PL | Manchester United vs Arsenal | December 5, 2018 | BT Sport | 20:00 GMT

[Makingtrax]

Not attacking wenger, love the guy - just making the point we have not been good at OT in recent years so I can see why many are wary about this one

Yeah, including me

 

[razörist]

We're just cautious. Not bricking it.

I'm bricking it. I have a trauma. Mourinho + United, yuck.

 

[razörist]

I remember that stuff you wrote about flying the flag of St George because you are English and don’t even want to be British. You were a big Brexiteer on here.

Why don't you go and find it, would be interesting to find out what @rich 1990 true colors are.

 

[ArtetaCognition]

To the people who responded to my comment about bricking it - I stick by what I said.

All those bad moments losing to sub-par United squads happened late in Wenger's reign. Tomorrow, we'll have a manager who will be able (and looking) to exploit their multiple weaknesses in defence. There's no reason not to be confident because we are the better team with the better manager.

 

[Makingtrax]

Why don't you go and find it, would be interesting to find out what @rich 1990 true colors are.

Not here bro. I’ve PM’d you some stuff.

 

[Furious.]

I'd like to see the same 11 that started the last two games, but with Guendouzi in for Xhaka. Keep Laca and Rambo on the bench to change the game if needed.

Leno
Mustafi-Sokratis-Holding
Bellerin-Torrieira-Guendouzi-Kolasinac
Mhki-Auba-Iwobi

 

[A_G]

A once bright star now burned out - the fall and fall of Alexis Sanchez

For a few figures at Arsenal, there were knowing glances when they heard the Alexis Sanchez news last week. The fact he is injured, and thereby won’t face his former club Old Trafford on Wednesday, isn’t so much seen as the blind luck of fitness problem but a situation that was increasingly inevitable.

There was already the feeling Sanchez may be facing physical burn-out in his last season at Arsenal. This was after all an all-action forward who so often pushed himself into what Arsène Wenger described as “the red zone”, and was playing 38 games in a season as long ago as 2005.

That’s a lot of wear and tear, and one reason why Juan Mata is said to have beaten him in sprints at United. It is all one big reason Arsenal eventually gave the go-ahead to let him go.

So much, then, for the idea that Manchester United got the better end of the deal and one over Manchester City.

Both Arsenal and City instead seem to have got lucky. It’s just remarkable how little time it took for perceptions to do a complete 180. It’s instead got to the sorry point where it’s impossible not to wonder why exactly United signed him, given last week’s injury may actually have spared him the ignominy of being dropped against his old club. There’s already the ignominy of having scored fewer Premier League goals in 2018 than Chris Smalling and Patrick van Aanholt. Jose Mourinho does not view Sanchez as a certain starter, and would not be against selling him.

So, did they just buy him because they could, and because - as is now all too reflective of United right now - he represented a bit of star glamour and the status of beating their rivals, rather than because they actually needed him?

For his part, Wenger is said to have always been surprised United even went for the Chilean. He apparently couldn’t see where Sanchez fitted in their team, especially given how Mourinho’s side have been playing. Put bluntly, the movement around him wasn’t anywhere near good enough to get the best out of him.

And so it has proved, as a team so painfully lacking in intensity have served to suppress the intensity of one of the most relentless players in the game. It’s just ended up with Sanchez running aimlessly and pointlessly in a flat team without an attacking structure.

Sanchez’s reactions to teammates have thereby often been a picture, but now feel desperate rather than demanding, in the way they were at Arsenal.

Wenger would privately describe Sanchez as “super, super gifted… but incredibly difficult”. He adores the forward as a player, since at his best he was such a typical Wenger forward - creative, attack-minded, instinctive and so fast - that he was worth the trouble.

Sanchez has always been something of a “loner”, never willing to mix with other Chileans in London who would invite him to barbecues, but that has become more pronounced at United. After a long-term relationship ended, he now finds himself “pretty much alone in a massive house, with his dogs, and the rain”. United sources just say he looks “extremely unhappy”.

Other sources who know Sanchez and have worked with him readily concede he is “difficult”, but don’t think of any of this would be an issue in a winning team that had purpose. He would just be energised, in all senses, and maybe in a way that could carry him through the cumulative wear and tear for that bit longer.

There’s also the inescapable fact City would have offered all of what Wenger felt was missing from United, and a lot of movement around Sanchez to really maximise his quality.

He won’t ever get that move now and, in that sense, may never really get to star in a properly winning club team.

Other than Barcelona 2011-13, when he was very much a support act rather than the primary star he was always been envisaged as - not least by himself - Sanchez has never really played in such a side. It could almost be argued that, relative to his sensational quality, he has actually had one of those unlucky club careers where he has never had the opportunity to maximise that quality.

One immediate counter-argument, however, is that his own choices and contracts haven’t helped him.

This is a problem he and United face now that Sanchez wants to leave. The Chilean is said to have a “mad, mad contract”. Some sources say it is up to £500,000 a week once all commissions are paid. Others say it is actually beyond that.

Since the nature of these situations mean the player and his camp aren’t going to accept that much of a drop-off, it means there are very few clubs that can afford him, and one of those that can - PSG - are no longer interested.

Internazionale have been broached, or maybe Real Madrid, “if they get desperate” in January.

There is even talk United may have to subsidise any deal if they really want to get rid.

This also feeds into the questions about why they even made the purchase, and gave that contract, in the first place. The club apparently did think that his image rights would be of great value in South America, but that hasn’t been the case, and is unlikely to be now.

It also isn’t completely unlikely that he finds some spark at United again. Were Mourinho to go in the summer, or the manager maybe make a change with Sanchez, he could be electrically charged again.

It’s just, as those at Arsenal would say, so much harder to see. That’s because, far from a star, there is now only the sight of an emotionally forlorn and physically unfit player.

 

[TakeChillPill]

Expect Utd to sit deep and play on the counter. Özil would've been perfect for this type of game. Hope he manages to be on the bench.

 

[Mitch]

I want to see the following team:

GK: Leno
CB: Mustafi
CB: Greek Keown
CB: Holdini
RWB: Swiss sh*thousery
LWB: Bosnian Tank
DCM: Uruguayan Dennis Wise
CM: kid with funny hair from Diversity.
RW: Welsh Kevin Nolan
LW: Fourth best striker in the league
CF: The best striker in league

Swiss Pirlo will be a big miss but I hope we can batter them.

 

[Sniper Mik]

The lads are in good spirits

 

[Preacher]

 

[Big Poppa]

To the people who responded to my comment about bricking it - I stick by what I said.

All those bad moments losing to sub-par United squads happened late in Wenger's reign. Tomorrow, we'll have a manager who will be able (and looking) to exploit their multiple weaknesses in defence. There's no reason not to be confident because we are the better team with the better manager.

Forget about the past. Mourinho isn't an idiot and will pick players specifically to target for example, our weaknesses at set pieces and dealing with balls in behind our wingbacks.

Rashford, Martial and Lingard always seem to play well against us but the test will be how well they cope without the ball as I think we definitely have the tools to hurt them if we turn up.

 

[gunner4lyfe]

There's that delusion again

And its this kind ofof delusion why I wont even waste time replying to him.

 

[Makingtrax]

Alan Shearer on BBC:
'Arsenal's players enjoy playing for their manager - United's don't'

 

[OnlyOne]

Alan Shearer on BBC:
'Arsenal's players enjoy playing for their manager - United's don't'

This is a big factor really if it's true, I have never seen a more un-united fan base on their manager, same with the players on the manager it seems.

 

[Makingtrax]

This is a big factor really if it's true, I have never seen a more un-united fan base on their manager, same with the players on the manager it seems.

Yeah, the very name United is the ultimate irony at the moment.

 

[ptrcopp]

Sacking Maureen will get them nowhere. It's that plank Woodward they need to get shot of. They need to clear the decks behind the scenes before changing the manager.

I think when you look at their play Mourinho does have to go.
How many managers’ tactics get criticised by their players while they’re still at the club?
Almost all the players are playing with the defensive in mind first: that’s not how Pogba, Rashford, Martial, Sanchez, Mata etc should be playing.

But you are right; no manager will succeed while their structure is like it is

 

[arsmile]

i love that we're so unpredictable right now

who can confidently predict the personnel or set up?

we seem to have a whole bunch of systems understood and at our disposal and a whole bunch of different combination of players

I don't know how i'd prepare to play us.

playing 4231 with Özil at 10 would require a completely different setup to a 343 with iwobi and mhkitaryian running inside...which is completely different to a diamond in midfield with ramsey behind a front two. I think it's our biggest weapon.

 

[rich 1990]

I think when you look at their play Mourinho does have to go.
How many managers’ tactics get criticised by their players while they’re still at the club?
Almost all the players are playing with the defensive in mind first: that’s not how Pogba, Rashford, Martial, Sanchez, Mata etc should be playing.

But you are right; no manager will succeed while their structure is like it is

Didn't mean he shouldn't get the sack. Just that he's lower down the pecking order in who they should prioritise sacking. They've had Moyes, LVG and Mourinho now and they continue to play in exactly the same way. There is something fundamentally wrong and it goes beyond the manager.

 

[yybecause]

Auba Laca incoming