April 10th
Well, at some point we were going to pay the price for our recent exertions and yesterday was that day. Despite starting very brightly and looking quite dangerous for the first 15 minutes once United got into the game we were never quite able to change the momentum.
The main talking point pre-game was the fact that Thierry Henry started on the bench as AW felt he hadn’t recovered sufficiently from Wednesday to start the game. There was no place in the 16 for José Antonio either nor, tellingly, for Sol Campbell. We started with Adebayor and van Persie up front in a 4-4-2 and had we been going for the draw we’d definitely have started with the 4-5-1.
We had a couple of half chances, van der Sar made a good save from van Persie after Jens had made two great stops from Rooney but the big incident of the first half was when Rooney got in behind Kolo Toure, Jens got a touch on the ball but with Senderos on the post waiting Rooney’s shot was wonderfully and hilariously saved by …er… Kolo Toure.
In the end it didn’t really matter but it could very easily have been a penalty. The only reason I can think why it wasn’t given is because Rooney’s shot was so hard and Kolo’s hands were so near his head Graham Poll didn’t see it. Early in the second half United went one up when Vidic tackled van Persie near halfway, Silvestre dropped a great cross over Senderos and although he nearly got back Rooney smacked it home to make it 1-0. Henry and Diaby came on for van Persie and Cesc and not long after that they went 2-0. Rooney was played in and he squared the ball for Park to put the game out of reach. No chance after that and it was a matter of playing out time then although Senderos was forced into some excellent defending as we pressed forward.
A disappointing result and performance but if we’re going to win as a team like we have done in recent weeks then we lose as a team yesterday. Certainly it looked as if the exploits of the last few weeks caught up with us and there were some tired legs out there. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Kolo look so tired and had he kept running then he might well have stopped the second goal. Maybe though he’s suffering a bit now after the ACN because Eboue was not his normal self either. Cesc and Hleb also looked quite jaded and we probably could have done with the extra man in midfield to begin with but once you’re a goal down that becomes impossible. A word for Gilberto who was excellent though.
Anyway, we have to accept the rough with the smooth, especially this season, and the lads have given everything in the last few weeks. They’ve worked so hard and given us great nights and afternoons of football but today wasn’t our day. We can talk about the team selection but I’m sure the manager had his reasons for picking the team he did. I’m convinced Henry had to be carrying a knock, José too, and van Persie and Adebayor are capable of goals. We just lacked the freshness to play the way we needed to. Still, our destiny is in our own hands despite the loss. We may be five points behind Sp*rs but we have a game in hand, they have to come to Highbury and they have to play United as well. It’s not all doom and gloom and the defeat yesterday has to be put in perspective. It’s never nice to lose but of all the games we have coming up if you had to choose one to have an off day this would be it. Now it’s a matter of getting behind the lads and for them to start it up again on Wednesday against Portsmouth.
Afterwards AW put defeat down to tiredness and missed chances. He said “Physically I thought Man Utd were sharper than we were. We looked a bit jaded in the final half-hour, and that’s why I think Man Utd maybe deserved to
win the game. At 1-0 down we missed two great chances – one for Van Persie and one for Adebayor. Then their second goal on the break killed the game.”
So that’s it. Time to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and get back on track at Portsmouth on Wednesday.
