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Champions League Semi Final 2nd Leg Preview : Arsenal V Manchester United
Published by Ian John on May 5, 2009
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Tonight sees Arsenal host Manchester United at the Emirates in the game which will decide whether this season will be looked upon as one of unmitigated success for Arsene Wenger’s men, or whether it will end as them being the nearly men once again. John O’Shea’s first leg goal means United take a slender one goal lead into the second leg in London this evening, and given their form at the moment in attack, Sir Alex’s charges must be confident of grabbing a goal, which would leave Arsenal requiring three to progress to the Semi Finals. Arsenal meanwhile will know they have the beating of United, having defeated them 2-1 in the Premier League at the Emirates earlier this season.
Team News
Arsenal will be able to call upon Robin Van Persie who has recovered from a groin strain. Youngster Kieran Gibbs will face the biggest night of his career to date, being chiefly responsible for nullifying the threat of Cristiano Ronaldo. Arsenal will sorely miss the experience and abilities of long term injured William Gallas and Tomas Rosicky for this clash. For United, Sir Alex rested three key midfielders in Anderson, Fletcher and Carrick at the weekend and the feeling is that they will return to try and nullify Arsenal’s slick passing game in midfield. Wayne Rooney’s willingness to chase back and defend was used well at Old Trafford to nullify the threat of Theo Walcott and the United boss may ask the England man to play a similar role tonight. It will be interesting to see who gets the nod in attack, whether Sir Alex goes with the hard working Tevez, or out of sorts Berbatov.
Any game between Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger always boils down at some point to tactics and technical ability and tonight will be no different and there are many intriguing personal battles over the field tonight that the outcome of which, will go a long way towards deciding the outcome of the tie. For Arsenal to win several things need to happen; they need to impose their passing game on United and force the visitors onto the back foot, especially in midfield. They need the likes of Fabregas and Denilson to start winning the battle in midfield. Secondly young left back Kieran Gibbs must get support and have the night of his life to nullify the threat of Ronaldo and thirdly, Emmanuel Adebayor, who was largely ineffectual at Old Trafford, must give United’s central defensive pairing a torrid evening. If they can do that, and the likes of Robin Van Persie, Samir Nasri and Theo Walcott have their shooting boots on. Arsenal could be celebrating come the final whistle.
For Manchester United to emerge victorious, the remit seems simple enough. Scoring a goal should be enough. While given their lead, it is unrealistic to expect Sir Alex’s team to go at Arsenal from the start, United will be well aware that a single strike in tonights game means the Gunners will require three to win the game. As such expect Sir Alex to pick a team that will be able to counter Arsenal’s threat from midfield, pace in wide areas and the presence of Adebayor in attack, and that will then be able to break at pace to counter the defensively suspect Arsenal rearguard. The key for United must be not to concede an early goal. To do so would give the Gunners the impetus. The longer the game is at 0-0, the happier United will be and the more risks Arsenal will have to take going forward, which will play nicely into the hands of the visitors.
Who is going to win? My heart says Arsenal, my head says Manchester United. Both sides are excellent going forward and while United have shown defensive frailties of late, Arsenal’s have been far worse. I cannot see the Gunners being able to hold United out for 90 minutes and while I can see them emerging victorious on the night, I think United will progress on away goals. I do however feel there will be plenty of goals given the nature and importance of this game and a 3-2 scoreline, in favour of Arsenal on the night but gifting victory on away goals to United, would not surprise me.
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Nabyl Charania on Tue, 5th May 2009 10:52 am
going to be a cracker of a game (hopefull
more goals than the last game would be nice!
Nabyl Charania on Tue, 5th May 2009 3:51 pm
Gibbs made the early mistake and then Ronaldo delivered a great freekick (although Almunia should have done better), 3-0 for ManU, Arsenal never got in the game.
Ian John on Wed, 6th May 2009 3:30 am
Arsenal threw it away inside 11 minutes. Gibbs slip was unfortunate but after Old Trafford last week, when he did the same, you’d think he’d have put longer studs in. Almunia’s effort for Ronaldo’s free kick was appalling to be honest. A bit disappointing in the end that after 10 minutes, the game became a training ground exercise.