Well, not exactly the ‘audacious’ away performance Arsene had promised us, was it?
I think the first thing we need to say is that Man United played very well. They stretched us as often as they could, looked dangerous from the first minute to the last, and there’s no doubt in my mind that they deserved to win the game.
That they probably deserved a couple of goals more than they scored is not my problem. We have Manuel Almunia to thank for that. The Spanish keeper made three or four fantastic saves in the first half and without him we’d almost certainly be out of this tie now. He was Arsenal’s man of the match on the night, no question about it.
They went ahead through John O’Shea. Poor defensive play saw Kolo Toure, who was marking O’Shea, run off to try and get the ball like a schoolboy. When the ball came to the back post O’Shea was umarked and lashed it home. And if he hadn’t two other unmarked players might have done the job for United. It was extremely bad from a defensive point of view, but not very surprising.
And we can sit here and say that United played well, there’s no shame in that. Ronaldo might have scored in the second half, his long range shot, as we backed off him, smacked off the crossbar. Sylvester headed a clearance over the bar, Ronaldo blasted another half chance over the bar, Giggs had a goal ruled out for the most marginally correct offside, and that’s just at the front.
At the back United were really excellent. We got behind them a couple of times in the first half but barely troubled them subsequently. Vidic and Ferdinand won everything against Adebayor and bar one Cesc shot in the first half, an Adebayor shot on about 75 minutes which went well over and a late Bendtner header we didn’t trouble them at all.
So, before this becomes a United love-in, the point I want to make is this: when you’re playing a team who are playing that well then you need your players, all eleven of them, to dig in to get back into the game. I don’t think some of our players did that.
I’m thinking primarily of Adebayor and Diaby who were really, really disappointing last night. The big striker didn’t get a kick, didn’t even try to jump for some headers, and I know we didn’t create much but he didn’t do enough in my book. His job was to try and hold it up, but every time Vidic got there first, both in the tackle or in the air, and we struggled because of that. I know you can point to the fact he was playing on his own up front against the best central defensive partnership in England but I don’t think it’s unfair to say he had a very poor game.
Diaby was the same. Lazy when it came to defending, he had an 18 year old full back behind him, playing against Ronaldo who, while he’s certainly a cunt, is one of the best players in the world. The number of times Kieran Gibbs was left two on one was not funny. Diaby also suffered the Adebayor problem of first touch bouncing off him about 10 feet away – when we did have possession so much of it broke down with his poor control or dribbling in dangerous areas. And it’s frustrating because I find it hard to understand why a player wouldn’t give 110% in a game like that. If a Champions League semi-final against United can’t motivate you then there’s something wrong.
The main problem as I saw it though was the deployment of Cesc in the support striker role. My thinking on this is very fucking simple: Cesc is our best central midfield player by a long, long way. Therefore play him in central midfield.
One because we lose his calmness and ability on the ball in that position and two because he’s not really very good as a support striker. I know he got two goals against Boro but, you know, it was Boro. They’re shite. United aren’t shite. Cesc might outpage the lumbering Huth but he’s never going to get near Ferdinand or Vidic in a race for the ball. Pace is not his arsenal.
I just think playing all the players out of position weakens us. Cesc is not a support striker, Diaby is not a wide midfielder, Nasri is not a central midfielder, Adebayor is not a strik … oh. But play the three central midfielders in central midfield, Barcelona style. Let Nasri on the left and Walcott on the right push on a bit and support the striker.
I just think Cesc is absolutely wasted in that position. He’s much better deeper, he gets on the ball more, he can see the passes that others don’t see, and I’d be a bit upset if he played there in the home leg. I also find it hard to see the logic of playing him there when Nasri is probably better suited to the role. That the manager is using a number 10/winger in central midfield speaks volumes about the quality of the players at his disposal, in my view, but that’s a whole other argument and not one for today.
However, to move from the negatives to the positives we have to give huge props to Almunia who made top saves and swept up beautifully at times. I thought Gibbs did well when you consider the quality of his opponent most of the night and Alex Song battled hard in midfield.
As well as that we have to think that we got a bit lucky to be bringing this game back to the Grove at just 1-0. It’s difficult as it is. A United goal means we have to score three to win the game but let’s face it, it might have been much worse and I don’t expect us to play that poorly in the second leg. You do need some luck to go through and maybe Ronaldo’s shot that hit the bar, maybe the fact we rode our luck and kept it at 1-0 is what we need.
There’s no question we need to play a lot better though. United wanted that game more than we did last night and that’s hard to take. However, we have to look at it as half-time. We have 90 minutes to put it right. One goal could, with the aid of a penalty shoot-out, see us through. So we have to regroup and the manager has to be a bit braver in the second leg.
Cesc has to play in his natural position, we should play 4-4-2, we have to go and attack them, and that is when we’re at our best. It was disappointing last night and we’re on the back foot, no question, but it’s not over yet.
It was a difficult game played at a high pace. Manchester United started stronger than us and if you look at the clear cut chances they were on top, of course, tonight. The positive is that we are only 1-0 down and we are still to play at home. I am convinced you will see a different Arsenal at The Emirates. It will be a good opportunity to show our character and our mental strength.
I’d rather we saw a little bit of our character and mental strength last night but there you go. It’s advantage United as it stands and it’s probably going to take our best performance of the season to get to Rome. But at home, 60,000 fans, semi-final of the Champions League, against United, it promises to be an incredible night next Tuesday.
More, and an Arsecast, tomorrow.
