Match Reaction v Man Utd (home)

[Power n Glory]

It was probably the most irrelevant game between Arsenal and United in many years and it's obvious the EL is of more importance for them, however Mourinho's sarcastic reaction about making Arsenal fans happy suggests he cares a lot more than he let on. You can bet your bottom dollar he'd be lapping it up if his record over Wenger was still intact.

So fuck you Mourinho and I sincerely hope you choke in the EL.

It's a strange one. For a Wenger vs Mourinho, Arsenal vs Man Utd tie, it was pretty irrelevant. But our players went out and did their job. More steal to our game and looked a bit more aggressive off the ball and going into challenges. Committed and not half hearted.

Still need work. Attack wise we created some good chances but still had moments where we looked blunt and out of ideas. 2nd half, Sanchez looked to be staying out wide more. That took him out of the game. Not sure why we're not playing 2 up front. I don't think Welbeck can play as a solo striker and Alexis has underrated passing skills. Think we need to go back to the days where we had a striker partnership. It’s possible since moving to 3-4-3. Why not play 3-4-1-2? Besides Alexis, we don't have a striker that can play as solo act up front.

[selassie]

Yeah I think he was trying to spoil things for us by downplaying the result

He will hate losing to a man he sees as beneath him, as far as I'm concerned Mourinho isn't in anyway the same manager he was and is living off his reputation. But I despise the man, and would love it if they got beaten by Ajax in the EL final

Yep I hear ya. Maureen is yesterday's man, nobody really cares about him or listens to him anymore.

He's spent 250million and they haven't really improved, if I was him I'd be really worried about that.

[Niall_Quinn]

We don't really play any set formation. It's all very undisciplined with players abandoning their posts under the pretence of playing interchangeable roles. But they really don't, instead we see the midfielders dragged out of position, the defenders caught out when they stray or get pulled. It's a mess really. Against a negative, bus parking Utd it doesn't matter as much. Against the spuds our ramshackle bag of formations were easily exploited. Watching Juve play was a lesson in what a good coach can do in terms of enforcing a system but allowing just enough flexibility. And that was against the most potent attacking force in Europe, statistically. Such as shame Wenger didn't fuck off so we could land a decent manager like that.

Anyway, even if we switched to two up top it wouldn't really be like that. We'd see the strikers having to drop deep, we'd see them playing with their backs to goal and we'd still have that lack of presence in the box. Plus we'd end up leaving big gaps. Wenger admitted it himself, we aren't playing a 3 at the back with offence in mind, we're doing it so we can play 5 against ambitious teams. The defensive showing had reached the stage where we had to make sacrifices elsewhere to shore it all up.

The win against the gypos hinged on the easily dominant and creative Silva limping off and being replaced by that bag of shite Sterling. That gave us the crucial edge. The win against Utd was down to a silly Maureen sulk where he sabotaged the team and the tactics because he doesn't have enough faith in them to grab top 4 so he's piling all his eggs into the alternative basket.

To my mind we haven't improved one bit. All we've really seen is that starting Giroud is stupid and suicidal, that's about the only thing we have learned - though I doubt Wenger has noticed. We "played well" against Utd because they allowed us to and because we're judging against a pitifully low standard.

[Letters]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/39840233

Also he embarrassed himself again on MotD2 talking about a comparison with La Liga.

Like a sulky child.
Don't care.
Didn't want to win anyway.

Whatever...

[Niall_Quinn]

The Nevilles have distinguished themselves as almighty dickheads.

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

The Nevilles have distinguished themselves as almighty dickheads.

you say that as if it's something new

[Herbert_Chapman's_Zombie]

I'll be honest football offers such few pleasures these days, one of my greatest pleasures in the game is watching a side managed by Jose Mourinho lose

It's cathartic

And even if yesterday was a nothing fixture, it's the kind of game we would have lost in that way before....a fortuitous goal. No i wasn't fist pumping or jumping up and down with joy the time for that has well and truly passed, but even in the state we are in, if we can't enjoy beating that narcissistic tosser than we might as well follow another sport.

[Penguin]

Wenger doesn't understand the system he's using. He's got Ox at right wing back and Ozil wide right in front of him - that's side's obviously going to be targeted. Spurs ruthlessly exposed that but Wenger didn't change a thing yesterday. Ozil still didn't bother helping out in defence, and Ox, as hard as he tries, is not a good defender. Luckily United were poor but it's worrying that Wenger doesn't see these things.

We look really uncomfortable with the formation still. We should have more width with two wing backs but we don't make good use of it. Also our three forwards always seem to be isolated so they can't combine with each other. The problem isn't with the formation but how we're playing it. Wenger's idea of management is to pick the team and let them work out how to play themselves. No direction.

I wouldn't mind moving to a 3-4-1-2 like Delusion suggested so we can move Sanchez closer to the other striker. Might give us more of an edge in attack and it will also let Ozil move back to a #10 position where he'll be more effective and he won't have to worry about defence. Although we will need to rely on the wing backs even more for width, and we can't afford to let Ramsey go wandering as we'll need the extra midfield protection.

[Özim]

Yep I hear ya. Maureen is yesterday's man, nobody really cares about him or listens to him anymore.

He's spent 250million and they haven't really improved, if I was him I'd be really worried about that.

He's only been there one season, usually takes him about a season to get it right, reckon next season Man U will be a different animal, it's what happened at Real and Chelsea, but he may end up with to cups this season in the end, the league form doesn't usually come together until the 2nd season.

The Man U teamhe took over was awful, but he's got some signings right, Ibrahimovic was pretty good till he got injured.

[Özim]

Wenger doesn't understand the system he's using. He's got Ox at right wing back and Ozil wide right in front of him - that's side's obviously going to be targeted. Spurs ruthlessly exposed that but Wenger didn't change a thing yesterday. Ozil still didn't bother helping out in defence, and Ox, as hard as he tries, is not a good defender. Luckily United were poor but it's worrying that Wenger doesn't see these things.

We look really uncomfortable with the formation still. We should have more width with two wing backs but we don't make good use of it. Also our three forwards always seem to be isolated so they can't combine with each other. The problem isn't with the formation but how we're playing it. Wenger's idea of management is to pick the team and let them work out how to play themselves. No direction.

I wouldn't mind moving to a 3-4-1-2 like Delusion suggested so we can move Sanchez closer to the other striker. Might give us more of an edge in attack and it will also let Ozil move back to a #10 position where he'll be more effective and he won't have to worry about defence. Although we will need to rely on the wing backs even more for width, and we can't afford to let Ramsey go wandering as we'll need the extra midfield protection.

Let's be honest, we're rubbish and these half arsed results don't paper over any of the cracks, we've lost a hatful of games recently and won the odd one, maybe our best game was against Man City in the cup, but Chelsea will send us packing in the final so it will prove meaningless and unless we're very lucky and other teams do us a favour so will todays.

This fixture ten years ago was something special, but with the state of the two teams now it's meaningless and not even something to look forward to.