Gunning Down the Gunners - Manchester United vs Arsenal Match Review by Aditya Nayak (@AdityaNayak12)

We have had a lot of great Footballing matches and rivalry between these two clubs before but the game that was played between Manchester United and Arsenal yesterday was of opposite nature, a game that any football fan would not take any entertainment in watching. The Quality at display from both the sides was far from the standard expected and especially for Arsenal it was far from what they desperately needed. Long gone are the days of ‘Battle of Buffet’ the rivalry of the type of ‘Keano – Viera’ which used to make the matches between these sides so much memorable. Even the RVP transfer saga and the 8-2 embarrassment  of last year failed to light the fire up in the Arsenal squad and you can’t have high intense rivalry game if one of the teams are just mindlessly playing on the field with no real plan or intention.

Off the game however there was lot of Drama and probably will be the highlights of the match. Firstly Robin Van Persie showing Gentleman Spirit and hugging every of Ex-teammates in the tunnel before the match followed by hurling of abuses by Arsenal fans at their ex-star striker and then RVP scoring in the 3^rd minute just to make this match the perfect scripting but the game just didn’t live up to the start. Robin Van Persie’s Muted celebration certainly also muted the game’s intensity and things just died Down. United though looked threatening going front but often gave away the ball. Arsenal on the other hand as anyone would expect should have made use of the possession they were getting but they just seemed to move around with ball aimlessly and with no real intention whatsoever. The game just began to bore around and even with the moderate of football at display by United they looked very comfortable in the lead. United’s chance to increase the lead came in the 44^th minute when Cazorla held his hands up in the air inside the box and the referee had no choice but to Award a penalty. The Penalty however as has been in the recent past for United was Woeful with Rooney hitting the ball wide of the post summing up the First half of poor football.

The Second half started with unchanged squads and unchanged display of Football. United were given a glorious chance to double the lead but Valencia slipped on the cross from RVP and it turned out to be nothing but a goal kick. Wenger quickly made his move and much out of desperation by bringing on Walcott with the intention of injecting pace to Arsenal play. The Contract rebel had netted a hattrick on the mid week’s crazy 7-5 win of Arsenal against Reading and would have been thought to cause trouble to Evra but even he failed to change the game around. United finally added security to their lead when Rooney Crossed in the Short corner from young and Evra headed home making it 2 0 to the Devils. Minutes later Jack Wilshere added more woes to Arsenal by earning a second yellow and hence an early bath. Manchester United may be should have taken more advantage of the situation of the opponents but in truth they really didn’t need to as Arsenal’s play by itself was making United coast towards victory. Arsenal finally found a consolation goal in the 95th  minute when Cazorla curled in from the edge of the box. The game ended with a 2 -1 victory to united who for sure should have and would have liked to score more than that and also would now very immediately put extra efforts on their penalties. The Game might not have been another 8 -2 but the performance by Arsenal was more disappointing than last year.

Manchester United with this Victory have moved up to first place with 24 points of 10 games thanks to slipping of points by Chelsea and Manchester City.

Full Time:

Manchester United 2 (Robin Van Persie 3’, Evra 67’)

Arsenal 1 (Cazorla 90+5’)

Line-up:

Manchester United- De Gea, Rafael, Ferdinand, Evans, Evra, Valencia (Nani), Carrick, Cleverley (Anderson), Young, Rooney, Robin Van Persie.

Subs Unused: Lindegaard, Wooton, Scholes, Powell, Chicharito.

Arsenal- Mannone, Sagna, Mertesacker, Vermaelen, Santos, Arteta, Wilshere, Ramsey (Walcott), Cazorla, Podolski (Arshavin), Giroud.

Subs Unused: Martinez, Koscielny, Jenkinson, Coquelin, Chamakh.

Top Performers:

Manchester United- Robin Van Persie (8/10), Evra (7/10), Rafael (7/10).

Arsenal- Cazorla (6/10), Mannone (6/10).

Next Match: Aston Villa (A) – Villa Park, 10^th November.