You have to wonder. Did Wenger decide to take an early exit from the cup competitions? It is hard to believe that a team as strong as Arsenal could have possibly exited the Carling Cup and FA Cup in the way they did, being completely trashed by their major rivals on both occasions. Regardless of the changes made, and the form of the players, it is highly unlikely that such results would have been possible if the team cared to play.
The Gunners were under the cosh from the word go, with United rampant in our final third. Wave after wave of attack crashed on the Arsenal defence, and culminated in a 16th minute opener from our nemesis, Wayne Rooney. Arsenal have recovered from some dodgy situations, but today was not going to be another come-from-behind story. It was more like a banged-from-behind story.
Arsenal failed to find any quality after the goal. The midfield was dreadful, and seemed incapable of maintaining possession. Gilberto’s reliability has suffered this season, but Cesc’s creative play was not to be seen either. With Eboue and Dudu on the wings, and Sagna and Clichy rested, the team offered little in width going forward. Bendtner managed the odd flick-on, but neither striker could pull any magic out of the hat. The less said about the defence the better. Senior stars like Gallas and Lehmann were far below their best and top teams will punish weak defences.
And boy, were we punished. Darren Fletcher added to the score-line within four minutes of Rooney’s goal, after a great cross from Nani. Eighteen minutes later, there was no sign of an Arsenal recovery, and instead, the game was all but closed when Carrick’s fantastic through ball found Nani, who produced an accomplished finish.
Eboue who had contributed little to the cause the whole match, made things a lot worse after a dangerously high tackle saw him sent off. Wholesale changes took place later in the half, without any major improvement. United continued to put pressure on goal, while we failed to trouble van der Saar even once. The closest we had come was a flicked on header from Dudu which went over the bar. Darren Fletcher even added a 4th goal to heighten our misery.
As the dust settled from another stunning drubbing, we have to wonder why this was allowed to happen. Sure, trying to stay alive in all competitions will be difficult for the best teams, but a team of Arsenal’s calibre needs to be able to give a good account of itself every time it plays. Let us just hope that the Champion’s League is not another competition that Wenger has marked as ‘low priority’. Another devastating loss will be too much for fans to bear.