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.

Man United (H) - Review

Again sorry for not posting before the United game, but it's been a busy weekend for myself again. We got a point and if you'd have offered that to me beforehand I'd have taken it. On the basis of the match I think a draw was probably the right result but it's just frustrating to know their only goal came due to our own mistake.

We flew out of the block and for the first 35 minutes we were all over them, a few United hangovers were still looming in my opinion and after 2 minutes, Rosicky who had a blinder found Walcott in space (who was offside) and although De Gea got a touch on it, the power took it in. Our problem this time was not finding that second goal. Podolski who I'm still not convinced is fit, smashed a shot but it was easily saved by De Gea. 

Then the mistake from Sagna. He was dithering with the ball and his pass went straight to Van Persie who charged past him. In his effort to get back and correct his error he took Van Persie down inside the area and it was a penalty. You can have no complaints. Of course Van Persie scored and as much as I hate him to his credit didn't celebrate again. That knocked us back and it took us a while to get going again after the half. United went through a spell of 20-25 minutes where they were in total control but couldn't make it count. The final 7 minutes of so where really end to end and either side could have nicked it.

Without Giroud, we had to start Podolski who had his moments but I'm still not sure about his fitness. We spent a fair amount of money on him and it would be crazy not to play him because if he has been unfit this season, so far he's done pretty well. Rosicky also played really well and along with Podolski and Cazorla, one of the few players who will actually shoot and as the old saying goes if you don't shoot you don't score. Both I think can be a little disappointed about being taken off.

With Tottenham dropping points yesterday we sit 2 points above them having played a game more and are now behind Chelsea by a point again having played a game more, but we have to remember that the game they both have in hand is against each other (got it?). I look at our last 3 games: QPR, Wigan, Newcastle and they are all winnable matches. If we win all 3 I think we'll be there. A Chelsea win against Sp*rs would help no end but all but end our hopes of finishing 3rd, but quite frankly I'm sure every Arsenal fan would take that right now.

The end of the season is gonna be close and almost certainly nerve racking. Until next time have a good week!