Robin van Persie has now scored three in three since leaving us for them. With each passing game, the decision to allow him to leave for Old Trafford looks like an increasingly daft move on part of the Arsenal board/management. This may be well trodden ground but the point becomes pertinent once again in light of yesterday’s result. When a guy scores 30 plus goals for you in a season, the absolute last thing you do is let him go to a potential rival – even if he expresses a desire to leave. It’s easy to throw around terms like ‘traitor’ and ‘judas’ but when all was said and done, the ones who had the final say on the transfer was Arsenal Football Club who thought £24m was more valuable than keeping the best player in the team. As we have seen with the likes of Suarez and Rooney,

Bold Trafford

Since Arsene Wenger took over in 1996, Arsenal have taken just 13 points from trips to Old Trafford. To put that into perspective, United have taken 12 points from matches at HIGHBURY in the same period despite the fact we left our famous old ground a full seven seasons ago. 

Arsenal’s overall Premier League record at Old Trafford reads P 22 W 3 D 5 L 14. In contrast, their record when coming to us is a far more balanced P 21 W 6 D 7 L 8.

Since 1984, Arsenal have only registered more than a single goal just once in 29 league games away to United and totted the rather embarrassing aggregate score of 44-16 in favour of our supposed rivals on their patch.

Stats rarely tell the full story but it’s difficult not to look at these numbers and see a rather damning picture painted about our struggles at that particular ground over the years. Perhaps you might want to excuse our poor record due to the fact they have been this country’s dominant football force over the past two decades but given our own forays at the summit of the English game in that time, one would still expect us to put up a better showing when travelling up there.

This season, there is no more Sir Alex Ferguson. The fact they appeared to be in something of a state of transition as try to find their feet with a new manager should have played right into our hands – especially given our incredible form going into the game. Yet again however, the outcome was exactly the same and we are sat here having to deal with a fifth consecutive league defeat at Old Trafford.

Honestly, you’d think Arsenal would even fail to get anything from a United side with a managerial “dream team” of Avram Grant and Mickey Adams at the helm.

With Flamini and Arteta both starting behind Ozil, Cazorla and Ramsey in midfield, there was reason to be optimistic. Surely we’d be able to totally dictate the play with this lot? On paper, the set-up seemed perfect but in reality, it failed miserably. Despite dominating possession, passes went astray, tempo was lacking and creativity going forward was at a premium. It was one of those rare occasions when everyone seemed to be off the boil. On one hand, you can look at it as a bad day at the office but on the other you have to wonder if there is indeed some mental block that manifests itself as soon as any team representing Arsenal arrives in Salford. The boss said the team were “nervous”. Go figure. It seems being top of the league is still not enough to buckle under the weight of history crushing down on your shoulders.

After Dortmund in midweek, one would have expected that this apparent inferiority complex when going to Old Trafford would have evaporated. You couldn’t have hand-picked a more opportune moment to go to the so-called Theatre of Dreams and bring an end to such a poor run. Confidence would have been at an all time high and Arsene’s team should have gone out on the front foot and punished a side that has looked far from convincing all season. West Brom and Stoke both showed exactly what kind of a rewards a bold approach against United could yield. Possessing far more quality in our ranks than both of those sides should have resulted in far, far better than the limp, lethargic display we were treated to.

Pers-onal Statement

Robin van Persie has now scored three in three since leaving us for them. With each passing game, the decision to allow him to leave for Old Trafford looks like an increasingly daft move on part of the Arsenal board/management. This may be well trodden ground but the point becomes pertinent once again in light of yesterday’s result. When a guy scores 30 plus goals for you in a season, the absolute last thing you do is let him go to a potential rival – even if he expresses a desire to leave. It’s easy to throw around terms like ‘traitor’ and ‘judas’ but when all was said and done, the ones who had the final say on the transfer was Arsenal Football Club who thought £24m was more valuable than keeping the best player in the team. As we have seen with the likes of Suarez and Rooney, when a club is prepared to dig their heels in, players can rarely do anything other than just get on with the job they have been employed to do. The club weren’t forced to cash in and they certainly weren’t forced to give him to Manchester United. You’ll never convince me that selling van Persie was a good idea.

Misfiring Gunns

One of the more frustrating aspects about the result was the fact that United themselves weren’t even great. It might be a bit harsh to suggest it was a smash-and-grab victory but given how much they retreated into their collective shell after Robin van Persie’s goal, they only way you can say they ‘deserved’ all three points was due to our own impotent showing in the final third. It was a poor game overall that was settled by the fact they had a world class striker and we didn’t.

Once again, our paucity of options in the up front may well prove to be the difference between success and failure this term. I’m loathe to criticise Olivier Giroud given the massive improvement from his debut campaign, but the harsh reality is that he is not in the same class as those players in the teams you would expect to making any sort of decent title push. The statistic that he fails to score outside the M25 might appear to be completely arbitrary but one can’t help but wonder if he actually does feel more pressure, is a subsequently affected by it, when Arsenal play away from home. If this is the case, he needs a deputy/understudy/replacement to fill in and that should not come in the form of a lumbering oaf with a silly ponytail, chewing gum as he takes to the field. If you are a Manchester United defender and you see Niklas Bendtner coming on, I can imagine that will only fill you with confidence. I’m certain every one of the 75,000 in attendance knew the game was over as soon as he was introduced. A story came out on Saturday night that quoted Bendtner stating that he felt ‘disappointed’ to still be at the club. Curiously, this might the first time the big Dane and Arsenal fans are actually in agreement. 

But I digress, the fundamental point is that we are crying out for a (proper) striker. Goals have been spread throughout the team this season which, of course, is fantastic. But at the same time, all the iconography about barn-doors, cows arses, banjos, and unsuccessful trips to brothels could have been attributed to our misfiring attack on Sunday. It is clear that we still need ‘that guy’ up top who will make the difference in matches such as this. Fans may be angry at van Persie but mostly because firstly, they know he should be scoring that header for us, and secondly, because since leaving, he hasn’t replaced with anyone capable of doing so.

Safe Zone?

As irritating as the goal itself were the pundits attempting to dissect and criticise the zonal marking system
that has actually served us rather well this season. Laying blame at the feet of our defensive set-up for what was a one in a hundred pinpoint cross and admittedly fantastic header is ludicrous. You’d have had trouble preventing a goal even with man-to-man marking.

Verm Warfare

If there were any positives to take from the game, it would be the fact that aside from the goal and a Rooney chance in the second half, Arsenal were never ever in danger of falling further behind and certainly not going to be overwhelmed defensively as with the last two trips to Old Trafford. Much

was made of Per Mertesacker’s absence before the game, but I think it’s safe to say that any worries about Thomas Vermaelen replacing him were put to bed as the Belgian put in the kind of performance that made him so adored when he first arrived at the club. Playing like a man trying to prove a point, post game stats show that Tommy V made the joint most interceptions in the game (4), 10 clearances – only Evra made more (12) – and won 4/5 of his aerial duels. It would be tenuous to suggest that Mertesacker might have done better to prevent van Persie’s goal so it is entirely necessary to praise Vermaelen for coming in and playing about as well as could be expected. We’ll ignore his abysmal free kick attempt in the second half…

Sagn of the Cross

A word also on Bacary Sagna and (predictably) crossing. The right back is fast becoming a lethal option on the right hand side with his delivery seemingly improving week on week. If his teammates had a been a bit more brave and/or alert on those occasions when he whipped the ball across the Manchester United goalmouth, we may well be sitting here today feeling a whole lot better about the outcome of the match.

Gunns need to reload

Like Chelsea a few weeks back, there seems to be this unfortunate feeling of inevitability when playing Manchester United. No matter what the situation, it feels as though we will always come unstuck when we face them. A chance to keep a five point advantage at the top of the table and perhaps more significantly, open up an eight point gap on them in particular was missed. That said, we are still top and while it’s never good to lose, a defeat ahead of a two week break may be beneficial as the boss has time to reflect and rectify whatever it was that made us so bad on the day. Making sure it was exactly that: a bad day. It would be foolish to think our prospects this season rest on this one result but in order to make sure they don’t, a huge response will be needed when Southampton arrive at the Emirates on Saturday week.

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