Arsenal Broke Their Mental Hoodoo

Match Review: Man Utd 1 Arsenal 2 - FA Cup 09.03.15

Monday night will live long in the memory of Arsenal fans. Old Trafford has been a bitter sweet ground for us, with mainly poor results punctuated by a historic win every now and again. The title securing win in ’02 and Overmars’ classic winner in ’98 stand out, but on the whole, Old Trafford has been a bogey ground of epic proportions. Even with United’s spectacular decline over the last couple of years, we still haven’t been able to break the hoodoo. Until Monday night. Finally, after so much pain and some seriously heavy and damaging defeats over the years, we gained a measure of revenge.

Slightly surprisingly, Giroud dropped to the bench for the game, with Danny Welbeck taking the central role against the club he left in the summer. After he’d been effectively booted out of the club he’d joined as a kid in favour of expensive flops he will have rightly felt he had a point to prove to van Gaal. The rest of the team was probably our strongest possible in a game between two of the favourites to win the competition.

The opening exchanges were fairly even, with both teams looking apprehensive in the face of such an important game for both their seasons. Both team’s had only the FA Cup to realistically play for in terms of silverware and with only two other Premier League teams left in it, both will have felt the competition is there for the taking. Despite the obvious nerves, our attack seemed to have the greater threat, but when we got the breakthrough, it was from an unlikely source.

With 25 minutes on the clock, Özil found Chamberlain on the right edge of the area. The winger showed wonderful skill to evade three hopeless United challenges and play through none other than Nacho Monreal. The Spaniard has had an outstanding season for us and with the composure of a seasoned striker, he fired us into the lead. 9,000 gooners in the ground and millions more at home erupted and dared to hope that things might be turning in our favour.

But we were brought swiftly back down to earth just minutes later. Di Maria produced the only bit of quality I’ve seen from him for months, whipping in a cross for Granny troubler and perennial Arsenal scourge Wayne Rooney to power home a header. To be fair to United, they reacted well to our goal and pushed forward. Koscielny could have done a lot better with his positioning and Alexis’ slip in the build up proved costly as he was unable to close the Argentinian down. The equaliser provided the home side with some impetus and they had a couple of good opportunities before half time, with both Di Maria and Fellaini squandering decent chances.

I’d say the first half was close to even, but in the second half we shaded things. United don’t seem to have a cohesive attacking method and a lot of their threat comes from Fellaini’s physical presence/assaulting of opposition players to gain an advantage. Despite our edge, the goal that proved to be the winner came from a calamitous cock up at the back from United. To be honest though, it just made things even sweeter.

Antonio Valencia was the guilty party, succumbing to pressure from Alexis and scuffing a poor back pass towards De Gea. Of all the people to let in, it had to be the ex-United man, Danny Welbeck. He raced after the ball, flicked it passed De Gea’s pathetic attempt at a tackle and then showed wonderful composure to slot home under pressure. Double fist pump, neck muscles bulging and a roar of delight, there was no restrained celebration against his boyhood team. In that celebration you could see how much being forced out had hurt him and how much it meant to slap van Gaal in the face on his home turf. It’s a sight that will have made United fans sick in a way that we Arsenal fans know all too well. Glorious, glorious stuff.

This season, refereeing has reached farcically poor levels. Every weekend has brought a new controversy and there have been some quite unbelievable mistakes from the supposed elite officials in the game. So Michael Oliver’s display seemed almost too good to be real on Monday. Bar letting Fellaini get away with a ton of fouls in the first half, he was pretty much spot on with the major calls. The big moment was Angel Di Maria dived to try and win a free kick on the edge of the box. It was pathetic and Oliver rightly booked him, only for Di Maria to angrily grab him afterwards. Oliver looked incredulous as he immediately pulled out the yellow card again, followed by the red. He then stood up to the famous Old Trafford pressure as Adnan Januzaj produced an even worse dive in an attempt to win a penalty. It’s one of the best and strongest refereeing performances I’ve seen in a long time and to do it at Old Trafford has to be commended.

Dumping Man Utd out of the FA Cup is glorious. Doing it at their place to reach a Wembley Semi-Final is sweeter still. Watching their former striker stick the winner in after a muffed back pass and celebrate in front of his new fans is one of those golden moments that you cherish and talk about for many a year. I said after the Monaco game that not a single player could be proud of themselves. After Monday’s game, every one of those players can hold their heads high and look forward to a well earned Wembley tie with Reading or Bradford.

On a personal note, I’d like to pay tribute to an Arsenal fan and family member who I lost last Thursday. My Granddad is the reason I support Arsenal, he got my Mum to buy me an Arsenal shirt when I was six years old and we’ve shared our love for the Gunners ever since. He said after the FA Cup win last May that he could die happy and he followed the Arsenal until the day he did. Thanks for everything Granddad, that one’s for you.

Teams

Manchester United (4-4-1-1)
De Gea, Valencia, Smalling, Rojo (Y) (Januzaj 73’ (Y)), Shaw (Jones 45’), Blind, Herrera (Y) (Carrick 45’), Di Maria (Y-R), Young (Y), Fellaini (Y), Rooney
Subs
Valdes, Rafael, Jones, Januzaj, Carrick, Falcao, Mata

Arsenal (4-2-3-1)
Szczesny, Bellerin (Y) (Chambers 66’), Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Cazorla, Chamberlain (Ramsey 51’ (Y)), Özil, Alexis, Welbeck (Giroud 74’)
Subs
Martinez, Chambers, Gibbs, Akpom, Walcott, Ramsey, Giroud

Player Ratings

Szczesny - 6/10 - Made a few routine saves, but took a huge risk against Rooney
Bellerin - 7/10 - Did well to stay composed and not get sent off after an early yellow
Mertesacker - 8/10 - Did a sterling job fending off Fellaini’s physical barrage
Koscielny - 7/10 - Did well apart from a mistake for Rooney’s goal
Monreal - 9/10 - Stunning performance, a rock in defence and calm when scoring
Coquelin - 8/10 - His resurgence has been phenomenal, now a key player
Cazorla - 7/10 - A little slow getting started, but overall a good showing
Chamberlain - 8/10 - Did great work for the first goal and gave them lots of problems
Özil - 8/10 - A picture of serene majesty once again
Alexis - 7/10 - Busy and dangerous, but still not quite at his best
Welbeck - 8/10 - Toiled in the first half but got his just reward for his effort in the second
Subs
Ramsey - 7/10 - Good to have him back and took a good tactical yellow for the team
Chambers - 8/10 - I was worried, but he proved me wrong and was fantastic
Giroud - 6/10 - Wasn’t really involved as we were focussed on defence

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