Arsenal vs Man Utd

[King Of East]

Arsenal 1 - 3 Man Utd

Manchester United outclassed Arsenal at the Emirates to maintain the pressure on Premier League leaders Chelsea - and brutally expose Arsene Wenger's title ambitions.

Sir Alex Ferguson's champions unleashed a devastating display of sweeping, counter-attacking football inspired by the brilliance of Wayne Rooney and Nani.

Wenger had outlined the importance of the meeting with United in the context of the battle to win the Premier League, and by the final whistle saw his hopes placed in painful perspective by a masterful United.
United now stand only one point behind Chelsea having played a game more, but the manner of this victory will send out the message that no-one will find it easy to wrest the title away from Ferguson's side.

Nani, so long a figure of frustration at Old Trafford, has rarely performed with more threat and finesse than he did in the first 45 minutes here as he ran Gael Clichy ragged and ensured United had established a two-goal lead by the interval.

He baffled Arsenal with a stunning piece of trickery that forced uncertain Arsenal keeper Manuel Almunia to turn his cross into his own net after 33 minutes and then set up Rooney's 100th Premier League goal four minutes later.
United caught Arsenal cold as they turned defence into attack, Rooney sprinting from just outside his own area to take a return pass from Park and finish in style.

Ji-Sung Park graphically illustrated the gulf between Arsenal and United just after half-time when he took advantage of a path lack of resistance to run unchallenged from inside his own half to beat Almunia.

Thomas Vermaelen's deflected shot late on set up an Arsenal rally of sorts, but the scoreline barely reflects United's superiority as they gave the Gunners a painful lesson in ruthless, cutting edge football.

United boss Ferguson opted for Nani ahead of £15m summer signing Antonio Valencia - and the success of the decision was probably beyond all his expectations as the Portuguese winger tortured Arsenal.

Andrey Arshavin offered early optimism for Arsenal's fans with a couple of trademark twisting runs and shots off target - but they turned out to be a false dawn as United soon moved into a different class to Arsenal.
William Gallas needed to make timely interventions as United's crisp passing threatened to carve United open, with Nani the primary source of danger as he proved simply too fast and too clever for Clichy.

And when Nani helped fashion United's opener after 33 minutes, it was the signal for a blistering passage of play that saw Arsenal's hopes of getting anything from such a crucial game disintegrate.

Nani tricked his way past Cesc Fabregas into the area with sleight of foot worthy of his celebrated former United team-mate Cristiano Ronaldo, although Almunia should have done a lot better than palm the ball in with a feeble attempt at clearance.

United topped that for quality four minutes later with a goal that, for Arsenal, bore the grim hallmarks of Ronaldo's third goal in the Champions League semi-final second leg at The Emirates last season.

Rooney, not far from the edge of his own penalty area, released the rampaging Nani down the right-flank, and arrived at the other end of the pitch on cue to drill a low finish past Almunia and send Ferguson out of his technical area and along the touchline in sheer delight.
Nani should have made it three when Rooney found him unmarked at the far post, but his goalbound shot took a crucial touch of Vermaelen that went undetected by referee Chris Foy and flew wide.

If Arsenal had any hope of mounting a fightback they were emphatically snuffed out seven minutes after the interval in a manner that would have been as embarrassing for Wenger as it was satisfying for Ferguson.

Park ran from just inside his own half, free from any Arsenal challenge, and accepted what was almost an open invitation to slip the simplest of finishes past the exposed Almunia.

Vermaelen gave the discontented Arsenal fans a moment of cheer after 80 minutes when his shot was deflected out of the reach of Edwin van der Sar by Jonny Evans - and there were even further opportunities to set up the unlikely prospect of a thrilling finale.

Gallas headed wide of an open goal and Vermaelen saw a shot blocked by Patrice Evra, but Rooney displayed a rare moment of fallibility by wasting the opportunity to give the score a more realistic appearance, shooting wide in stoppage time.

[TOPGUNJIMMYAUFC]

3-1 great effort

[coachingsoccer]

Intense, fast paced game. Pleasure to watch.
What striked my eye in this game - Man Utd's counter attack play. Second goal (by Rooney) way a state of the art when it comes playing on the break. Third was a decent counter attack move as well, but the second goal...
Show it to the players you coach whenever you can, lots can be learned from this move.

[El Capitano]

Were back!

[Le King]

ripped arsenal apart, shoulda been 5-1
nani was amazing, spewin they didnt show a replay of that lil flick he did jst b4 he scored the goal, im on youtube now lookin 4 it
phhfffff clichey best LB in the league lol

[Chelsea4thewin]

yeah best LB is ashlee cole by a fair way

i knew arsenal would slip up as soon as they played someone decent

we will beat them next week and pretty much end there season, cant see them getting close at the bridge

[Le King]

yeah best LB is ashlee cole by a fair way

i knew arsenal would slip up as soon as they played someone decent

we will beat them next week and pretty much end there season, cant see them getting close at the bridge

hope ur wrong n they snatch a point
but they did play gd, jst couldnt finish, arshavin missed a few sitters, especially after we scored our 2nd

[Kunta Kintay]

Gunners fans nowhere to be heard. At least Whinger didn't blame the referees this time.

[East Boy]

Gunners just cant match the physicality of chelski and Man poo. They both have strong players and the arsenal light weights cant match it with them. They've got a tough few games coming up and might just slip out of contention.

[Litmanen]

Gunners just cant match the physicality of chelski and Man poo. They both have strong players and the arsenal light weights cant match it with them. They've got a tough few games coming up and might just slip out of contention.

Next week is the big one, now that they've lost to Man U at home.

One thing that is good for them is that Essien is out, he would have gone to Fabregas, much like Carrick did successfully this morning. Without him i guess Ballack is the man, but.... he's no Essien.

All things considered, i'm guessing 3 - 1 Chelsea. Hopefully Drogba hasn't lost any of his previous form.

[Le King]

Gunners just cant match the physicality of chelski and Man poo. They both have strong players and the arsenal light weights cant match it with them. They've got a tough few games coming up and might just slip out of contention.

Next week is the big one, now that they've lost to Man U at home.

One thing that is good for them is that Essien is out, he would have gone to Fabregas, much like Carrick did successfully this morning. Without him i guess Ballack is the man, but.... he's no Essien.

All things considered, i'm guessing 3 - 1 Chelsea. Hopefully Drogba hasn't lost any of his previous form.

played great today, n ppl think hes overrated!

wats with walcott, is he all hype no action?

[The Kop]

Rooneys goal was 100% CLASS.
Lays the ball off and sprints his guts out at least 80-90 yards to be on the end of a Nani through ball.
Then sublime first time finish to ice the cake.

Just give him the player of the year awards now.....

[Litmanen]

Gunners just cant match the physicality of chelski and Man poo. They both have strong players and the arsenal light weights cant match it with them. They've got a tough few games coming up and might just slip out of contention.

Next week is the big one, now that they've lost to Man U at home.

One thing that is good for them is that Essien is out, he would have gone to Fabregas, much like Carrick did successfully this morning. Without him i guess Ballack is the man, but.... he's no Essien.

All things considered, i'm guessing 3 - 1 Chelsea. Hopefully Drogba hasn't lost any of his previous form.

played great today, n ppl think hes overrated!

wats with walcott, is he all hype no action?

Walcott suffers because Wenger doesn't play with wingers anymore (as far as i can tell anyway).
People say Carrick is overrated cause you payed shitloads for him

[Ubietz]

I think the way SAF has handled Nani to be nothing short of managerial skill, experience and maybe even a bit of cunningness.

2 months ago he was whinging and moaning for a move. Ask Nani now if he wants to stay at Manchester United.

[simoo3]

arsenal fans are here.
i thought we didnt play to badly to be completely honest we had spells were we should of scored but the lack of finishing cost us.
this is the type of game were the whole debate about getting a striker has the point we needed a pure finisher and didnt have one.
soon as it goes 1-0 and 2-0 down then the game is pretty much over as united shut up shop pretty well.

[ozzie owl]

arsenal fans are here.
i thought we didnt play to badly to be completely honest we had spells were we should of scored but the lack of finishing cost us.
this is the type of game were the whole debate about getting a striker has the point we needed a pure finisher and didnt have one.
soon as it goes 1-0 and 2-0 down then the game is pretty much over as united shut up shop pretty well.

Need true clinical striker, you can't get away playing midfielders/wingers converted into makeshift strikers.

[simoo3]

arsenal fans are here.
i thought we didnt play to badly to be completely honest we had spells were we should of scored but the lack of finishing cost us.
this is the type of game were the whole debate about getting a striker has the point we needed a pure finisher and didnt have one.
soon as it goes 1-0 and 2-0 down then the game is pretty much over as united shut up shop pretty well.

Need true clinical striker, you can't get away playing midfielders/wingers converted into makeshift strikers.

not against good teams you cant.
and this proves it all january i knew coming into these games we would need someone but we continued scraping wins scoring from midfield so he didnt buy.

[M160RA]

soon as it goes 1-0 and 2-0 down then the game is pretty much over as united shut up shop pretty well.

Did United "shut up shop" at 1-0, or was it 2-0? Or maybe it was at 3-0.

[simoo3]

soon as it goes 1-0 and 2-0 down then the game is pretty much over as united shut up shop pretty well.

Did United "shut up shop" at 1-0, or was it 2-0? Or maybe it was at 3-0.

no but i mean like they turn more defensive doesnt mean they wont score again you

[El Capitano]

Fabregas who?

Well in Carrick

[TOPGUNJIMMYAUFC]

1st half replay ....half time now....


hahahaha how did nanni do that an scored...



http://www.sportsviews.com/signup9.php? ... =FB&id=542

[Le King]

Fabregas who?

Well in Carrick

I think u mean cristiano who ;)

[delfino_1936]

[ronaldo07]

I almost shed a tear when rooney score that 2nd goal ..
great play by united .. as for nani, he prove me wrong again !!! fantastic player !!

Fabegras -

[The Joker]

What is with counter-attacks at the Emirates?

[Motley]

Big win for United, Chelski know we are not going away.

[Red-4-Life]

the run Rooney did to receive the ball before he scored was class.

Man U vs Chelsea for the title i think from here. Arsenal not far behind them

[Nice One Cyril]

Intense, fast paced game. Pleasure to watch.
What striked my eye in this game - Man Utd's counter attack play. Second goal (by Rooney) way a state of the art when it comes playing on the break. Third was a decent counter attack move as well, but the second goal...
Show it to the players you coach whenever you can, lots can be learned from this move.

Plenty to learn not just from an attacking standpoint.

First goal, Nani does well to beat the two players on the wing, not much they could do about it except bring him down but then Denilson dives in and commits when all he has to do is stand Nani up and slow everything down to allow the rest of the defence to get set.

Second goal, watch Denilson again. Starts 10 yards in front of Shrek but has eyes only for the ball and jogs the length of the pitch. He only sprints as Rooney flys past him by which time it's too late.

Great result though. Now I hope Chavski stick half a dozen past them.

[M160RA]

soon as it goes 1-0 and 2-0 down then the game is pretty much over as united shut up shop pretty well.

Did United "shut up shop" at 1-0, or was it 2-0? Or maybe it was at 3-0.

no but i mean like they turn more defensive doesnt mean they wont score again you

Wow, Simochimp,another internet hard man!

[ronaldo07]

ripped arsenal apart, shoulda been 5-1
nani was amazing, spewin they didnt show a replay of that lil flick he did jst b4 he scored the goal, im on youtube now lookin 4 itphhfffff clichey best LB in the league lol

I heard that this game has been showned with 3D resolutions in UK- something like Avatar !!
Ahh that would be amazing to see that little flip from Nani on 3D !!