Well that’s the end of that then. We’ve lost the FA Cup 1-0 to Man Utd. Wenger’s gamble in starting Bergkamp and Aliadiere didn’t pay off – and now Arsenal have only the Champions League and the Premiership to play for. Our chance to silence Man Utd for good, and we failed to grasp it.
We were outplayed by Man Utd today, and the excuse of Silvestre’s two handballs in the box will not give us any consolation. Although the decision on both of them was pretty obvious to any Arsenal supporter, the referee must have adjudged that they weren’t deliberate.
You kind of saw it coming though. We had been growing progressively more nervous with each match played. We dug deep to hold on against Bolton, we drew with Chelsea despite all our chances, we let in a late equaliser against United last weekend. Our performances have been getting less and less authoritative.
But Man Utd did play to their plan. They sat back for large portions and invited us to attack. They closed down quickly and denied us space – we couldn’t really get any meaningful passing strings together, and our shots were mostly weak and off target. Thierry Henry’s desperate shot late in the second half typified the match. It was a shot smacking of desperation, the kind of disorganised mentality where any shot on target would have done.
We didn’t play with intelligence – we weren’t playing our game. We lacked cohesion, craftiness, the little one-twos. It was a performance lacking in confidence. It was a performance of a team lacking a steady head.
We had an excellent opening to the match, with a Dennis Bergkamp shot being cleared off the line by Wes Brown. Then Edu chipped the ball onto the post following a half-cleared Arsenal corner. From the rebound, Kolo Toure should have put the header away from only a foot out, but miraculously, Roy Carroll managed to scramble the ball out for a corner.
Man Utd’s goal came from dodgy defending by Arsenal all round. We had failed to clear the ball properly on numerous occasions. On this occasion though, the ball found its way to Giggs, who cut inside Clichy and threaded the ball to Scholes to slam home. It was an advantage which we could have and should have clawed back – especially with all the firepower we had at our disposal. Pires and Vieira missed gilt-edged chances – and we could not afford to miss them.
Wenger must know that we have to get fired up for the Chelsea match. The preparation would not have been ideal – I’m sure he would have liked Henry not to play in this match at all, but now that’s in the past. We have a huge match to come, and we’ll have to make every effort to ensure that we’re prepared.
Come on Gooners!