Arsenal: Szczesny, Sagna, Vermaelen, Koscielny, Gibbs, Arteta, Flamini, Ozil, Ramsey, Cazorla, Giroud
Subs: Fabianski, Jenkinson, Monreal, Hayden, Gnabry, Wilshere, Bendtner
A first half header by Robin van Persie was enough to down Arsenal at Old Trafford as the reigning champions ended the Gunners 15-game unbeaten streak on the road. Arsene Wenger’s side were far from their best throughout a turgid game struggling to create any chances of merit. If there is a positive, and really we’re clutching at straws here, it’s that the Gunners remain top of the Premier League by two points going into another interminable international break following a topsy-turvy set of results elsewhere.
The big news pre-game was the absence of Per Mertesacker and Tomas Rosicky who’d both fallen ill with a bug which had reportedly swept through the Arsenal ranks on the eve of the game. Mikel Arteta and Serge Gnabry had also reportedly suffered symptons although the Spaniard still started alongside Mathieu Flamini, who returned after two games out with a groin problem.
The first half was reminiscent of all too many disappointing away days at Old Trafford in the last 20 years. Our passing was hesitant and often wayward, intended targets too far from those on the ball, and we created nothing in the final third.
Olivier Giroud looked very isolated, Santi Cazorla, Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil anonymous, Flamini pugnacious but careless and our full-backs two often forced onto the back foot by Evra, Valencia and Kagawa.
We didn’t necessarily looked like we were going to concede, but after Thomas Vermaelen tidily cleared a dangerous Rooney cross in the 26th minute we suffered a lapse in concentration from the resulting corner and the Dutch Skunk of all people crashed home a header high over Gibbs at the left post.
They didn’t particularly deserve to be in the lead, but we’d created so little we could hardly complain. We mustered a solitary header from Giroud over the bar, but like on Wednesday against Dortmund the first half ended without a shot on target.
Both Wojciech Szczesny and Nemanja Vidic took nasty blows to their respective bonces in the minutes before the break. Phil Jones picked up a booking for carelessly crashing into the Pole with his head before Flamini got one of his own for a tackle dripping with retribution.
You wondered whether we were out of sorts because of illness in the camp, we really did look lethargic.
Ramsey stuck to the right wing much more from the off in the second period and it seemed to open up our game. Ozil and Giroud combined on a couple of occasions to force United onto the back foot, the former hitting the side netting after the ball fell to him following a cleared corner. Ramsey also tried his luck from 30-yards only to scuff his effort straight at De Gea.
The more we pushed forward, the more we were exposed at the back. Rooney had a great chance to double United’s lead after flicking the ball past Sagna on the edge of the box but his shot squirmed past the post.
Before the hour mark Flamini was withdrawn in favour of Wilshere, Ramsey moved to the centre and Ozil shuffled to the right. We kept the ball much better, in part because United were happy to sit back and hit us on the break, although chances were still few and far between.
A great Sagna ball into the box flashed across the goal, only Kieran Gibbs getting near it, before the left-back had a daisy-cutter of a pot shot a couple of minutes later which never really troubled De Gea.
Our lack of options on the bench were sorely exposed when a muted Cazorla was withdrawn in favour of Bendtner with 12 minutes to go. Gnabry represented a final roll of the dice, on for Arteta, four minutes later and he was quick to set-up Giroud who faked to shoot but was subsequently blocked. The French striker did get a shot off in another move moments later but it was blocked wide.
Three minutes of added time saw another Sagna cross flash across the box but Bendtner, despite diving for it, couldn’t make contact.
Oh how we could have done with another option in the striking department today, having bendtner is depressing. Remy would have been a fantastic grab, cheap or even as a loan. Shame he signed on loan to Newcastle so early while we were still in for Suarez.
He’s showing a lot of qualities that would really complement this team when it’s not quite clicking
Still top of the league though!!
Why would you put on Bendtner when you’re trailing 1-0 at Old Trafford? – When I saw that substitution I knew we made life difficult for ourselves. Should have been Gnabry for Cazorla but nothing to do now.. Just looking forward for the next game cause Old Trafford is simply not our place!
Really missed Rosicky today.
We also missed Ozil. it’s a shame he had to travel back to london and didn’t feature today. shame real shame.
Any news on santi?
And what of Ramsey? How come nobody told him Arsenal were wearing yellow today?
I’d rather see Sanogo up front instead of Bendtner
Has there been anymore news on his recovery?
the guy is still injured so moot point!!
I’d rather see Messi than Bendtner but he too was unavailable.
Yep, still top of the league. No need to overreact, referees categorically will not favour Chelsea or Man City as much as the cunt did for United today. As long as we don’t screw up against the smaller teams, blips like this are acceptable. We were scared and shit in the first half but we had many good chances in the second half, many more than the cunts did in the first, and games like this could have gone either way. By the way, if I ever meet van Pursestrings in real life, or Rooney, or Evra the lying cunt,… Read more »
I think we can look at a big positive that we have managed to be on top of the league for 3 months without our 4 1st team players and no wingers. The last 2-3 games including the one today has shown us how important wingers are.
Yep, agreed. And today with an additional 4 players (inc. Arteta and Gnabry) sick as well. I also cannot emphasise enough that we managed to create a relatively high number of chances (as the game was never going to be open) in the second half, which is encouraging. Completely different Arsenal to the one that faced Manure last season. Just keep going and don’t let this result against a bunch of scumbags affect us.
I’d imagine if you ever met any of those three “in real life” (as opposed to what?), you’d do little other than shit your pants, and whine about the ref and biased commentators.
Mate, if you met Van Persie in person, you’d probably kneel and ask for an autograph and say how he’s the best player ever and that you don’t hold any grudge on him for moving to Manure.
Rooney epitomises everything right about a footballer…hard working, dedicated and physical…He might play for the scums but he is no Evra or Dutch variety cunt
BREAKING NEWS: Manchester United fans have finally resurfaced from their mysterious disappearance since the start of the season.
Wenger out!!!! just kidding haha
I was only kidding :/
Were you kidding?
Are you kidding me? he said he was only kidding!
not funny, even by malaysian standard
can you hear these cunts on 5 live complaining about Wenger and team selection etc as if we’re going through a terrible spell. fuck’s sake we’ve just beaten liverpool and dortmund, one corner was the difference today, that’s it
I don’t think one corner was the difference, United were getting all the headers and playing the smarter balls. One thing I noticed against Dortmund was how bad Arsenals decision making was when pressed, passing to people that were surrounded by opposition player, no ability to find space. United found space when they wanted, were quicker, and more decisive. that said, Arsenal did look off the pace, might have just been a bad day. Ozil guilty of some very bad passes, 42M and does not look better than our midfielders, either our midfielders are really good, or Ozi is not… Read more »
I agree that Özil was a bit shit today, but the signing of him was more a statement than a reinforcement.
Whatever….tomorrow is still Monday and nothing can change the fact we’re top of the league for at least another 2 weeks. Shit happens as they say
One moment of madness.
FFS how did we let the dutch skunk be happy again?
By not covering him on a corner. It was TV5’s cover. He, as he is so wont to do, blew it. What a golden opportunity for our captain to redeem himself at Old Trafford. Instead, he blew his cover, allowing a goal to our archenemy and when inexplicably allowed to take a free kick chance from a dangerous area, blazed the shot acres off.
Do fans like you really need to make it your personal quest to pick on someone in the squad every single season to validate yourselves?
Are you Ivan Gazidis in disguise? I’ll never apologize for being a critical supporter.
Fans like me don’t make excuses for guys who haven’t performed well in over a year’s time. And I don’t use the fact that “he hasn’t played in a while” to defend him. He earned his bench spot long before he tweaked his back.
That said, I hope Verm proves me wrong. It’s a sad story for him, but there’s no time for tears.
Why blame our players mistake when you can bitch and moan about the ref?
Okay, sorry for that outburst. But I respectfully disagree, and I think Vermaelen played alright today. Played safe, defended well, and wasn’t the source of the very poor passing in the first half. If my eyes didn’t fail me, it was in fact Ramsey who was in the “zone” closest to that cunt when he headed the ball in. It’s a risk that we take with zonal marking.
There were other people in the area who could have picked up Van Persie, namely Ramsey and Giroud (Giroud did try) but we were all flat footed, all responsible. And surely we’re not going to start bashing players every time they miss a free kick from 25 yards out…
one word. RAMSEY
Jamie Carragher pointed out where rvp headed was normally where Mertesacker is, so Ramsey and Giroud didn’t do enough to get on the end of it, however they do get run because of the zonal, damn you virus!
So…Mertsacker = Verm, no?
BFG ill so simply could not play. So it =Verm has to play and he did ok. Some people need to relax. Over the last few years we’ve been taken apart at that shit hole. We looked tired and jaded and dare say some of them ill yet manure didn’t look anything special. Really fancy us to win something this season.
I blame Piers Morgan
Let us take solace in the fact that we can forever and always call Piers a cunt and feel better.
Me OZIL.
That was £2M performance ffs!
He’s not a fucking machine, obviously worn out after pool and dortmund. Needs a break hopefully which the break will provide.
Worst performance of the season against a bang average Everton – I mean Utd.
And Van Persie is still a cunt.
People like to throw the word “cunt” around but for me ROBIN VAN PERSIE is the embodiment of the word. he personifies it, he is a really attrocious little man. The spite he holds towards Arsenal you will think he was never here.
i hate him so much i wish only bad things to come to him. bad bad things. CUNT!
Spot on Mooro,as usual.
I’ll add though,today was Moyes 1 Wenger 0,we started far too slowly,way too defensively & showed those cunts far too much respect.
Wenger is to blame for this result.
CUNTS CUNTS CUNTS CUNTS CUNTS CUNTS CUNTS
Very eloquently put but don’t be diplomatic….tell em straight
Cazorla had a poor game as did Ozil.
i’d like to see ozil take a few shots. his 1st, 2nd and 3rd thoughts seem to be to pass the ball to someone else.
a few times now he’s been in on goal or near it, and he does a quick pass to someone else.
shoot ozil, shoot!
Agree with that. Ramsey was guilty of not shooting a couple of times today – except the 30 yard dribbler. Both of them broke in on the right side of the box with Giroud stuck between Jones/Evans. Instead of trying a pull back or dribbling back into the middle, wish one of them would have just let it go at De Gea. Maybe a rebound bounces to Giroud, maybe not, but better than losing the ball at the top of the box.
Why is Vermaelen taking free kicks when we have santi ozil and arteta?
Would prefer Arteta… shoots with force, and is usually accurate. (TV taking it was really silly.)
Ancelotti: “Ozil was afraid of competition”
i think he’s…..gulp. right!
*hides!
Don’t think Ancelotti was going to say anything positive about Ozil after they flogged him to us. However Ronaldo ranted and raved about letting him go and there fan base were furious as well. Point here we have a fine player who along with others had a bad day. I think we will see the best of Ozil when the Ox, Theo and Poldi are back.
When bendtner came on we were down to ten men, no confidence and piss poor, would cancel his contract tomorrow, selfish twat!
he didnt do worse than anyone else today
Guess we couldn’t make it a perfect week. Bad performance from our forward guys. Hope they all get a chance to rest up during the interlull
Santi no wonder will become spainish great ..arteta was bad
Arteta Sagna and Koscielny were the only ones good today. And please make Sagna SignDaTing. Gnabry was impressive too when he came on. Made me feel like we would have been more aggressive if he came on before.
Ah! The only thing this team lacks is the pace. Hope the break solves this too.
And Rosicky was dearly dearly missed. Fuck this illness and injury shit.
Arteta played better than most of our team, and I am assuming he must have been really ill — he never gets subbed off.
Just gats to say, Bendtner is one useless player..
As soon as Bendtner was thrown in it may as well have been ‘the towel’ Arsene was throwing in. I can’t believe he played him on this stage – I knew there was no hope of a last ditch goal with him up front. Terrible game, gave United far too much respect and paid for it. Too timid to strike and finally turn the tide against the overachieving Manc squad. Hope we destroy them at home.
In my view, from the choppy stream I was watching of the first half, we actually did not look cowed or anything. In fact the players seemed up for a fight, excitable and energetic, as were United. But that was our downfall because, in our haste to show them a thing or two, passes went astray and link up was poor. United’s pressing also factored into it. What we should have done was killed the pace of the game, move the ball all over the pitch and tire them out. Getting those early passes in is essential in allowing the… Read more »
The better team lost as they say. Why is the ref always a cunt at old trafford? Didn’t give us a damn thing and gave united everything.
“The better team lost as they say.”
If they were blind, or delusional.
Are what are you going on about not getting a call? Were you busy feeding your guide dog when Rooney got plowed over in the box?
which match were you watching? rooney going down was soft, him and Giroud were both at it in equal measure. – did you not see rooney push sagna in the back and get the throw in? – the 4 yellow shirts about to dispossess cleverly and be through on goal only for cleverly to hit the deck and be given a foul? – united being given a goal kick when it clearly came off smalling? the only thing we got was a corner which should’ve been their ball instead.. besides that the ref was awful. all our small tugs and… Read more »
Looks like all the small teams had a great day at the office.
But Sp*rs lost?
Gnabry came on and did make a difference. Should have been on before that blonde striker. Midfield didnt perform today. Defence was good.
Just cant believe how come no one got at the end of Sagna’s cross.
Fucking rvp
not again..!!
I Just hate manure Gosh!
Can’t complain about the result. Created next to nothing up front. Second half slightly better than a terrible first. But when we don’t fire up front and only have bentner as plan b then games and results like this can happen.
We can a Will win the league if we buy a quality striker come January.
Pretty bad game all around. Too lethargic in the start, chasing the game late on… Passing was shit throughout the game.
Whatever, 6 points out of 9 isn’t terrible for the week.
Bet u that cunt bedtner missed that chance on purpose. Im not pissed off about the redult, but im pissed off that we didnt take the many chances we had. Its the poorest overall game we played since Aston villa. Well no matter. We move on, still top of the league
COYGs
I am extremely angry due to the defeat but i accept it and still i believe in our team.But,a very bif BUT,i am so sad that we are using the stupid and very bad player Bendtner!!!i do not want to see him in our team anymore.He had never been good in finishing and still he is very bad finisher.he is good ONLY in talking too much.I prefer to see the chance given to others.Please AW no bendtner any more!!!!PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
can we all just stop trying to scapegoat Bendtner FFS!
In fairness you are right, this result was not down to bentner. We just didn’t perform in the first half and done little better in the second. But having said that bentner is nowhere near good enough to play for arsenal let alone an arsenal team that can win a premier league title. We seriously need quality back up for Giroud, the bloke works his bollocks off for the team and cannot sustain his work rate week in week out with the games coming as fast as they do. To get the best out of Giroud over a season he… Read more »
Ramsey getting too over confident
Disappointed to lose but chin up Gooners, we have Walcott back next game and a good run of Games until late December
Fuck it. We missed Mertasackers organization at the back on the corner. We missed our wide men being out. Gnabry came on for 10 minutes and changed the game. But we had huge games this week. We can’t win them all.
Onwards and upwards!!
Worst day of the week……
Why would you put on Bendtner when you’re trailing 1-0 at Old Trafford? – When I saw that substitution I knew we made life difficult for ourselves. Should have been Gnabry for Cazorla but nothing to do now.. Just looking forward for the next game cause Old Trafford is simply not our place!
That was a piss poor performance, got absolutely dominated in the first half and did fuck all in the second. This group of players just showed exactly what we’ve seen in the last eight seasons – there was no determination to win it, Wilshere was the only one who looked like he was trying. What has Ozil been doing for the last 4 or 5 games? He’s been totally absent and once again today proved that he flakes in the big games. Ramsey was deployed on the wing when past experience has shown us that is an appalling decision from… Read more »
Ozil is too timid when the body checks start flying. There really was no fire in the first half. The scrappy football tactic is the way to beat Arsenal unfortunately and United are the kings of ugly, scrappy results.
I haven’t actually seen today’s game yet so I should probably refrain, but this seems like a ridiculous reaction to me. This is our 3rd massive game in a week where we’ve despatched of Liverpool and defeated Dortmund in Germany. The players would have been mentally sapped from Wednesday’s game. On top of that, big Per and Rosicky were ruled out with an illness that may have affected other players too. United on the other hand have had a relatively easy week in which they were able to rest key players. They would have been pumped for this game because… Read more »
Here, here.
Yeah it’s wasn’t the best performance, but in the second half, we managed to make united like a pub team, with all the “foot through it” clearances.
Still two out of three ain’t bad, and we look toward the Southampton game in two weeks.
The team will have off days, but as the defeat to Dortmund proved, They will also bounce back.
We’re only a quarter of the way along yet.
( i am pretty gutted that we didn’t destroy those prissy, arrogant sh*t sucking toilet pricks, and i too hope we ruin them at the emirates )
If United were a “pub team” with foot through it clearances, what were we in Dortmund? Because I’m sure you’d say heroic knights defending at all costs. It’s not that we lost, it’s the way we lost – there was no fight in the first half. I don’t care that they played midweek – they’re professionals paid to perform for 180 minutes a week is that so much to ask? We lacked any incision today and it was basically a reminder of the low points of last season, and I’m frustrated that we seem to have learnt so little.
We were winners in Dortmund.
Isn’t the fickle nature of football fanism just great!
Of course the shoe was on the other foot in Germany, and being a supporter of our great team ( through rain or shine ) I will always find a positive.
Dortmund were also a much better team than Manure., but of course, they had an off day in font of goal didn’t they.
Here’s a poser for you;
We win the league, or win the two games against United ?
I know which one i would take, even with a few games like this one.
Ozil has to toughen up. Plain and simple.
That illness could not have come at a worse time! And we really felt the absence of Rosicky, who may not have started, but the intensity he brings to the game is just what we needed today where we were being closed down and not doing the reciprocal well enough. Not the best of games, but, we’ll see what happens and where we are when manure come to the Emirates.
Oh, and RVP is a cunt.
What is it about this stupid united eh! We just cant beat them even when we play better.. This is gona be one of the longest weeks of my life!
One game too many; no energy & lacking zest. But we didnt get a thing off the ref; rooney lucky to stay on, they were as bad as dortmund for just falling over & only 3 mins added time was a disgrace. Still, 2 points clear at the top is something we’d have been happy with 2 weeks ago.
Bang average performers today from every single player. Rubbish.
How can arsene continue to call that cunt a arsenal man is beyond me.
Real shame, manure were all over us like a foul smell closing down and all. 2 really good crosses from Sagna could have given us 3 points but hey…our previous hard work has allowed us to be able to concede points at no price to our league position.
The charity stops now, we have to take our chances next time. Surprised they didnt get a penalty when rooney fell over, i guess its the S.AF effect wearing off.
Literally, what a shitter from our midfield; ozil and Ramsey just not on it at all today. I hate it when we make placeholders like Jones and Carrick look as though they’re anything worthwhile. Goes doubly for that twat they had upfront.
Only positives were that vermaelen looked really good, sagna’s crosses are very much back to their best, and gnabry looked really bright – this was exactly the sort of game when we could have used a direct player like walcott, ox or pod.
Actually that’s a fair few positives…and we’re still top of the league.
Chins up gooners.
Gibbs man of the match……
Whats depressing is not losing away to Utd but losing to the worst Utd side I can remember, and deserving to lose. I mean Smalling, Evans, Jones, Cleverly!!! Seriously?
Özil, Ramsey, and Carzola all went missing in a big way. On the bright side, other results really went our way this weekend, so in a way there was no real damage done. Hopefully we learn from this and improve because today we just didn’t turn up.
the football gods laid the results on a silver platter this weekend and we fucked it up..
Ozil’s shit form is starting to really be a problem. Needs to be addressed as he’s been playing this way for quite some time now. Almost, dare I say, arshavinesque. Hopefully he just needs a rest
we need to start being able to criticize Ozil. All comments so far that have been critical of him have had alot of dislikes. He’s a player just like any other and he shouldn’t be free from criticizing just because he cost a shit ton of money. He’s been poor for the last 3 or 4 games no doubt about it, he needs to step up especially in games like this one.
I agree. Like I said it needs to be addressed. First off it should be acknowledged more so than it is. I swear there have been times in the past few weeks where I forgot he was on the pitch.
Guys, whatever you think, the Dutch skunk is actually good player..so stop winding him before the game..we can do with win or two against United.. Haven’t seen that for such a long time.
Sometimes I wish the fans should stop writing the opposition off just before the game.. It’s eggs them on and we can see that man united players wanted it more.
Anyway, I hope we can come back strongly from this.. Man C, Chelsea and Tottenham all lost points so it’s all to play for.
we all know he’s a good player, still doesn’t mean he’s not a cunt
To be honest, obviously we dont want to lose to but we are still top of the league. This performance although crap by our standards was better than previous matches at old trafford. And unfortunately everyone seemed to have their off day today. But oh well got some winnable matches coming up and hopefully some players returning after the break. Not the end of the world.
I think we need another striker, someone faster than giroud
Blergh. poor performance all around to be honest. santi was quiet and not at all dribbly, ozil misplaced too many passes, ramsey didn’t score (wtf!!), but I thought sagna and the defense in general were solid. Great crossing from sagna
We sorely missed the BFG and a fast option in attack like Theo.
COYG
*shakes head in dismay*
I can’t think of a single commendable Arsenal performance today.
I don’t like it either.
@arseblog could you find out a bit more about this bug which affected the team? Contracted overnight in the hotel in Manchester? Sounds suspicious to me…
Not making excuses though, they were listless today. I felt they needed the directness of rosicky or even gnabry to be introduced a bit earlier.
As the BFG was at a game in Germany yesterday maybe he’d have been fitter if he’d stayed at home and prepared 🙁
We’ve come through a tough schedule with a very depleted squad, hit by sickness today. We weren’t at our best, but we are still in great shape…chin up folks. COYG!!!!
Bad day but.. 6/9 points against three of europes top/most-in-form sides is a good return.
3/6 in the league is acceptable especially in our position.
Lets take stock and accept that few teams will win at old trafford when theyre on the ball.
6/9 points against three of the leagues top 6 is great.
We must improve attacking wise against southampton though as they gather momentum
Its all good.
Too right. if we’d drawn both the Liverpool and United games I don’t think most fans would be that upset. As it is, we came out of those two games with three points. Just have to keep picking off the smaller clubs and get some good results against the better teams. The league is so fucked at the moment- you can pretty much count on the likes of Man City and Chelski dropping points all over the show until the end of the season. Aside from today the team’s performances have been pretty consistently good and although it’s a shame… Read more »
Wenger’s decision to start Flamini AND Arteta was a statement of intent on his part. We were always playing for a draw with that duo. I was stunned to see no change at halftime, especially given our desire to go through a stuffed middle time and time again to no avail. On a day like this, we miss the width of players like Theo and Podolski. TV5 didn’t have a horrid day, but if you watch the c*nt’s goal again, our captain did and attempted to do absolutely nothing on the corner. He was statuesque, and it cost us. And,… Read more »
We started with Flamini and Arteta against Napoli. We owned that game. It was no statement of intent or anything. Ozil, Ramsey and Cazorla had a poor game. We were hardly able to string a few passes together in the first half. “Sterile domination” in the second. Tough defeat to swallow, but we still have things under control. Difficult games against Southampton and Marseille coming up. We need to win those.
It really hurts that their only goal was so avoidable. To allow Van Persie of all people (I use the term people here lightly) to charge all the way through our box uncontested is really a god damn shame. Have to think Merts might have been able to intervene had he been on the pitch