man u was average. They aint winnin nada without Ronaldo. How did we lose!!
How bad is Arsh injured? Any1 kno? I’m frickin distraught… And the ref…Man u paid him…
Fabrez,
with you man on that gutted here in Ireland…Sitting round United supporters and just laughin at me…gods honest truth think united might not do too bad if all games are like that for them
Same feelings as you, Fabrez! How on earth did Man U win? My only consolation is that we played really well, and that’s the hardest game we’ll play all season. Encouraging performance generally, and it’s only a shame that we have to wait ages for the next match.
I guess u have it pretty bad Marc! I kno I don’t want to see a Man U fan at the moment. I’ll want to strangle them! Debs…I can’t believe we have to w8 this long either
I wish men like Zohaib and kierean then Dev could voice there opinion in the match.
So gutted dude! I hope Arsh’s injury isn’t too serious, and I hope we don’t get any more injuries during the break. On another random note, why was the referee so card-happy? He loves dishing out the cards and it just affects the flow of the game. Apparently he handed out the most reds and yellows than any other ref in the PL last season. Arshavin’s goal was a thing of beauty that deserved to be on the winning side!
Just like Wenger said that Ronaldo’s loss was like ” Henry Moment” so was our finish; so so typical “Arsenal moment of panic”. Inasmuch as we were in control the end always looked shaky,my filling was ah!! here we come, can we retain a goal lead. In my mind I felt we couldn’t and thus this happened. Just maybe that negative thought or lack of belief is working again on us. Vermeelean comes in suddenly the culprit becomes someone I loath so much (Diaby) and a little matter of Aluminia – I am beginning to suspect this is more of lack of self belief, fear and acceptance of being the inferior team, or does the team need a salary raise to bring out their commitment. Am really tired complaining, its way beyond my football brains maybe we should change our team psychologist, he or she might just be what we need. Once again congratulations to Diaby for making us find a way to loose!!! from the jaws a victory
Loose or win Gooner till I die!!! ( HaHaHa!!!)
* in
* Jaws of victory
Berth : i think what we are lacking of is experience, concentration and keeping composure in crucial moments. They are still a very young team, and the future certainly looks bright. They approach the game in the correct way, attacking and advancing into the oppenents half in the ‘typical Arseanl way’. Imagine what would have happen if Diaby did not panic in front of goal and score the equalizer after dribbling amazingly pass a couple of ManU players. We are doing things the right way, that’s why i am not too sad or worry. Hey, it’s a league game, we still have more than 30 matches to play for. And please don’t blame Diaby, i know he commited a silly error there, but he didn’t want it more than anyone of us does.
Jen love the positiveness in your opinion, your right they are doing what we want them to do, attack and defend solidly…unfortunately today the latter was lacking but that’s a work in progress…I say lets hope forinjuries over the break and lets get back on track!
Obviously I meant no injuries! Touching wood now
Personally, I find it very hard to get over defeats like this but just judging on performance rather than result, we did well in midfield with no Cesc. We held our own so credit to the lads. It wasn’t always perfect but we played a very positive brand…
…and we did so at Old Trafford. Not many teams dare do that. Not many teams r that confident or even capable. Ferguson playing a lone striker at HOME shows that he knows how dangerous we can be. RvP and Arsh tried…a very spirited performance from all
Sure Man U took all 3 pts but lets look fwd… If we play with that belief & confidence at Man City minus the mistakes that cost us the match 2day, City will b beaten. To me, we look well equiped to take the Prem to the wire. We CAN do it! I know we can!
Sry bout the my msgs in parts. Blame my mobile!! …We had this Edu thing hangin over us & we were screwed by a ‘card-happy’ ref as Debs mentioned… But look at the quality of our manager & how much stronger our players r this season… C’mon Arsenal!
Fabrez: spot on, excatly what i am thinking of too. Play like this consistently, avoid mistakes, lucky enough not to have long term injuries to key players, and i believe we’ll have something to parade in our trophy cabinet at the end of the seoson
Yes Jien! Definitely with u there!
Just finished watching the MOTD – Lee Dixon looked out of shape and gutted. He should take heart because we all feel the same way too, Fabrez good point about we defending well and playing as a unit.
If we had Fabregas, Nasri, Walcott and Rosiky would of been a different result, good preformance anyway, solid at the back, Gallas was amazing, aswell as Denilson and Song, both only 21, when our players our back we can easily beat any team, things are looking good considering the players to come back for the City game.
good performance bad result.i felt sorry for diaby he played well all the game apart from those 5 seconds.i think he got cought in two minds and in the end jus headed it straight in :@.dont no what almunia was doing for both the goals.the first goal there was no need to come out rooney was running away from goal and gallas was not far behind.the second goal he shoud have claimed the ball.i hope wenger buys because when arshavin came off because of tiredness/injury (apart from van persie)we didnt really have a creative player on the pitch who could change the game with a moment of magic.most of are strikers are finishers that most of the time need the service to be able score.i think we should buy rafael van der vaart.we do have two creative players injured(rosicky and nasri)but i feel we need another.
i know gallas was offside when van persie scored but did he touch the ball??
Good to see that the media are actually giving us some credit for our performance. Such a shame our long unbeaten away run was ended in an unfortunate manner. Apparently we were unbeaten in the league for about 9 months or something- totally unaware of the stat until after the match, a pretty impressive stat as well!
We deserved the 3 points today. We were terribly unlucky. A couple of half chances went begging. But we’ll pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down, go over what we need to improve or do differently and bounce right back. Come On You Gunners!!!
Win, Lose or Draw… Gooner Til I Die!!
We didn’t have any creative players, JDD, cos most of them were injured! As for the last minute offside, Gallas did win the ball. But even if he didn’t, he went for it, so he was active, therefore he was offside! If the only the linesman had missed it, just as the ref missed the Carrick penalty! lol. After watching the highlights again, it was actually a very good game, and we definitely will be in the mix of things, come the last few games of the season.
Good performance that showed we have improved lots, but aren’t the finished artcle yet.
Arsh looked a bit uninterested at times. I’m afraid he’s losing his motivation because his great performances aren’t getting results. He scores, but we lose. He scores 4, Arsenal get a single point! He doesn’t look happy, and that’s not good going forward.
Wenger’s to get an apology in relation to his sending off from the referee’s association (or whatever name they go by). Just heard that on five live sportsweek.
typical man u again guys we can take heart from this defeat. we played so well gallas man of the match he was unbelievable last nite. the second was not almunia fault. yes he could have come and clamied it but diaby should have cleared it first not much almunia couls have done im am just soo mad though man u were more lucky than OJ Simpson and at least he had crochan (his lawyer) arsenal are being treated soo badly. every time we get some cofidence going either someone gets injured (fabregas) or uefa staart a witch hunt (eduardo) or an own goal and penalty dont get awarded for us but an unfair one gets awarded against us, or even our manager gets sent of unfairly. we really need to ride through this bad karma with our heads up high and believe that we can still win the league. the long break could not have come at a better time. going back to manchester with fabregas rosicky walcott and djouru back we need to be ready. plus saw our fixture list we apparantly have man u chelsea and liverpool all in a row! 3 top matches in one week! any thoughts?
“plus saw our fixture list we apparantly have man u chelsea and liverpool all in a row! 3 top matches in one week! any thoughts”
VJ I saw that too but considering two of the three matches is at home. The fixtures may not be that bad and the timing might just favour us. But first we need to think of now and hope that the effort we put at this early stages make our job a little bit lighter in the later stages.
Wrong time to come back after a very Long time.
Diaby the Viera!!!
Just heard an interesting news that Wenger is pondering on getting Chamakh, Viera and Hangeeland!!! I bet you guys in WOA wish this is really happening, because if it does we are definitely on for the season.
If we can play like we did yesterday, against man united @ old trafford; with a side missing their captain (fabregas), nasri, walcott and rosicky – i am almost certain that we have a serious opportunity to easily win the league this year.
In the games so far everyone has shown so much defensive strength on the pitch and a win-only attacking attitude, i only hope the cracks that began to emerge yesterday were a one off.
“i am almost certain that we have a serious opportunity to easily win the league this year” Edison I like the spirit but there is a little matter of Chelsea and Injury to worry about before statements like that are justified.
Berth, i agree with so much of what you have said. Arsenal have a problem with self belief both on individual player level and also as a team. This problem shows up at crutial times in big games and when we play united. United are there for the taking it is only the massive self belief that will see them achieve anything this season.
A change in psychologists is a must for Arsenal to break the shackles of not winning anything for so long and to fulfil their potential.
Yeah m8…u r rite about Chelsea…they r on fire. If only that were true Berth! Ever so unlikey tho! If AW buys, it mite b in Jan… maybe 1 new face… depending on our position in the table & injuries.
hi guys im still worried about eduardo and no one is giving us some video to help us reasses the situation. canany body help pleaseeeeeeeee
I think we might get Hangeland…Fulham were poor today and I would be surprised if he wanted to stay on!
MARC CALLUAN – Here’s hoping matey. We need a shake up in all areas. A little bit of competition will only enhance and drive players to work harder.
Win, Lose or Draw… Gooner Til I Die!!
How annoying! We now ‘face a Football Association fine for failing to control our players during the fixture’, due to the unnecessarily high number of yellows that ridiculous ref gave us (and refused to give to Utd players). Totally pants!
Now it seems that we are obvious targets!!!
are we seeing any last minute wenger transfers?
I’m now officially convinced that we r the most hated Club in existance. We play beautiful football but we r cheats n have no self-control. What a joke…
Fabrez, nope. Man Utd is the most hated club. not us. why it seems everybody loves them is bcos they have more fans than any club in the world. But believe, every non-fans of Man UTd will hate them not us.
Yeah Jeffvip…u r right. It just feels that way at this particular moment with all the crap we have to deal with. Guess it’s all part of football! Hope the boys come back refreshed after the break and keep it up. We’ve got in in-form Ade to handle!! lol