Shot down by blazing gunners after looking like heading Rooney's way
Posted by Napolean in Alex Ferguson, Arsenal, Clubs, Leagues, Man United, Managers, Players, Premiership, Thierry Henry, Wayne Rooney | 22 January 2007
Written by Napolean
Snow in Manchester couldn’t stop the Temperature rising between two bitter rivals in Ashburton yesterday, and I couldn’t help but think that my predictions were going to come true! Although Rooney didn’t set the Emirates alight and control the game he did play well, even if out of position, scoring his first headed goal for United and producing a wonder strike not that dissimilar to Pennants thunder-looper a day earlier.
Should I feel disappointed with the result? Of course, United were the better side for the majority of the match scoring once, with Lehman having to make a few outstanding saves to prevent both Rooney and Larsson’s efforts. I can’t remember a significant chance, other than the Thierry Henry penalty appeal which on another night might have been given and his earlier far post header which Van der Sar saved comfortably, which threatened United.
At home this year Arsenal have been prolific in creating and scoring goals, so to keep them down to only one real opportunity and a possible penalty appeal for the first 80 minutes should mean that united deserve credit for stifling a very creative force while posing a threat at the other end. However, there still seems to be that self destruct button which United like to press now and again. Scholes and Evra unfortunately were the culprits for the Henry winner losing the ball and making a meal of the consequent melee of feet and limbs, but let’s not dwell on what was a lucky break for Arsenal who didn’t really deserve to win that game.
Evra has begun to show true quality and looks to be another superb buy from Alex Ferguson. A lot of people questioned what looked like another dubious 5 million pound waste of money. A left back who was light weight, good going forward but prone to lapses and bad positioning at the back. Most United fans delight at seeing attacking players being brought into the club but we all know that our main weakness throughout the years has been our malleable defence. I’m normally one to give players a season to settle in but even I was unsure of Fergie’s decision when buying Evra. Vidic came with more of a pedigree and I knew that he would eventually settle into the premiership, however, Evra was a big question mark in my opinion!
Well it looks like Fergie was astute again and has proven that he has an eye for pure quality. I still think Evra has some work to do in his defensive positional play but his passion for challenging players with venom and assuredness has increased threefold since his shaky debut in the Manchester Derby. His link up play moving forward has always been easy on the eye and he produced a wonderful ball to tee up Rooney’s opener and showed some outstanding bits of skill to rival Ronaldo.
Am I disappointed? Yes. Are United destined to crumble? No. It’s another slip, we can’t afford many more but we still sit pretty with 6 clear points gap at the top of the table. Who wouldn’t want to be in our position and have the team that we’ve got? It’s still young and it’s got passion, flair, skill and desire. A little bit more commitment and belief and we’ll be crowned champions again
Comments
Not sure how you can say that Man United had control of the match and were the better side!
Yes there were spells when United controlled the game, but they were few and far between. The second half being pretty much dominated by the gunners and certainly for the last 10 - 15 minutes United appeared to just running down the clock, which was their biggest mistake!
Have to say though, I enjoyed watching Evra.
loads of CRAP! arsenal deserved the victory simply coz we went for it while manUSA behaved like a turtle once they scored a flukey goal.
as for roon-shrek shot: lehman had full control. larssons heading: both lehman and clichy stood there, so it'd never had gone in anyway.
we owned the midfield while u had to counter attack.
fell the pain, punks!
Name Arsenal's clear cut chances then??????? United allowed Arsenal to have control in the middle of the park once we scored the goal because we were playing counter attack but were sitting too deep and as a result were punished. Arsenal didn't even look like scoring before Van Persie's Opportunism from an Henry poor attempt on goal that was going to the corner flag!
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