Im going to keep it quick and to the point. You guys won 2-0 today. Our record now stands at 49 and we are 8 points clear of you. I'll be honest and say I don't think you deserved to win. Riley was awful. On the penalty, well it was a dive - but equally you had a legitamate penalty turned down so it evens out. We passed better and attacked better, but in a years time the thing that people will remember is the result. You won - well done. No sarcasm. I still think we will win the league though. Im shattered and drained. The atmousphere in the stadium was incredible and the noise was very loud. A good game to go to, a pity it was spoilt by a small minority of neanderthal Man U fans trying to attack Arsenal fans as we left the stadium. It wasn't pleasant, trust me. The protest was hardly eventful either, I have a couple of pics of the protest banner that was put up. I will put it on the Arsenal board tomorrow. Rick
Re: Round one this season to Man U Don't make me laugh. Arsenal only created two chances: one Carroll saved on Henry, who failed to show up in the big game again, and the Cole shot. If you consider that slick attacking football then you are never going to score on Chelsea.
Re: Round one this season to Man U You didn't attack better. Rio had anyone who bothered passing the half way line in his pocket. Carrol had one save to make all game.
Re: Round one this season to Man U You do realize, you might as well have put "ManU Wins Against Arsenal!!!" in big shiny letters in the thread title...........right?
Re: Round one this season to Man U I disagree with you on Riley, rickbreese. He had an good game. He made a couple of mistakes but it was a difficult game to ref with tremendous commitment, bad blood between players and a wet pitch. He initially showed considerable tolerance of the conditions and talked sensibly to players and the the first two cards only came later and effectively for repeated fouling by Cole and G Neville. In doing this he kept a cap on the violence and stopped the game deteriorating into something really nasty. He can't be blamed for the penalty. We only know contact didn't take place because of the slow-mo camera from behind the goal. From his angle he couldn't have known. What's more, had Rooney not "dived", then he would have been tripped. It was only the dive that prevented contact being made (unlike Toure's effort, it was more of an attempt to exaggerate Sol's infringement than a dive). He would have gone over anyway. The Cole tackle was clearly a penalty but was also was hidden from him by Cole's body (the linesman should perhaps have seen this infringement). The foul by Rio on Ljundberg was a pig of a decision for him. It was a foul but had he given it then everyone would have been screaming for a red card. But it wasn't a red card - that's given for denying an attacker from going one and one with the 'keeper. But in this case Ljungberg had lost control and it was Carrol's ball. No one-on-one would have occurred, so no red card. Had he called a foul though, I think a ruckus would have occurred demanding the card. Arsenal did not deserve to win - they only created one clear cut chance - Henry one-on-one with Carroll (and credit to Carroll for his save) - and two half chances to Cole and Bergkamp. The whole Utd defence was superb not just in keeping a clean sheet against a team that had scored 29 goals in just 9 games but denying them any opportunity to continue that record. Man of the match was certainly Rio, he is a colossus in defence, but I thought Scholes played very well. He was called on to play a much more defensive role than he likes but did so without the usual wild tackles. He also made half a dozen of the most perceptive passes in the game and was simply the most creative player on the pitch. What does come out of this match is that Utd really do not need to play two DMs. If you can close down a rampant Arsenal team like this (arguably the best in Europe) with only Phil Neville at DM then you can easily do the same to any other team with Roy Keane there. Despite his loss of pace he's still head and shoulders above Phil. Great result! We went into the game with morale way down against a team with confidence sky high and playing some of the best football in Europe. We matched them, shut them out and took a couple of important, if fortuitous, goals. Hopefully Alex has seen the light - we play 4-4-2, we play it consistently and we make no more than a couple of changes at a time unless forced to by injuries. If we do that we can pull back the points deficit if Arsenal slip up again.
Re: Round one this season to Man U Everyone should rep macho for that clear, well-put post. 10 out of 10 refs in that field position would've called a penalty for the first foul/dive and 7 out of 10 in that field position would've called Cole's tackle another. Whether bad or good, until they allow replay in soccer, shite ref calls will decide matches. I'd prefer a less controversial decision for a win myself as nothing sullies a game like a ref's call. My hat's off to you Arses as I feel you were quite unlucky with that call. I still think that, considering his position on the pitch, he made the same call that 10 out of 10 refs would make...
Re: Round one this season to Man U Hat's off to you. I also think Riley was awful, but you made the most of the opportunities you had. It seems to me that a draw would have been more fair, but football isn't always fair. I have to agree that your central defense has certainly come together, and Rio and Sylvestre make an excellent combination. Sincere congratulations on your victory.
Re: Round one this season to Man U It is astonishing how much better Silvestre is with Rio alongside him. He seems calmer and I think the fact that Rio is there to clear up any errors he makes gives him a confidence that he lacks when he's the "senior" central defender.
Re: Round one this season to Man U They really do seem to complement each other well. Earlier this season it seemed like Silvestre got lost a lot of times, but they were a great combo today.
On the Ljungerg incident, Silvestre was with him when the ball was played, heck - Silvestre was closer to the ball, but then he started jogging when he saw Rio sprinting to get back. Pissed me off...
Serious question here, is Silvestre fast enough to keep up with Ljunberg? Rio is one fast dude, and I think he and Freddy were pretty even in the sprint with Freddy maybe a quarter step ahead. I don't have the impression of Silvestre as being that fast. No excuse for not trying to stay with your man though. (BTW, I am just responding to your post, I didn't notice what Silvestre did on that play)
Re: Round one this season to Man U how many saves did Lehman have to make? Utd had 12 shots total, 5 on goal Arsenal had 12 shots total, 6 on goal thats pretty even, it was a mid-field battle with a few chances that Utd capitalized on
i'm just going by what it said on soccernet.com how many Utd shots were on target? I think Lehman made 4 saves, i can not remember them all. He made a good one on Giggs, Heinze went over the bar, Jens made a few to this right down low that I remember.
Silvestre is very very fast... i think he would not only stay with Freddy, but probably win a race with him, he may have been tired, or just out of it or lazy, but he does have great pace... he started his career similar to the way Ashley Cole did... he was a LB and would get caught out of position but his great pace allowed him to come back and get his man. He has since improved his positioning although much less than Cole has and of course now he is a CB. ----------------------------------------------------- how many saves did Lehman have to make? Utd had 12 shots total, 5 on goal Arsenal had 12 shots total, 6 on goal ----------------------------------------------------- As for that statement I cannot remember 6 Arsenal shots on goal at all... I remember Henry and one or 2 in the first half. Lehman had to make 5 saves though, that seems about right and one of them was a swerving powerful shot from Heinze. However, stats aside - there were only really 2 clear cut chances for Arsenal... Henry and Cole's volley if u call that clear cut. For United Giggs and Rooney had shots blocked that were in good positions and heading towards goal, Heinze's shot was good, Ronaldo missed from 8 yards with the ball coming to his feet, and also missed a header that he won. There were just more clear cut chances for United than there were for Arsenal, not saying the game could not have been tied, but to me it seemed like we were the team on top that was more penetrative.
i got the stats from soccernet. I can only remember henry, with Carroll making a save and a few others, 2, maybe 3 max. utd had more chances on goal and capitalized on the chances they had with Rooney's goal. Regardless of Rooney's fall, Utd put more pressure on the area to create chances.