almost every player, both sides, nagged the ref after calls. Heinze looked good, my friend, Utd Supporter, loves him now, but does not want him to dribble the ball upfield.
Regardless of quality of players, Arsenal lacks the mentality to beat ManU, they have not in their last 5 attempts to do so in competition despite the fact that we missed Rio and Ruud in a victory for us last year. Its not always the skill of the players, its heart, guts and determination. When you create 2 scoring chances the whole game I would have to say that your game fell apart... coming into this game no other team had kept you off the scoresheet and you had scored 29 goals in 9 matches. In those games you did not simply finish the 3 or 4 chances you got, you created many chances and had alot of good play in the box. In this match you did well in midfield, but had nothing at all in the box. I cannot remember an Arsenal player with time to breathe in the box other than Henry's miss. We had 52% of the possesion which means the ball was split fairly evenly. I don't think we had much brilliant build up on our part, but due to our defense you could not score or get chances from anything but brilliant build up, which you lacked. This sounds a bit confusing but basically i mean to say that our offense was not brilliant by any means, but because your defense was not as good as ours, we were allowed chances while Arsenal forced just 2 saves all game long compared to the five Lehman had to make. So while we did not dominate the game offensively - I think its fair to say our defense was dominant and that we controlled the game to a certain extent. Excellent points here... we scored and you had to go forward which left you exposed. However, Ronaldo's chance was not on a counter, he was damn near the goal line when cole took him out at the edge of the area. You had defenders back and men in the box but Ronaldo got the better of him. Another thing is while the penalty call was dubious in the eyes of some this remains true... Rooney had Sol beaten after he had beaten Cole, thats 2 defenders in the box (Cole, if it was him and i think it was might have been at the edge of the area) if you dont concede a goal after that you should count yourself lucky. Yes, it was bad that Rooney dove - no argument here, however, worse penalties have been given and at least the defender was indeed beaten and the dive was not the result of the player having lost the ball or lost hope of creating something ala Toure and Ljunberg. So while we all can agree that it was not a penalty, we can all also agree that had 2 Arsenal defenders not get beaten, it would not have happened... so yes, blame the ref, but at the same time ask Sol what the hell he was doing. Ljunberg clearly became a convert to the shoulder charge because later in the game he muscled Ronaldo (who was trying to spark a counter on his side of the field) off the ball in much the same manner Rio did him, no foul called their either. Another point I think is fair to point out... fouls... 23-20 Arsenal to United fairly close - its a good barometer to judge how a game was called.
The world of football has gone diveCrazy. Fall down and you are diving. Get knocked over and it was dive. Interference, the foul, does not have be intentional. The interferer does not have to make physical contact to bring on the foul. Get pushed off balance, slide headfirst into the sideline ads and you are an olympicMedal winning diver. Interference in the box is desperation on the defenders part and a foul and a penalty. Its called A Penalty Area Giggs should/could have chipped Lehmann. We need playersLounge Cam and TunnelCam included with the PPV. Its become so much a part of ther game. All the gooners could hope for was to steal and early one, hang on, and get out of town. They could play for a draw. They couldn’t. Theatre of Nightmares for them. They play well against teams who play one striker. They almost give away a goal so the teams will defend. Then they play their game. Attack attack at t ack ack ack…they hem them in and squeeze out the draw or heavens, a win…its boring. We threw attackers at them in places they had not thought of along with a dose of oh hello philip and they were doomed . The skies opened up and flushed away the streak. The end of the run turned into a soupLine bust up. Peasants again, or was that always. Actually it turns out that they were a team of bullies on a streak of luck in a game that thrives on the draw. Picking the draws is the big winner isnt it ? Was the streak fixed !
The thing I liked about that game is Arsenal didn't score. United defense was outstanding. They shut down Henry. Was I the only one who saw Phil Neville hacking down Henry? That is what EPL defenders need to do. Reyes had too many knocks that rendered him ineffective. Ljungberg and Bergkamp had good chances but they were interrupted on time. The one on one Henry had with the keeper is nothing. Keepers are part of the team. Rooney was marked out of the game too, but like any top striker, one moment of brilliance from him changed the game. Honestly I don't know what Ruud did in that game other than scoring the penalty. Now the league has officially begun. Who are playing Arsenal next? They are there for taking now. Pool, get ready to take your three points.
There could be something to that, don't know, can't be proven. You could have probably said something to the same effect abut Utd when Arsenal won the league at Old Trafford. I'll agree, your defense was better on the day. Thanks for the complement. I think we still would have had more men back had the situation of the game been different and Cole might have defended differently. Don't know. I agree. The defense should have difused that before it got so dangerous. Why not if it works. In a tighly called game that gets called. In a loosely called game it doesn't. No prob there. It was consistent. Pretty close in every facet of the game. As previously said, your defense was a little better on the day.
Henry : "I can't believe you just stuffed me! You don't even start regularly for Northern Ireland." Carrol : "Shhhhh! There, there, it'll be okay lil' guy."
I think the game was pretty close and United came up as the winner, Arsenal lost the game but it doesn't alter the big picture as Arsenal still have an 8 point lead. United did what they had to do, I think United have now found a way of winning against Arsenal,in Old trafford,which I hope you should not be considered a tactic especially in the champions league against the Italian sides, I hope Arsenal don't think by any means they were better than United, they didn't step their game up and frankly I think they thought they didn't need to fo sho
That and ManU shut down their lanes + they didn't deal with that. Plus, if Viera would've put 1/2 the energy into playign the match that he put into badgering the ref would've helped too.
Just before nipping out for work this morning I saw a segment on Sky Sports News where they had an american United supporter, in some US bar from the looks of it, saying how pleased he was at the win. I was just wondering if anyone else had noticed it and if it was one of our own here at BS.
It would be one of the regulars at Nevada Smith's in New York City I would guess. I saw the same report, but I didn't recognize them straight away as I only get there twice a year or so...
Yeah I saw that too. Didnt they talk to an irish guy too. There was a big United flag in the background.
Try not making up news next time. Or not using year-old news articles. Man Utd 0-1 Liverpool Danny Murphy ended Liverpool's penalty curse to boost their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League. Murphy scored the winner from the spot after 63 minutes following a reckless challenge by Gary Neville on Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard.
i knew about that one i also knew about the Blackburn one anyway its 2 penalties which is still very small compared to anyone else