december 7th
15.45 – Manchester United 2-0 Arsenal.
Well, that was fucking shite. Two early chances aside, one which Henry should have buried and a Pires lob which landed inches wide, Arsenal didn’t trouble Utd at all today. Pascal Cygan made another horrendous error, giving the ball straight back to Man U for their first goal. Quite how the referee didn’t see Ruud van Nistelrooy control it with his hand is another question, but if Cygan had got rid of the ball instead of trying to be all fancy and play his way out of trouble, it wouldn’t have happened.
Some decent pressure in the second half from the Gunners, but we created nothing. Vieira and Gilberto were out-fought in midfield by Phil fucking Neville, Henry and Ljungberg were anonymous, Dennis came on and played like Lee Chapman, Wiltord looked like Chris Wreh’s crapper brother and overall it was a bad, bad day for Arsenal.
We talked about the experience of Martin Keown, but Christ only knows what makes him get involved with the stupid stuff he does. In the first half he slapped RVN in the mush, quite clearly. It wasn’t enough to knock a child down but of course the giant faced Dutchman made the most of it. Still, it’s complete idiocy for Keown to do something like that in the first place, and no matter how many times people say he should know better, he still does it. Expect another trip to FA headquarters for trial by TV, but there can’t really be any defence this time.
Their second goal came when Cygan was turned far too easily by RVN, he played it into Scholes who turned Keown far too easily and his shot deflected off Martin’s foot past Stuart Taylor (who came on for Shaaban who injured himself taking a kick out).
To be fair, United worked harder, looked hungrier and more determined and deserved the win. 4 league defeats so far for Arsenal this season. Maybe this will prove a defeat too far, like the one against Newcastle last season, but this time there can be no sense of injustice or unfairness about the result. We were beaten fair and square, and by a United team without Keane, Beckham, Ferdinand and Butt, with a rookie centre half at left back, a left back at centre half and Phil fucking Neville in the middle of the park.
Poxy.
