Yeah of course Owen. So coming to Arsenal and putting everyone behind the ball to stop us playing football is beautiful is it?
You couldn’t imagine that someone could dare criticise our style of play but Owen Hargreaves has done just that.
“We were keeping the ball comfortably and are disappointed to concede a goal that was quite scrappy really.
“Arsenal keep the ball and had a lot of possession, but in the first half they never got into a position where they threatened the goal, besides the header from William Gallas which was a set-piece.
“They had plenty of possession but were never threatening and football’s about winning games and scoring goals.
“I don’t think they created a clear-cut chance in the first half so we did a good job controlling their so-called beautiful football.
“Both of our goals were beautiful pieces of play, but their goals were a bit more scrappy and straight in front of the goal.
Yeah of course Owen. So coming to Arsenal and putting everyone behind the ball to stop us playing football is beautiful is it? The reason why we had more possession of the ball is because we were the team who were trying to force the issue. Manchester United played a great game, don’t get me wrong but it was a great tactical game and not a great beautiful game, if you know what I mean.
In yesterday’s MV I wondered if Arsene would play 4-4-2 against the big teams this year and he answered that very question.
Wenger said: “Sometimes Adebayor was a bit too isolated up there. Maybe I could have played Theo Walcott up front, or Eduardo or Niklas Bendnter. But I went for a different approach.
“Without Robin van Persie the balance in the final third was not completely right.
“That’s my fault. I’d look at that again.
“In the final third, we dropped a little bit too much off and that took something out of our game.
“The game didn’t reach the level in terms of technique that I’d expected it to reach, but it was still an interesting game with contrasting styles.”
I could understand the reason for starting 4-5-1 as he wanted to match United in midfield and not get over run as Rooney spent more of the game playing at a left winger with Giggs centrally. But during the game you could see that it was a case of Arsenal dominating and United just sitting back and playing counter attack football. When Arsene withdrew Eboue and brought on Theo Walcott I thought he would have played Walcott alongside Adebayor and switched Hleb to the wide right position. But he just continued the same formation. It was the same at Anfield. He replaced Rosicky and threw on Walcott on the left, even though we were the team forcing the issue.
Arsene likes to make decisions before a game and assess his decisions after the game instead of changing around his tactics during the game.
Former Arsenal full back Oleg Luzhny has taken over in charge of Dynamo Kiev as current coach Jozsef Szabo is unable to take his place on the bench due to Heart problems.
His first bit of action will be against the Mancs on Wednesday. I hope he gets his team to park the bus and stop United scoring and then moan to the press about their lack of attacking quality. Good luck Mr Oleg.
Right everyone, don’t be too down beat that it is Monday today, at least we got a chance to score some goals on Wednesday and get back to winning ways (I hope)
Until tomorrow.
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