Gunners title hopes slipping

Tuesday, 02/02/2010

It can be said that the fixture of Arsenal against Man United is no longer the mouth-watering, evenly contested battle that normal ending with one side just edging out the other in a fight to win the Premiership title, writes Gunners fan Andrew McCarthy.

Instead, the prospect of facing the Premier League Champions of the last three seasons now instils a fear amongst Gunners fans that a possible humiliation could be on the cards.

The pre-match discussion was all about how Arsenal would cope with Wayne Rooney, the man who is in the form of his life since the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo.

The signs were ominous as the striker has an excellent record against the North Londoners and was in search of that 100^th Premier League goal. His performance did not fail to live up to the pre-match hype.

The United striker did unfortunately establish himself as a member of the prestigious 100 Club, scoring United’s second as Arsenal were ripped apart in a similar fashion to last season’s Champions League semi-final, when a devastating display of counter attacking football was just too much to cope with.

The visitors took the lead when a piece of superb skill from Nani created the space for him to launch a dangerous ball into the area, which Arsenal keeper Manuel Almunia palmed into his own net. The normally reliable Gael Clichy was exposed by the Portuguese all afternoon and Almunia’s attempt to deal with the danger was just another example of why he is not good enough to be Arsenal’s number one - if we see ourselves as contenders for the title, that is!

Although attack is the Arsenal philosophy and the team normally have no difficulty in creating chances, it was always going to be an uphill struggle if United drew first blood, given their ability on the counter attack. Rooney’s goal and Park Ji-Sung‘s strike, which put Arsenal 3-0 down before the hour mark were of that mould, and embarrassingly exposed the fallibilities of our system.

We have coped remarkably well since the Chelsea game without a recognised striker, but against the so-called ‘smaller’ teams you can afford to waste opportunities and still take points. United are a different proposition.

The game highlighted the extent to which we have missed Robin Van Persie and it is a shame that Eduardo has struggled to fill his boots. Wenger’s decision to continually play Arshavin as a lone striker is wrong, as the Russian produces his best performances operating in a free role.

With the absence of Nicklas Bendtner, there is no doubt that the boss has made a mistake in failing to buy a striker and there is too much reliance on the magic of Cesc Fabregas.

The weekend’s result must be forgotten fast if we are to stand any chance of bouncing back, as we did after an 11-point gap opened up following the Chelsea defeat back in November. The only problem is that our next fixture is against the league leaders from Stamford Bridge!

A win would put us right back in the race, but with the form Chelsea are in, a win would surely be a minor miracle. They are five points above us with a game in hand and defeat could potentially establish an 11-point gap between them and ourselves again – this time, it will be too late it claw back such a deficit.

After the United game Sir Alex Ferguson urged Arsenal to go and ‘batter’ Chelsea. On this evidence... no chance.

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