Samir Nasri was our best player in the opening minutes, he had drive, energy and control from both central midfield and left wing. Next season will be a big season for the young lad who is still only 21 years old

Match Review – Arsenal 1 Manchester United 3 – Champions League Semi Final 2nd Leg

Sometimes you have to hold your hands up and admit that we were deservedly beaten over the two legs, hats off to Manchester United who had a mixture of hard work, good tactics and deadly efficiency.

I wish them well when they are hopefully beaten by Barcelona in the final in Rome.

This isn’t the usual way I would start a match review but I will make an exception today, I want to say how proud I am of this young team for giving their all for the club, it wasn’t to be this year but it could have been so different.

We started the match just as we wanted to, we flew out the traps and passes the ball quickly in between Manchester United. They were instantly on the back foot as we were last week. Cesc and Nasri were interchanging and the opposition found it difficult to pick our players up.

We had to be positive and take the game to Manchester United, we needed to keep it tight defensively but unfortunately for Arsenal, Ronaldo was played the ball into space down the left, without much support he fired in a left footed cross that Gibbs would have routinely controlled and played it into a central midfielder but his turn was too sharp and he slipped. Park took a touch and fired it past Almunia on 8 minutes.

That goal sucked the sprit and energy out of the team, they must have been shell shocked. All the hype and focus gone in an instant. It was now a mountain to climb, but the boys had to pull up their socks, 3 goals at home against Manchester United is not impossible.

3 minutes later Manchester United won a free kick outside our penalty area, a little off center. Surely Ronaldo was going to cross a ball into one of the towering center backs, well that was what Almunia must have thought, instead Ronaldo struck the ball hard and straight into the corner of Almunia’s net from a difficult angle. Some have critised the goalkeeper for not getting more on the shot but when you look at how hard the ball was struck it is hard to pin any blame to our keeper who was man of the match at Old Trafford.

Whatever you say about Ronaldo the guy is a wonderful talent. Not many players in world football strike a ball with his technique. Instep of his boot arrowing at a target is very difficult to stop. 2-0 and pretty much game over with just over 70 minutes to go. That is what made it so hard for everyone. The fans who started in wonderful voice, soon vanished and stopped waving flags.

Most of the players dropped their heads, Arsenal had barely got started and it was all over. Any team in the world would have found it difficult to be mentally strong at that point.

Arsene reverted back to a 4-4-2 from the 4-5-1 that he started with. Nasri pulled out to the left and Cesc slotted back into central midfield.

Samir Nasri was our best player in the opening minutes, he had drive, energy and control from both central midfield and left wing. Next season will be a big season for the young lad who is still only 21 years old.

Ronaldo and Rooney started to show that extra spring in their step and combined on 18 minutes, Rooney ended with a curled shot being pushed out by Almunia, diving away to his left.

Manchester United were once again blocking our creativity. Theo Walcott did not get the chance to stretch his legs when on the ball and gave it away several times after being crowded out, time and time again. Adebayor once again found it difficult to get involved in dangerous areas and Van Persie who has just returned from injury was looking out of sorts.

Arsenal continued to push forward in search of a goal but when the confidence is gone, it is remarkable hard to carve anything out.

At half time poor young Kieran Gibbs was replaced by Emmanuel Eboue which is a terrible shame for the boy. It is hard to know if that change was for offensive tactical reasons or if it was because Gibbs was not in a good mental state to play the second half.

On the hour it was game set and match, Arsenal were attacking the Manchester United goal which they cleared, Park powered up field and slid a perfect pass to Rooney who was on the left, his left foot cross found Ronaldo in the box to finish high past Almunia. It was a perfect counter attacking goal of efficient, controlled passing.

It reminded me of the Arsenal of a few years ago, box to box in a blink of an eye. Walcott and Arshavin did it at Anfield a few weeks ago, it is said to be the best and most efficient way of scoring a goal.

Van Persie had our best shot in the 64th minute when he cut inside and drove a shot straight at Van Der Sar. The 64th minute kind of told the story.

Manchester United could start thinking of Rome and replaced Evra and Rooney who were a booking away from missing the final. Darren Fletcher had that very same punishment on the 74th minute when he was adjudged to have fouled Cesc in the penalty area, he received a red card for being the last man but replays showed that Fletcher may have got a touch on the ball before Cesc went over from the challenge.

Robin Van Persie blasted the spot kick high in the corner of Van Der Sar’s goal, unsaveable but far too late to make a difference.

That is pretty much how the game finished. Manchester United are the holders and showed a ruthless streak of clinical finishing that sometimes evades our young team. There is no doubt that when we are on our game we play the most attractive brand of football in the English Premier League but Manchester United are still the quickest and most efficient side, probably in the world right now.

It was very disappointing to see fans leaving the stadium after an hour, supporting is not just about trophies, it is about supporting the players who wear the shirt, win lose or draw.

I have read some fans blog headlines about an end of an era and so on and the irony is just laughable. This is the very beginning of something great. If it was the invincible that lost last night then I could understand to an agree but we have so many young players who are getting better and showing quality. We have come up short this season in three major games so we know we are not quite ready yet but just getting to two semi finals alone shows that we are on our way.

Something that stuck with me was when one of the commentators said that part of Manchester United’s success this season was the group of players that Ferguson has had to choose from have stayed pretty much fit throughout the whole campaign apart from Owen Hargreaves and Gary Neville.

Last night we played our most important game of the season without William Gallas, Gael Clichy, Tomas Rosicky and Eduardo Da Silva. Robin Van Persie our stop scorer was clearly unfit.

The Manchester United players have been able to have a settled side for most of the season and develop relationships on the pitch, partnerships, understanding. We have not had that luxury. Many like to see this as an excuse, I tend to see it as a fact.

I am disappointed that we will not win any silverware, that is natural as a supporter but I am proud of the team and club for reaching that far. We were not good enough to win it this year but if we can keep this group of players together then we will have many more semi finals to look forward to.

WE LOVE YOU ARSENAL, WE DO! WE LOVE YOU ARSENAL, WE DO! WE LOVE YOU ARSENAL, WE DO!.. OH ARSENAL WE LOVE YOU!