It is no shame to lose 1-0 at Old Trafford. It doesn’t make the defeat any less painful and I truly believed we would beat them but we have another chance to beat these teams at home. You never know, we may even have Cesc, Van Persie and Vermaelen purring smoothly by then. Those three players in shape and on form will be automatic starters in the big

Good afternoon Gooners,

I am still pretty disappointed about Monday’s result, yet time has made me see things a little brighter now as is often the case. Although I am massively disappointed that we did not cause many problems for Manchester United, I liked the way the team showed they can be organised and difficult to break down. For all the criticism of our defenders this season, I thought we dealt with most of what they threw at us. Gooners have often criticised the team and manager for going gung-ho and getting caught on the break, yet when we play conservatively then we get the same sneering and anger.

There is a reason as to why the game was not the free flowing masterpiece that we hoped for, and that was because both teams set up to stop the other one from expressing themselves.

Park’s headed winner came about because of a deflection from the boot of Gael Clichy. Rooney’s penalty was not a penalty. Nani had the best chance of the game because Clichy slipped after winning the ball in the first place.

Can you remember many more clear cut chances for the hosts?

How many more attempts did they have on our goal? Anderson perhaps, but not many. And this was at Old Trafford. They have scored many goals at Old Trafford and will continue to do so. I thought our defenders coped well with their attack.

They tried to play long balls over the top of our central defenders but we dealt with that correctly. Perhaps Fergie expected us to play a much higher line.

It is no shame to lose 1-0 at Old Trafford. It doesn’t make the defeat any less painful and I truly believed we would beat them but we have another chance to beat these teams at home. You never know, we may even have Cesc, Van Persie and Vermaelen purring smoothly by then. Those three players in shape and on form will be automatic starters in the big games and could well make a big difference.

We may have produced a better attacking performance from the team had we had our best striker and creative midfielder fully match sharp. That can be the difference in those games.

In the return game would you feel more comfortable if we had our players back and they had Rooney and Nani missing? I sure would that’s for sure.

Anyway, time to zip up that game, stick it in the history folder and then set our minds on the upcoming game against Stoke at the Emirates.

It will be the usual physical battle so expect to see the likes of Johan Djourou and Abou Diaby who should be back in the squad. He is a player we could have done with on Monday. He was one of the brightest players against Chelsea earlier this season and we could have done with his drive and eye for goal.

Congratulations to the young guns who disposed of Darlington in the FA youth cup. Benik Afobe who has returned from Huddersfield scored a brace along with Chuks Aneke who also scored two. Steve Bould hailed the pair of them as two of the brightest young players in the country. Both players are coming on nicely at the moment.

A few weeks ago I mentioned that I was unsure of how much I would be able to write here on Arsenal Vision, and I have thought about packing it all in. I had a great response from many via email and some in the comments.

I have decided to take more of a back seat now as I simply do not have the time these days, so I am looking for any bright, passionate writers to contribute on the site. The only requirement I will be looking for is a higher level of grammar, spelling and punctuation than myself which shouldn’t really be too difficult really.

If you are interested then just contact Arsenal Vision with some information about yourself as a Gooner etc.

Back tomorrow.