Manchester United: The Fallout

Here we are again. At the moment I feel like it's groundhog day. If you read my previous posts for a number of weeks now I've been saying the same thing. Need a win, sooner rather than later blah blah. And this is it all over again following yesterdays defeat.

Going into the game I was strangely confident of getting a result, foolish me. We started well and for the first half an hour we were all over them, we played well and looked dangerous. United were at sixes and sevens and it looked like this would be the time where finally we were going to beat them. But individual short comings yesterday cost us anything.

Danny Welbeck was trying way too hard to score against his old club and prove a point. That selfishness was his undoing. There were a number of chances where his finishing was piss poor frankly and another where he should have squared it for a team mate. But the worst finish of the day came from Wilshere who quite frankly could have been shot for missing one-on-one from all of 8 yards. What was even worse was that Sanchez was in acres of space to his left for a tap in.

From there the sense of inevitability was overwhelming and despite Fellaini was offside and fouled Gibbs for the 800th time in the match a shot heading wide was deflected in off Gibbs who you have to feel for. We pressed very hard and even though we were losing by only one goal it was poor management. We needed to clear our heads and get back in possession but it seemed like we have every player on the edge of the United and box and it was blindingly obvious we were gonna get caught on the break and low and behold thats what happened.

When Di Maria found Rooney it was obvious he would score against Martinez who came on for the injured SZCZ. Not his fault, it was Rooney one-on-one how do you deal with that. From there whatever we did it we were going to lose. The only silver lining was a cracking goal from Giroud on his return from injury deep into stoppage time.

We're in a bad way at the minute and we need a point against Dortmund to get through the CL group this week and I'm so far from confidence its unreal. Thankfully I'm out on Wednesday so I won't be subject to it. 

Wenger in? Wenger out? At the moment I don't know, but something needs to change and immediately.

Manchester United (H)

We appear to have escaped the break unscathed before we host an out of sorts United this weekend. We've been boosted by the news that Olivier Giroud and Mikel Arteta are back and available. Whilst they aren't the defenders we so desperately need it's nice to have them back to offer something different. We are in desperate need of confidence after shipping two leads in the same week. A win is needed this weekend and we're taking on one of the most top heavy sides in the league. 

In terms of our team news those are the only returns from the squad and Welbeck is a slight doubt but is expected to make it. Quite who will line up at the back in anybody's guess but against a team with Rooney, rvp and Di Maria they will need to be on the ball to deal with them. United are without Falcao and more importantly in my opinion Daley Blind who gave them some sort of defensive stability. If we go forward with pace and quality that we all know we have there are goals to be got against this side and quite a few at that. 

This weekends match could be an absolute goal fest the way both teams have been defending recently or it could be a cagey 1-0. It's a hard one to judge because both teams have had time to regroup after the international break so mentally they should all be focused. Make no mistake, although this match might not be the title decided that it once was it's still a huge game and it still carries huge importance for both sets of fans.

With confidence at a real low and just 4 wins to our name out of 11 league matches this season we need to buck our ideas up and sharpish. We still have a mountain of games to complete before we have to face before we can even attempt to address our problems at the back in January and if we're already out of the running by then it will be insignificant. 

Onwards. Up the Arsenal.   

Swansea (A)

Arsenal have it all to do in Europe now after catastrophically throwing away a 3 goal lead against lowly Anderlecht. For 60 minutes the gunners played like champions, with pace and intent and quite frankly a cool penalty from Arteta, a superb volley from Alexis Sanchez and a very tidy finish from the OX should have put the game to bed. The tactics from us were bizzare. Most teams at 3-0 would hold the ball and invite pressure from the opponents then break on the counter. We continued to throw men forward and in the end that cost us. 

Anyway we move back to Premier League football this weekend as we travel to Swansea. We need to put in a solid performance to boost confidence ahead of the international break. A win would send us above West Ham into fourth (it seems so weird writing that). A loss could leave us languishing in the pack and with tricky games against United and Southampton to come some points would be very handy. 

So in team news Jack Wilshere is available for selection after illness, but we are without Arteta who went off midweek with a hamstring injury. Away from home I'm not sure we'll break out the 4-4-2 formation and Wenger may favour the 4-5-1. Theo Walcott will be pushing for some more minutes having returned from injury but I can't see him starting following Wengers comments yesterday.

Swansea are going to be awkward at home and are a team we've struggled against in recent seasons. They're playing well this season and we know Wilfred Bony and Sigurdson will be a handful.The defence will need to be on form in order to keep them quiet. Gary Monk has them playing good football and we need to retain possession well and they are good with the ball.

Tomorrow is going to be a tough game. Things need to to start clicking sooner rather than later cause it still doesn't feel like we've really got going this season and with some tough games and the busy Christmas period coming up we need to hit some form sooner rather than later.