Lots of topics as Arsenal spared Man United a true humiliation by KM
Well Well! Happy weekend everybody. What a way to end your Sunday having Man United destroyed at the Emirates, and then go off to the pub to have a well deserved drink and mock those United fans. I mean when you are a foreign fan, there are usually more Man United fans around than there are Tottenham ones and you just hate United more than anybody else.
It was thumping win. It was by far the best attacking performance I can remember in a while. Those first 20 minutes highlighted exactly what I’ve been moaning about on this site for a while. We sacked the possession football and went for pace. We were quick, lightning quick, we used fewer touches on the ball and used pace. Walcott, Alexis, Bellerin, so much pace and when you have that pace there is places where Ozil can put the ball.
It was a marvelous win that surprised everybody at the Emirates, even Louis Van Gaal. It’s not something he shouldn’t have expected. But I have to say Walcott was brilliant. Sitting just on the offside mark, making runs, going wide when he needed and that desire to take the ball from Schweinsteiger is exactly the desire you want to see when you pay immense money to see a football game.
Alexis is a beast. He scored two amazing goals. The technique on the first was sublime and the second needs no comment. Darmian was chasing shadows in the first half, he was so bad he got replaced. Now imagine The Ox on the right and Ramsey moved to the middle. That means we have tons of pace and football is a game of Athletes. Physical superiority and pace are something you can turn to your favor.
We mocked United by just walking around after minute 20. We literally stopped playing. United were poor. Terrible in defense as I mentioned before even though they came in with the joint best defensive record. We spared them, let them off easy. Ramsey should’ve put a fourth in in the first half. Then in the second Ozil, the Ox and Giroud all missed good chances and we really should’ve scored more to put vengeance on that horrible defeat few years back.
Anyway, let’s not get carried away. It was the first real performance we put in this season and although I’ll come under fire I’ll say it again. Wenger has to go. Do not jump into the short term thinking. All the top teams changed managers in recent years. Ferguson left. The stage was set for us to dominate the league. We had the money, the opportunity while others are down, for us to stand up – and Arsene blew it. He had the experience, the stadium, the money and all he needed was a few more players and a solid game play.
We have it again now and Arsene again didn’t sign anybody but Cech, but boy did he make a difference. Why was he benched against Olympiacos is beyond me. I mean if you are a player and you look at the team sheet and you see Petr Cech in goal you are happy. You know that there is a calm, world class keeper and Cech made an enormous save against Martial. I mean if it was 3:1 you might smell something, but no, 3:0 game over at half time. It also says something when the fans cheer every time your goalkeeper collects an easy ball!
He made a couple of great saves in the second half too. I mean if Wenger ever drops him again in a must win game, he just needs to go into an asylum. And the pressure did the job too. You see, Wenger started to get angry because he’s usually used to have his word like a law. But pressure got the best of him and he came out fighting, so did the players.
In the post match interview, Wenger said that when you spend so much time at a football club, you start to get acknowledged with everything around the football club which directly meant “I am practically everything at Arsenal”, which is not good, but of course when you thump United 3:0 nobody will come up to note that.
Elsewhere in the league, Brendan Rodgers got sacked at Liverpool which makes sense even though he got a tough point at Everton. Look at the League. Champions Chelsea are 10 points off top. United are rebuilding, Arsenal are shaky. If you are the Liverpool owner, you might see an opportunity here and the decision is spot on.
It might be Klopp or Ancelotti. Whoever it is, he’ll find himself in a tough position, but the new manager effect might work and their squad is not that terrible for a league as inconsistent as the Premier League. Advocaat got sacked too, which is no surprise either.
Now is a time to celebrate a much needed win, but we have to look at the long term, the bigger picture which is still unclear. On Tuesday, Arsenal were a crisis team, now they are all of a sudden champions? No, not really. Unless we show the desire of yesterday’s first half over the whole season, we’ll not be contenders. And I’m not saying this to be negative.
I believe that if we hoover round the top within a touching distance by Christmas and we buy another player or two, we might be in the race. If we drop the Champions League it might be easier. We might end up in Europa League which always makes it tough, but with this roller coaster of results in the league you never know.
In two weeks time, Chelsea might find themselves close to the top 4 if they actually win 2 games in a row. It’s funny to see Mourinho giving post-match interviews in which he hopes he lives to see another day as Chelsea’s manager. Even more amusing was the fact the refs spared Chelsea two clear Southampton penalties and he still complained about the ref.
Overall a fine weekend for the Arsenal fans. Enjoy.
Konstantin