Manchester United 2 Arsenal 1 - Time for Tough Decisions?

Well that was a high scoring enough match to just clear the 2.5 goals mark but my guess about Arsenal winning the game was hopelessly wrong. Though I would say that I was not completely wrong about Arsenal dominating the game. They managed to look the more assured in possession but their defence and certain individual mistakes let them down, allowing United to carve them open at will. I will be the first one to say that the 2-1 scoreline totally undermines how well United played and how terrible Arsenal was. In this match, I set out to look at Arsenal's defence(the supposed tightest in the league) and also the much heralded Jack Wilshere. Of course, both failed in their duties terribly.

The most obvious point of Wilshere's performance is his rashness. As early as the 13th minute, he lunged into a terrible tackle on Cleverley and got a yellow card for that. His second one came against Evra, where he was late in the tackle yet went in ferociously and smashed into Evra's ankle. Indeed, he could have been sent off in the 55th minute, where he went at Van Persie from behind and was lucky to escape a second yellow then. Some might say that this is a one-off behaviour from the Arsenal prodigy. To that, I will disagree as this has been a mainstay of Wilshere's game even since before he got injured. Check out some of his fouls from the 2010/11 season. He likes to go into tackles hard and Arsene Wenger will need to curb this behaviour of his before he can really develop into a star. Of course, this might just be due to the rashness of a young player(same as Cleverley) and will slowly phase out as he develops.

A big part of Wilshere's game is his ability to read the game and think a step ahead of others. This game, he showed that perfectly. Often, when he got the ball, his first touch is a pass to a team-mate in space. The problem arose when his team-mates were not on the same wavelength as him and often slowed the play down by taking unnecessary touches. Quite why Wilshere released the balls so soon upon getting it can be debated too. One reason why he did not wait for the opportunity to make a killer pass can be attributed to his inability to take on defenders or even hold up play as seen in the 35th minute where he was easily dispossessed and looked lost near the corner flag without support. Conclusion for Wilshere: more hype than performance.

On to the next point: the Arsenal defence which is said to have been vastly improved. Apparently not today. Firstly, the number of individual mistakes were dreadful, with the main culprit being Thomas Vermaelen. The scuffed clearance that led to Van Persie's goal was as rookie a mistake as can be. He seemed way too relaxed and at any game in the league, he just cannot afford to do so, though few will have the quality to punish him the way Van Persie did. Vermaelen again was the culprit in the 46th minute, where his over-confidence led him to bring the ball smartly away from one United player but turned right into another one. Lucky for him, the 2v3 situation it led to was wasted by United. Individual mistakes were also committed in abundance by Santos, who often dallied on the ball or was sloppy in his passes, allowing United to regain the ball in dangerous positions.

Secondly and more troubling for Arsenal fans, the Arsenal defence did not work as a unit at any point in the game and looked in shambles. The opportunity for United's attackers to be offside was practically non-existant, due to the positioning of Arsenal's defence. One prime example was when Vermaelen put Van Persie on side in the 21st minute by failing to push stay along the line of his fellow defenders. Another instance came on the 87th minute, with Mertesacker right in the middle of nowhere with his colleagues much higher up, giving United the chance to make a run and a through pass. All these allowed United's creative players to provide such good passes, with Carrick and Rooney doing most of the work in this aspect.

typical scenario in the game

Arsenal was only saved by the wastage of United's attackers, whose first touches were unusually heavy.

Arsene Wenger's game plan was foiled right from the start. Noting the danger United possessed on the flanks, he tasked the full backs to press heavily on the flanks. What he did not bank on was for United to take full advantage of the space left by the full backs pressing and this was shown in the first goal as well as in the 33rd minute where Vermaelen and Santos both pushed and allowed Cleverley space after he received a ball over the top.

This particular fault happened throughout the game(watch 24th, 26th and 57th min for more examples) and Arsenal fans should feel suitably angry that Arsene Wenger did nothing to amend this during half time.

A dismal performance by Arsenal with the only bright spot being Sagna's return with a pretty good performance and Arsene Wenger will have a lot of thinking to do after this game. I wonder whether he is tough enough to make the tough but right call, which will be to drop his captain in favour of Koscielny, in lieu of the former's dismal performances throughout this season and not just today. Even if not, Wenger will need to make sure someone takes leadership in the defence and they could be missing Szczesny more for that than his goalkeeping skills.