Park celebrates his winner against Arsenal
Last night saw us return to the top of the table with a well deserved one nil win.
To my surprise I got the impression that Arsenal were expected to win this game so it was great to silence all the talk. Could have had a peno in the first half after Chamakh handled in the area, Nani went agonisingly close and Rooney missed a penalty as well as going close himself so whilst I’m happy to have got the 3 points I feel we could have won by a greater margin.
Anderson was again a dominant force in the middle of the park muscling those around him and could have got another goal if not for Arsenal’s keeper making himself big and getting in the way. Looks like he is getting better every game and is slowly showing that he can be the player we had hoped he could be.
Must have been a Brazilian thing tonight as Rafael was also a standout, barely put a foot wrong and is showing everyone else what we as United fans have been saying all season, the defendsive side of his game has come along leaps and bounds.
As a whole entity the defence was great, we nullified any threat Arsenal posed with a last ditch Vidic block stopping Chamakh from scoring. For all the talk about Nasri coming into the game he hardly shone and the defence as well as the midfield will take credit for this.
With all that being said I haven’t even touched on the goalscorer Park. The Korean kept up his fine form of scoring in the big games and against Arsenal with an instinctive header mirroring Hernandez’s effort against Stoke. There have been calls that he doesn’t score enough goals but it appears that he has taken that into account this season and the goal was his 6th this term.
Rooney put in a shift up top alone and despite his penalty miss he looked bright.
My only gripe is Howard Webb, sh*te performance from ‘England’s top referee’ let Arsenal get away with too much. I don’t know if they were again trying to prove they were big boys but their tactic of fouling got them nowhere!
[poll id “20”]
I disagree I think Webb handled the game perfectly. I would like to see every game handled like that instead of horrible finicky little turds of refs like Mike Riley giving soft pennos and bookings all the time.
Nah he allowed Arsenal to kick United around. I can understand letting the game flow but there is a point where enough is enough
i disagree with that stuff about anderson. nice commentary otherwise. “Anderson was again a dominant force in the
middle of the park muscling those around him
and could have got another goal if not for
Arsenal ’s keeper making himself big and getting
in the way.” where… do you expect the poor keeper to get out of the way? you’re nuts if you do. a CAM is supposed to be skillful enough to finish of moves as cheap as that one. iniesta or VDV wouldnt have missed that one. its high time fergie did away.with.that one legged-good-for-boca JUNIORS misfit. i’m sure he’s not from brasil as he claims. i bet gibson would have scored twice in his position last night. gibson’s our frank lampard. he may not be good at any other thing than shooting, but that’s shooting to score and he rarely misses just like lampard. afterall lamps doesnt do.much in games apart from scoring.
Anderson was immense last nite- cant imagine Gibson getting stuck in as much and he seems to have gone off the boil this season.
Gibson your having laugh mate and comparing him as “our Frank Lampard” is a joke. You most be pissed, since when as Gibson scored 20 goals a season? I think you need glasses.
Indeed ‘Chesney’ did his job but it was a good save rather than a poor finish, I’ve seen a few people comment on it being Schmeichel-esque and they aren’t wrong.
I won’t even bother with the Gibbo comment you probably regret making it already and there is no point comparing Ando with Iniesta and VdV both are older, more experience and exceptional talents. Instead of being quick to make comparisons, how about we allow our players to develop into their own styles?
Did not think old webby got much wrong except the foul on Fletch on the edge of the 18 yard box….think he let Arsenal off lightly with the little cynical fouls like song on Park when he was beaten for pace
I voted Vidic, but Park and Anderson were up to the same level.
I agree we should expect more goals from Anderson, but we should appreciate his abilities rather than arbitrarily comparing him to other players. Anderson is a completely unique player and I can’t really think of any player like him. While it may have been difficult figuring out where his role should be, he also brings a new dimension. There no advanced midfielders who come to mind who can win the ball like Anderson, and very few who can take defenders head on like him either.
Since we primarily attack from the wings, the abilities he brings as a CAM may be of more benefit than others.
On another note, I think United fans should take stock of how well so many things have been going for us and appreciate. It the summer, the most important hopes for our team were that: Anderson would break through, Rafael earn the RB spot, Berbatov would score more, Hernandez would justify his hype, Nani would continue his improvement and that Rio would be healthy. All of these are becoming reality and they out number the relative few disappointments (Hargreaves and Valencia’s injuries, and Rooney until recently). If we beat Chelsea I will be on cloud 9!
Very true for all the doom and gloom we should be thankful for these things.
Fair point on the optimism, the team really is doing quite well, lots of positives. As a man always looking for the negatives (i wish this weren’t the case, what the hell..) I still feel this club needs to be more clinical in front of goal; the effort is always there, and the all around defense has been stellar as of late, but can we finish a game off ! it seems like every game we say – we should have finished off one of those other 5 chances, and we cling to close victories.. cant be too bothered, but wondering – will this group be able to start winning matches comfortably or are we in for a long heart-pounding nervous wreck of a season? as for the Anderson chance vs Arsenal, i think the keeper did very well, Anderson tried to get the ball up and over, and the keeper made a great save.. AH WELL – all is well, lets keep this going!! OHH– disagree regarding Howard Webb; thought he did well and generally i think he is the best ref in the game (worthy of the title he is given.. and often given a hard time about)
After I initially commented I appear to have clicked on the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and now whenever a comment is added I recieve 4 emails with the exact same comment. There has to be an easy method you are able to remove me from that service? Thank you!