Arsenal vs Manchester United : 1 - 0

Arsenal vs Manchester United, 1-0: Full time analysis and player ratings

Written by Chris on May 1, 2011 – 22:30

The Game

“When the season kicked-off and I looked at every single element of the two squads, I saw two teams on the same level and no difference in quality”.

How presumptuous to quote my own self, eh? But as I was saying in the chat room before the game started, I knew that the team was not going to disappoint us today and that a win was more than possible.

See this hurts, in a way, because today I saw the same fighting spirit, the same determination and the same positive attitude I saw when we played against Barcelona here at the Emirates. And had we played with the same fighting spirit in every single game of the season, yes, we would indeed be first and with a comfortable margin.

The reason why we don’t show up when we play against bottom-of-the-table teams and the reason why we give away so many leads is a mystery, a mystery that I’m afraid I have no explanation for but as I was saying yesterday in the preview, there is one thing for sure, we are second to none.

Having said that, today’s game proved wrong two theories of why we are not winning anything: referee decisions and the financial power of the other teams. And that’s because we won a game in which a number of referee decisions went against us and played a team that has invested more than we did in the transfer market in these last couple of years.

Of course it would be foolish of me not to mention Aaron Ramsey’s impeccable game and I just laugh at all the stick I was getting when way back in 2008 I wanted Aaron to be given more regular starts in the team, to be preferred to the likes of Denilson and Abou Diaby. Aaron is special and today’s game, today’s goal show that he is fully recovered from injury and ready to play an important role in midfield next season.

Incidentally, although I could be wrong of course, this is the first time we played with this set-up in midfield and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Alex Song was back to his old self as every element in the middle of the pitch knew what his job was and didn’t interfere with the rest.

To conclude, yes, there were some tense moments in the last 15 minutes of the game and this will probably not help us get back in the title race but at least we can finally archive a day of football with no regrets, with no ifs and buts. Whether this will be the case next week and the week after as well is all to be seen but in the meantime, I want to enjoy this victory knowing that when the team I love is at its best, it’s indeed the best there is out there.

As always, whether you agree with my ratings or not, submit your own at Arsenal Interactive and make sure to share them on Twitter and Facebook.