Man Utd 0-0 Arsenal Player Ratings

Well as a writer on the blog I SHOULD give player ratings for both teams, but then, I was too busy focusing on Arsenal so if I were to give ratings for United it probably won’t be accurate.

Good game at Old Trafford. Neither teams scored (that’s rare between these 2 teams) but both teams attacked. Arsenal really impressed me as I thought they would not be motivated to fight for a win. I was wrong, but Arsenal lack the edge in attack for them to score. They need a good striker next season.

And one annoying thing about Arsenal I’ve experienced so far this season, is that they totally suck at set-pieces. Van Persie always hit the wall or other players during his freekicks, and his corners always get cleared easily. Same goes for Arshavin. Fabregas is a better set-piece taker but I’ve seen very little goals from set-pieces this season for Arsenal. Need to train up in that department.

Anyway, here are the player “report books” for Arsenal…

Fabianski (6.0) – Quiet but effective suits him best in this match. He wasn’t really tested but he made many important and correct decisions which gave him his clean sheet, such as pressuring Tevez when he was open, and coming out to claim several balls from crosses or corners. This might be too early, but I see a bright future for the Polish keeper.

Gibbs (6.5) – Good performance. I think he has put behind his mistake in the CL semi-final and he’s impressing critics once again. Didn’t truly stopped Ronaldo but the Portugese was quiet so you can say he did his job.

Toure (6.5) – A hard one to give. Solid as always, but I don’t think he deserves a 7 as he made 1 really bad mistake, almost giving Carlos Tevez a goal. Besides that he was a top defender in the match. And another thing, I just love how he took a page off Ronaldo’s book and used it against him! That was funny and you should look at Ronaldo’s face.

Song (6.5) - Tempted to give a 7 but I wanted to be fair to Toure cause Song didn’t really play better than him, yet I feel he’s played well. He wasn’t that good on the tackling side of defending but when it comes to interception he made quite a few.

Sagna (7.0) – Another great performance. I feel he’s the best Arsenal players in this match. Didn’t contribute much in defence but he overlapped consistently and caused a threat to the opponent a number of times.

Denilson (6.5) - Like always, he was anonymous in the match, yet if you watched carefully, he actually made quite a few important interceptions and passed well to start attacks. The unsung hero of Arsenal. He still needs to up his game and make the world watch him.

Fabregas (7.0) – Was the pivot of most Arsenal attacks. He even had Arsenal’s best chance to score, but van der Sar did well to save it. He played well when Arsenal passes slowly, but Fabregas still needs to learn to execute the perfect killer ball. That’s what Arsenal lack. 1 point to note though, is that I feel he plays better in the “Xavi” kind of role. He can join up attacks better in a deeper role, so I think that’s how he should play.

Nasri (6.5) – The opposite of Fabregas in terms of style of play. He belong on the wings if not in an attacking-midfielder role. He dribbles well and linked up nicely with Sagna and several players. However, I feel he still needs to learn to “take control” of the game, if you know what I mean. Want the ball? Ask for it or take the ball and do magic with it, not wait for a teammate to pass to you then turn on the creativity. Nasri’s good enough to have that kind of authority.

Diaby (6.0) – Really quiet. Didn’t do much attacking-wise or defensively. I believe his days at Arsenal are numbered unless Arsene Wenger still feel there’s room for improvement for him at Arsenal. Diaby should seek his fortune elsewhere.

Arshavin (6.0) – Might be a little harsh but I felt 6.5 was a little too much cause he didn’t start any big attacks. I love one of his sparkling run, sidestepping 3 defenders before missing the chance to shoot, but after that, he was just quiet. Make simple passes but didn’t had any convincing ones. Also, on this particular occassion, he lacked the killer touch he always showed in his past matches. He hesitated to shoot and took too much time on the ball. However I wouldn’t say it was actually a bad performance; it was just average.

van Persie (6.5) – I feel he just can’t play upfront alone. He’s best at “linking up play” between the midfielders and strikers, and he’s just not that out-and-out striker. But does Arsene have a choice? Adebayor should be benched for his bad performances recently and Bendtner and Vela still hasn’t proved thier worth. Arsenal need to sign a new striker unless Eduardo can cope. A side note, I wonder just why the hell van Persie slipped so many times in the match. Maybe it was raining but I don’t see other players slipping as often. Buy a new pair of boots (preferably Nike lol)!

Man Utd, Champions of England... AGAIN. Arsene, when will it finally be our turn?

Dariano

No Risk No Reward? As a Fan, will you Accept a Man Utd Win this Saturday to Convince Wenger to Splash the Cash?

I really hope Arsene Wenger doesn’t read this, cause once he reads it the main point behind the article is gone.

I always like to sum up my article in my title; just by reading the title you should know what I’m going to write about and hopefully this helps.

“No Risk No Reward? As a Fan, will you Accept a Man Utd Win this Saturday to Convince Wenger to Splash the Cash?”

That is the topic I’m going to talk about today and some of you passionate Gooners should be wondering, “WTF!? Who the hell would want Arsenal to lose to one of their biggest, if not THE biggest, rival?”

Well I’m not going to spoil the whole article by telling you my stand. I’ll let you read the significance behind this Saturday’s match between Man Utd and Arsenal first.

The Hype

They hype behind this match is rather huge for Man Utd fans. Why? Because it’s a match against Arsenal of course! And all they need is 1 point to seal the EPL title. What better way to win the title then beating your fiercest rival to it? It’s somehow equilavent to killing 2 birds with 1 stone: beat yor rivals and win the title. But then if you miss no birds get killed so Man Utd would try hard to prevent that.

The Battlefield

The Theatre of Dreams, Old Trafford (Trust me, it hurts for me to write that :P) will be the battleground for this confrontation and again this adds up to the anticipation to the match. It would be a great moment if you could hold the trophy up high so all your fans can see what the team has fought hard to achieve. So excuse me for my previous statement, but I believe it’s now equivalent to killing 3 birds with 1 stone. And by the way up till now I still don’t quite know which is better: Winning the title at your rival’s ground or in front of your own fans at home. So those of you who have thoughts on this, do tell me.

Also, this kinda reminds me of the 2003/04 season, when we won the title at White Hart Lane. Ahhh the memories… I miss the likes of Henry, Bergkamp, Vieira and co. Just when the hell are we ever going to hold up the title again!? I really hope Wenger understands our situation.

A More Arsenal-Related View

After writing so much, I’ve yet to touch on my main point for today. As a fan, do you pray and hope that Man Utd win this Saturday so that it will convince Arsene Wenger that this current Arsenal squad isn’t good enough and if something isn’t done, we’ll continuously get thrashed by our rivals? Less than 2 weeks ago, we got beaten 3-1 by Man Utd, and just last Sunday we again suffered defeat at the hands of Chelsea, losing 4-1. 2 rival thrashing in less than 2 weeks. It’s really difficult for any fan to watch the match against United and Chelsea over again, and this Saturday’s match could just be the icing on the cake, the finishing, killer touch. This Saturday could just be the end to our misery. Yes, I’m not messing up my English here. This Saturday could really be a blessing in disguise as losing to Man Utd might finally convince Arsene Wenger to splash the cash on necessary players, rather than go for average signings like Silvestre and Bischoff. Hence, that’s why I said this Saturday could actually put all these atrocities to an end.

Arsene Wenger, the Man Behind Everything

We all know how thrifty Arsene Wenger is when it comes to the transfer market. Admit it, Arsene Wenger is one stubborn arse. 2 seasons ago, many Arsenal fans believe Arsene Wenger shouldn’t sell club legend Thierry Henry. BUT he did not listen and he sold him. That, however, has yield positive results (to some extent). Last season we showed that even without Henry, we can still achieve as a team, but ironically, this season we’re in need of a new striker (I’ll touch on that some other time). The best evidence so far was last season. Almost every Arsenal fans told Arsene Wenger “Sign a defensive midfielder, FFS!” but he followed to his beliefs and gave the first-team spot to Denilson. The result? We’re being outmuscled by other teams and we’re losing on the “physical” side of football, which has cost us dearly on some occasions. Don’t get me wrong, Denilson isn’t such a bad player some of you imagine him to be. It’s just that he’s not a holding midfielder and that has had implications on the way Fabregas is playing this season.

However, sometimes spending the money does work. Andrei Arshavin is the best example. He cost Arsenal an estimated 16 million euros but he has been really impressive so far; scoring 4 goals against Liverpool and winning the “EPL Player of the Month” for April. This shows that, money can bring you far if spent correctly.

For those who aren't convinced...

Sadly, I have to say, Arsene Wenger will not change his transfer policy no matter what. Maybe a Man Utd win would change it temporarily, forcing him to sign more players during the summer. But over the long run you’ll still realise those expensive signings only come here and there and that youngsters and cheap signings are still his priority. It’s his character, it’s his personality and his way of life, so I doubt anything can change that as he’s had this policy since his early Monaco days.

The expression hasn't change, and neither will his transfers.

Finally, My Stand on the Discussion

If you’ve read my article carefully, you’ll realise most of my points Arsene-negative (or, Arsenegative lol), and that I’m most towards the hope of a Man Utd win. Well I won’t take sides, I’m just going to tell you these few lines:

As a Gooner, I hope Arsenal would win Man Utd. In fact I will never want Arsenal to lose any matches.

BUT, deep in my heart, I really think that Man Utd should win this, which will hopefully convince Arsene Wenger to accept the fact that signing average players will never win us trophies. We’ve waited for 4 long years and most of us are sick of waiting.

Don’t get me wrong, I would love it if Arsenal beat our fierce rival, Man Utd. But I hope Arsene Wenger understands that even if we were to thrash Man Utd 4-0, our current bunch of players are not good enough for silverware and we need better players. Splash the cash if necessary, but also remember to spend wisely. Spend smart.

Phew. Perhaps my longest post yet. Tell me whether you will hope for a Man Utd win this Saturday so Arsene Wenger will finally change a little of his policy, or you really believe he will never change and that it’s sinful for any Gooner to hope for a rival win. Remember, everybody has his or her own opinions so don’t flame each other please. Tell me by adding your thoughts in the comment box.

One last thing, I’m still collecting comments to send to Arsenal.com with the aim of encouraging Kieran Gibbs to continue working hard after his mistake in the CL Semi-final. So far we’ve only gotten 19 comments, and I believe the number of comments alone might upset Gibbs. But I’ll definitely state that we’re a small site so of course we won’t be getting thousands of kind words. However I’m sure we can do better, do for those who haven’t done it, do send your regards to Gibbs and hopefully motivate him to work harder than before and become a youngster for the future. The thread can be found here.

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Dariano

Send Your Encouragement to Kieran Gibbs

For Arsenal fans (myself included), everybody knows what happened just nights ago, enduring the  heartbreak of losing to one of our rivals in the Champions League semi-finals. But instead of lamenting ourselves over it, why don’t we do something positive?

All of us know that Kieran Gibbs made one a costly mistake in the match, slipping and then allowing United to score. How devastating that could be for a 19 year-old boy. However, this kid has a bright future ahead of him and what he needs to do now is to get his confidence back on track. And WE can do that for him. Why don’t we send some encouragement to him? Everyone loves encouragement, no matter how good you are.

So here is my big plan: To collect as many comments as possible, then send Arsenal.com those comments through email.

Some of you would argue it’s a waste of time, but then, think about it. How difficult is it for the webmaster of Arsenal.com to tell his boss to inform Arsene Wenger of the comments? Then Arsene Wenger can tell Gibbs about it and he’ll probably have a look. There is no harm for Wenger in doing all this; he knows as well as us that encouragement from the fans is what he needs. The whole process only takes minutes, if not days.

If you are interested, click on the article’s title, then post a comment in this format:

Name: Darren Chow

Location: Singapore

Message: Cheer up Gibbs, you’ve lots of potential. Don’t let the incident get the better of you! What’s over is over, get out there and show the world what you can do!

Lol… Sorry if you find my message corny. Try to keep your message short and sweet. If you don’t feel comfortable leaving any of your particulars, you can skip it.

And 1 more thing: You do not, I repeat, do not, need to be an Arsenal fan to send your regards. So even if you’re a Chelsea or Liverpool fan, you can also send encouragement! Tell your friends to participate too. It would be awesome if a Man United fan send some touching message for him! Come on, we support different clubs, but we all love football don’t we.

I hope to see the kind words rolling in. Good luck!

Time To Become The Humble One

He may be known as ‘The Special One’ but Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan team looked far from special against reigning English and European Champions Manchester United on Tuesday night. Mourinho’s Italian Champions played host to United in this last 16 first leg Champions League encounter but never really looked in control of the game going on in their domicile that is the San Siro.

United who opted to start with Ryan Giggs behind Dimitar Berbatov instead of the conventional two strikers exploded out of the blocks and quickly banished any ideas that their modified formation was going to be in any way a defensive one. Twice Cristiano Ronaldo found himself in the box for free headers on goal, Giggs raced through for a one on one with the outstanding Julio Cedar and United also picked up numerous free kicks on the edge of Inters box which enraged the home bench. How they went in at half time goalless was a mystery and something they’ll be hoping doesn’t come back to haunt them in a fortnights time.

Mourinho must have inflicted some home truths at the break while mustering up a come back plan with his players as Inter came out in the second period with a completely different outlook and dynamic. They pressed the visitors and began creating chances to the delight of the majority 80,000 fans cooped in the magnificent San Siro. Zlatan Ibrahimovic moved left and gave John O’Shea a torrid time with his quick feet and overwhelming power. Estaban Cambiasso started to get a grip on the midfield that had been run in the first half by United’s Michael Carrick and the superb Darren Fletcher. It seemed the Special One was earning his wage but Manchester United who continued to offer a threat to the opposition remained composed, patient and dangerous.

The English visitors did have to soak up periods of pressure in the second half but still managed to create numerous chances to score that illusive away goal Sir Alex Ferguson believed they would get. Giggs had the better of the chances as he rolled back the years and raced through the Inter defence stepping over the ball and giving the shimmy to his marker, however his effort was blocked well by substitute Ivan Cordoba.

The game on balance did tilt in Manchester United’s favour and the difference in class between the Premiership and Serie A was blatantly clear in the opening half hour. The pace and tempo of United was far superior to their opponents that it took until the break for the home side to understand how they needed to play in order to contain their English counterparts let alone beat them.

Mourinho may have won the battle he fought whilst at FC Porto against Ferguson and danced down the Old Trafford touchline, he may have won the majority of the Chelsea, Manchester United domestic crossfire’s but this is a war he will not win. Ferguson holds all the cards this time and his team are on a completely different planet to Inter Milan when it comes to class and pedigree.

The special one will need to learn how to become the humble one come March 11^th as losing has never been something he does too graciously and on this evidence an Inter Milan defeat will be a certain outcome on what will indeed be another special night under the Old Trafford lights.

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