Sunday’s match turned up a lot of heroes and villains for both teams. The match itself went like most people had predicted; a close encounter that could have gone either way… that is until 75 minutes into the game, when what can only be considered a game changing event occurred. But I’ll get to that later.
To begin with, I must admit, even though I’m a die hard Red Devil, I was very impressed with Arsenal’s resilience and resurgence in the second half. They had nothing going for them after that dire first half performance; shambolic is the best adjective I can think of to describe them in the first half. The half was all about one team attacking and the other holding on for dear life (So much for vengeance). For a team that prides itself for their possession play, they seemed not too keen on holding onto the ball for very long. Even though they played 3 central midfielders in the game, it wasn’t until the middle of the 1st half that I realized Ramsey was even on the pitch while Song also seemed unusually out of sync with the game.
United on the other hand were simply superb, Giggs was priceless; before the game began I was critical of his selection ahead of Scholes but boy did he make me eat my words. He was everywhere in that first half, wrecking havoc with every through ball/pass he played. If I had to choose a Man of the Match based on the 1st half then it would go to Giggsy! The entire team were exceptional in the first half, and it was a miracle that Arsenal conceded just one goal in the period. What surprised me the most was that Giggs and Carrick so comfortably controlled the game from midfield.
The second half was an entirely different story though, at least for the first 15-20 minutes. Arsenal hit back and took the game to us. They were finally playing like a home team, especially one that was out for revenge after the humiliation they faced in the reverse fixture earlier. Van Persie’s equalizer was always just a matter of time in coming, and it came after exceptional counter attacking play, that saw two passes take the ball from Koscielny in Arsenal’s penalty area to Chamberlain on the wings, and within seconds Arsenal had equalized. This was the Arsenal that every one knew and feared too, but glimpses of this were too fleeting.
Chamberlain was Arsenal’s star man for the game. No other Arsenal player really stood out that game except for this extremely talented 18 year old, who on his debut was giving Evra and Jones/Rafael a torrid time whenever he ran at them with the ball. Wenger made two excellent decisions that game, the first was to play Chamberlain ahead of Arshavin and the other was to replace Djourou at half time.
But all this became undone with what according to was the most asinine substitution ever. Taking off Chamberlain was daft and the entire Emirates stadium didn’t hold back in letting Arsene know what they thought about his decision. Even van Persie couldn’t resist mouthing a “No!” when he saw Chamberlain’s number come up. Once Chamberlain left the equation, there was only one result.
Van Persie's reaction on seeing Chamberlain substituted
Arsene’s defense of his substitution’s post game was silly, a mixture of several different excuses uttered in the span of a minute! They were ranging from “the player was tired” to “Arshavin is the captain of Russia” to “I’ve made 50,000 substitutions in my 30 years as a manager”. But the bare fact is: Wenger messed up; and unfortunately he did so at what was probably the most crucial point in the game.
Should Wenger stay or go is something I’m not going to comment on. What I do know is that United won the game and I think we deserved to do so over the entire 90 minutes. We played well for most part of the game, and even when on the back foot we defended well. With the first game of what is probably going to be the the most important stretch of games for us in this title race out of the way with 3 points in hand, we can look forward to the games against Stoke and Chelsea with that bit less pressure on us.
Which is of course incomparable to the amount of pressure Wenger is under with the fans turning on him so badly. For Arsenal fans, I have just this to say: Good luck when Arshavin plays!; and as a Mancunian I say, I hope he starts more often!