Manchester United (Part 1)

Don't think you can man-mark Messi out of a game.

Well our home form has been brilliant all year so we have to back that next weekend. 16 wins and 1 draw in the league this season. A draw could well be enough - then a draw at Ewood Park and a home win against Blackpool will be enough to get over the line.

The result was what I expected. Arsenal were by far the better side in the first half, but Utd did look dangerous in the last 20 min.The way they started it looked like they had come for a point.
Arsenal don't seem to learn that playing most thing up the middle is quire easy to defend and it was ironic that the goal came from out wide after Rio F gave the ball away(again)
The hand ball by Vidic was a joke, beacuse to me it was either a corner(at first I thought everyone had missed it) or it was a penalty.(which it was)If the officals thought it was a corner they should have seen it come off his hand.
If one classes that as cheating, then Whilshire holding Carricks ankle while on the ground is also cheating.
All in all it was a good game and on the day the best team won. At least AF did shake AW hand at the end.
We are still 3 points clear with two home games. It is still there for us to lose.

f**k. Makes that game against Chelsea pretty key now

that game is going to be SO massive this weekend

Of course you'll win, thats just how it happens! When you're in good form and think you can beat United- you lose! You have more chance when you're in bad form and people have written you off...

Can I just say that was a really crap article.

So rubbish wasn't it?

Interestingly all UCL semi-finalists lost on the weekend.

He is entitled to his opinion, however he should get his facts right. Utd have already won the Community Sheild by beating ..... Chelsea 3-1.That a trophy in my book.
I agree with Junior - at least he shook AW's hand after the game.

Fletcher is suppose to return tonight - going to be a huge boost.

Hopefully he'll manage to play against Chelsea too.

Fantastic ball by Gibson

Never thought I'd say it, but that was a fantastic performance from Gibson. A masterclass even. Great passing, ran his socks off, and rewarded with a goal.

Another good performance. It will be interesting to see what the United team sheet will look like for Wembley. I'd go for this:

                 VDs

       Fabio Rio Vida Evra

Valencia Scholes Ando Nani or Park

               Rooney
               Berbatov

Maybe a little tough on Hernandez. Right back should be interesting between Fabio, Rafael and O'Shea(hope not). Also will be interesting to see the CM pairing and who will get the start up front. Park may nudge out Nani as he is a big game player.

It will interesting to see the lineup.

I do worry about Vidic, especially against pace and also when strikers drop deep and he comes out of the defensive line - something Messi does a lot. Would imagine SAF would want a mobile high work rate team so could see:

               VDS
Raf/Fab     Rio   Vid      Evra
        Fletch    Anderson
Valencia     Rooney        Park
            Hernandez

I think Hernandez should be used. His pace and movement would hopefully push Barcelona a little deeper and give our midfield some more room, allow Rooney some more space and time.

Something different could see Evra replace Vidic and have Fab and Raf as full backs.

Far more interested in the Chelsea game on the weekend.The final is 3 weeks away.
The fact that we had a 'weaker' side out this morning and won as easily as we did was pleasing. First 15min I thought it was going to be a replay of the Arsenal game-lets go for a point.
It goes to show that even if you have more possession and play better football it does not guarantee you success.
Sundays game will be very interesting to watch as there are two teams going for the title.Pretty sure the winner will take the EPL.

 

I'm pretty sure the team with the most points after 38 games will take the EPL.

From a purely lilywhite perspective I'd prefer it isn't Chelski.

From a neutral perspective having 12 players on the field should help Man U.

We've got a trip to Blackburn coming up as well which lest we forget was another game we lost in that season defining week last season.

 

I'm a little nervous truth be told, but I'll keep the faith. Rooney to score for one nil.

what a start to the game absolutely fantastic chelsea don't know what to do

NINETEEN HERE WE GOOOOOO

Congrats on the result, if you manage to not lift it from here that's an epic choke.

Hernandez + Rooney > Sliced Bread

Lol @ Arsenal20 legend2011-05-09 10:28:14

Well done!  Zonal Marking awards the credit to Ferguson's superior tactics, as you'd expect from a tactics blog, but also noted the importance of his rotation.  The main point is: he's a living legend and fully deserves another title.

There will be a few fans from some other clubs that are as sick as a parrot today. After all the bull and hype over the last 3/4 months it looks like the title has been decided.(well almost)There are one or two who still think Utd will choke, but it is more wishful thinking than anything.For all their blustering one only has to look at the league table to see that Man Utd are worthy champions.We have lost only 4 games compared to the next three teams which have lost 8,7,and 9 respectively.
That is not to say that these other teams are not very good, but perhaps the combination of good players,team selection, good tactics and a smart manager were the key ingredients to a winning team.
Chelsea were worthy opponents and I admit to being less confident than I should have been prior to the game.
I think by their standards they were not up to it this morning. If fact I think that we should/could have scored a couple more. The ref was his usual-poor for both sides.Could have easily been a red card for Ivanovic.
Am really pleased that he stayed on as I'm sure that some would have said how lucky is that.
Utd were not superb, but they deserved this win and the two standouts for me were Park and Valencia.

Gotta be United's.

Well, there it is. 19-18. You aren't getting a congratulations from me (I know, I know, I can hear your hearts breaking). But you do deserve it, I'll at least give you that.

Cue the influx of new United fans once we win the league.

There is a slight error in one of the reasons for supporting one of these clubs.
Arsenal are actually from south of the Thames and are not originally a North London club.They are from Woolwich, which is near Millwall

Phil_Style is lilywhite and knows his history.  It's good to see that others know there is only one NL club (for how much longer I don't know).

Lets say you started supporting Man Utd in 1988, you would have been supporting a team that hadn't won the league in 21 years with 2 FA Cup wins in the past 10 years and were in the 2nd div in the mid 70's. Glory chasing! (Heck Liverpool have probably been more successful in the past 21 years than Man Utd had been in the the previous 21 years leading up to 1988)

Not sure what the 2000 reference is to Chelsea, takeover was in 2003 and prior to that hadn't won the league in almost 50 years and a few cup wins.

And with Liverpool, if you started watching football in the 70's you shouldn't be allowed to support them either.

By this logic if you were born or started watching footy after 1888 you shouldn't support preston, or if you were born or started watching footy after 1893 you shouldn't support aston villa.

To be fair, if you have a professional team in your home town you should support them first and show mild forms of interest to teams from distant lands.

I imagine Simon Hampton will be one.

Even the Dutch couldn't choke from this position.