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Match Preview: Arsenal

Undoubtedly the biggest game of the season so far.  While these games may have lost an element of the Keane-era ferocity it will still be a passionate affair, and a huge game for both clubs.

For United, there is our poor record against the big four last season, which needs working on, but it is also the first such clash without Ronaldo and Tevez.

Fergie has said that we can't afford to drop any more points this early in the season, and should we lose to Arsenal on home soil, the press are likely to view as proof United will not be title contenders, with their current squad.

For Arsenal it is a big test too. Much has been made of their ability to put multiple goals past woefully inadequate Everton and Portsmouth, but United at Old Trafford is a different proposition. Will the young Gunners deliver on their early season hype?

Injuries at the back mean it is not an ideal time to face Arsenal with so much at stake, (though the Gunners are likely to be without Fabregas) and I am expecting a very tough game for United. Equally I am looking forward to seeing how the new look United fares against high calibre opposition. Victory would mean so much more than three points.

Defence

Despite set backs, United have conceded less goals than Arsenal, despite playing a game more - thanks in no small part so some great work by Ben Foster. Obviously Van der Sar's experience would be handy today, but Foster's growing stature means it is less of a concern as it could have been.

Fit again Wes Brown could return, the question is whether to the right back slot he made his own two seasons ago, or to relieve Jonny Evans in the centre. Given that Evans is having injections to make it through games, and has needed to be substituted, it seems to make more sense to avoid a forced change later in the game and rest Evans completely, putting O'Shea or Neville in at right back.

Midfield

The strong performance by the United midfield at Wigan (Fletcher Scholes, Nani, Valencia) points to making few changes, but given that Wigan are not Arsenal, a different line up is likely. Park's relentless running seems crucial to disrupting Arsenal's rhythm, so he seems a safer choice than Valencia for this tie.

The question is, will Michael Carrick's unexplained absence continue? Must be Red will be listening with interest when the team sheet is announced. In a game when harrying and closing down will play their part in stopping Arsenal, it seems a shame that Anderson as well as Carrick is out of form and out of favour.

The fluid nature of the Gunners 4-3-3 means there will be a lot of running for the Reds midfield. Despite Paul Scholes' undoubted qualities, I wonder whether he would be able to keep up these days.

Yet given that Giggs did not feature in the Wigan game, the Welshman seems due a return, be it in the centre or out wide. Who knows, maybe we will even get another one of these?

Up Front

Despite Owen's first goal it's almost bound to be Berbatov and Rooney again. It was great to see Dimitar chasing back and nicking the ball off defenders in the Wigan game. While he's no Tevez yet, the fact that he looks hungrier this season can only be a good thing for United. 

With Owen off the mark it would be great to see him open his home account even if as a substitute. The winning goal would do nicely, Michael.

Patrick

United supporters vote Chelsea as main domestic rival and Barcelona as top European opponent

755 Manchester United supporters voted in MustBeRed's first weekly survey of opinion among United's global fans. You can take part in the second survey by voting here.

CHELSEA SEEN AS MAIN RIVAL FOR RETAINING THE PREMIERSHIP

The vote was taken before Liverpool lost last night at home to Aston Villa and most people had voted before Arsenal's strong start to the season. We'll hold another vote in a month or so.  Only 2% of United supporters see City as a serious rival - despite the Arab-owned team's £216m spending spree.

BARCELONA ARE SEEN AS MAIN CHAMPIONS LEAGUE RIVAL

Ten times as many United supporters see Barcelona as the main European rival as see Chelsea as the main rival.  Only 1% see Arsenal as United's main European rival.

ROONEY WILL BE UNITED'S TOP SCORER

It is difficult to argue with the verdict on this one.  A whopping 86% of supporters said that Wayne Rooney - who scored his 101st goal for United on Saturday against Wigan - will be United's top scorer in 2009/10.  More supporters expect Owen to hit the back of the net more regularly than Berbatov.

WE CAN BE STRONGER WITHOUT RONALDO

Most members of the MustBeRed panel are optimists about life after Ronaldo.  A quarter expect United to be weaker without last year's World Player of The Year but two-thirds say we can be stronger.

CLICK HERE TO VOTE IN THE NEW SURVEY.

11 points about the Wigan match

1. The perfect response.  Even though there are still some doubts and worries (see below), you can't really argue against 5 goals, scored away from home, and with all of your main strikers getting on the score sheet.  This was pretty much the best response we could have expected after the Burnley game, and sets things up nicely for the Arsenal match next weekend.  We've got six points now, only 84 more to go by Fergie's reckoning.

2. Well done, Wayne: goals #100 and #101.  Remember that debut against Fenerbahce?  Goals 1, 2 and 3 in a United shirt for Wayne Rooney?  Well, four years on he's the Old Trafford hero we all thought he'd be, and he just smashed in goals 100 and 101.  Here, for your viewing pleasure, is the magic hundreth:


Original Video- More videos at TinyPic

3. Owen's goal.  To my eyes, Owen's goal was the pick of the bunch.  Not just for the crisp pass by Nani and the pinpoint finish from Owen himself, but for what this could mean for our season - a confident Owen could well start banging them in from now on.



4. Berbatov's genius.  Lazy?  Doesn't add much to the team?  Geddaway.  Especially in the second half, Berbatov's neat touches and cushioned passes were the impetus behind many of United's best attacking moves.  The goal - complete with a chip over the keeper - capped what was an impressive performance.



5. Valencia Watch.  Now, that's more like it.  Against his old club, Valencia looked much more like the player we all got excited about in pre-season: a danger down the flank, peppering the opposition box with plenty of threatening crosses.  There are still question marks about whether he can pull it off against stronger oppostion - Ashley Cole, for instance, coped easily with him in the Community Shield match - but this was encouraging stuff.

6. The New Nani.  Last week we had the Old Nani: wasteful, frustating and lazy.  This week we're mostly back to the New Nani we saw against Chelsea: controlled, constructive and central to much of United's best play.  Again, a player who capped an impressive performance with an equally impressive goal.



7. Solid-(ish) defence.  Aside from a few wobbles - and, yes, a goal conceded against Burnley - one of the great positives that Fergie can take from the opening three games of the season is how our defence has coped with the injuries which have decimated it.  Vidic was back yesterday - which immediately made us look more solid - but none of the stand-ins, from John O'Shea to Wes Brown, have particularly embarrassed themselves or the team.  Special mention must go to Patrice Evra, who has been our player of the season so far, and Jonny Evans, who is one of the most composed young defenders that these eyes have ever seen.

8. The great Wigan run.  Don't you just love it when United play Wigan?  In nine league meetings now, United have come out winners every time - scoring 26 goals, and conceding only 4, in the process.

9. Doubts and worries.  Ok, so everything above has been a positive.  But there's no masking the fact that United looked distinctly off the boil in the first half of the match yesterday.  The main problem was the same one we had in the last two gains: an inability to convert chances into goals, the lack of some vital spark (or the 'X-Factor', as Piers Morgan puts it in the Sportsmail pages today).  Hopefully, the second-half performance will give the team the encouragement it needs, but there's little doubt that a better team than Wigan would have punished us before the first 45 minutes were up yesterday.

10. Where's Carrick?  Like the Birmingham game last weekend, Michael Carrick didn't even warrant a place on the United bench yesterday.  You do wonder what's going on with him.  He's not injured, so far as any one knows, but he does seem to have been the target of some cryptic and critical remarks from Fergie.  Whatever's wrong, let's hope it gets sorted out soon - our central midfield is already looking a little thin, without us effectively losing Carrick.

11. The final word from Fergie.  Here's how the manager summarised the match:

"Overall I thought they played very well. We had six good chances in the first half, and you'd like to take one or two of them, but the important thing was to be patient, and keep playing the way they were playing."

So now back to Old Trafford, and the Arsenal next weekend.

Pete

11 points about the Burnley match

1. Burnley's day.  As Fergie suggested in his post-match comments, it was simply Burnley's day.  United looked distinctly our of sorts; the Clarets gave the kind of bustling performance that you'd expect in a third round cup tie; and we missed chances galore (including a penalty).  Although the result was disappointing for Utd fans, you can't knock Burnley's effort - I'd rather lose to them, a small town club on their Premiership debut, than to the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool.

2. Burnley's goal.  Let's be fair; it was a belter:



3. No lack of effort, but a lack of inspiration.  Looking at the teamsheet, there was no reason to expect a lack of creativity.  I mean, Rooney, Giggs, Anderson, Carrick - and folk like Berbatov and Valencia on the bench.  But for some reason, however hard they tried, it just didn't come off.  I imagine it's partially down to the Utd players finding their feet at the start of a new season, and after a summer of changes too.  But, to my mind, it also strengthens the case for investing in a new creative midfielder.

4. Carrick's penalty.  Yep, I was puzzled too - why Michael Carrick?  But look at his penalty taking stats, and it makes some kind of sense: the lad scores more than he misses.  After last night, though, you doubt whether he'll be taking any more, and whether it leaves anyone else in the team prepared to take them.  The obvious choice would be Rooney (or Owen?), but he hardly seems to volunteer himself.

5. Alastair Campbell.  Burnley's most famous - or is that most vocal? - supporter is in dreamland today.  He's posted about the occasion over at his blog, here.

6. Owen Watch.  Oh dear.  Another game, another couple of missed chances.  It's early days yet, and the fans certainly seem to be on Michael Owen's side - not least because he has a preternatural ability to get into goalscoring positions, and should bang some in soon enough.  But this can't be good for the guy's confidence.

7. Valencia Watch.  There's been a bit of mumbling about our other high-profile summer signing over the past few days.  Nothing much, mind - but folk I've spoken to are certainly worried that Valencia's pre-season form isn't continuing into the season proper.  He looked uncomfortable against Ashley Cole in the Community Shield, and was pretty anonymous against Birmingham last weekend.  Yesterday, though, was more encouraging.  Coming on in the 59th minute, he added a spark that had been missing from the performance previously - although his deliveries into the box were a little erratic.

8. Credit where it's due.  If United hadn't been on the receiving end, The Sun's back-page headline - "Sick as a Claret" - would have been mildly amusing.

9. Burnley's best player: Brian Jensen.  The keeper was the opposition's best player on Saturday, and the same could be said of last night - only doubly so.  Brian Jensen was immense, and stopped pretty much everything that came near him - including Carrick's penalty.  Sure, our attacking players should have put some of their chances away, but that they didn't was frequently down to Jensen's magnificence, rather than their negligence.

10. A settled midfield?  I know injuries aren't helping Fergie put together a settled team at the moment, but I suspect he may be shuffling the midfield more than is necessary or desirable at the moment.  Here are the starting midfield combo's for our last three matches:

(v Burnley)

Anderson
Giggs
Park
Carrick

(v Birmingham)

Nani
Scholes
Fletcher yellow card
Valencia

(v Chelsea)

Park
Carrick
Nani
Fletcher

Which means only two players (Fletcher and Nani) have started two matches in a row, and no-one three in a row.

11. Don't panic!  The season is, of course, still young.  There's plenty of time to make things right, and one of our main title rivals - Liverpool - have also lost a game.  So there's no reason for undue concern.  But, having said that, last night did suggest that the team and the manager are still getting to grips with life A.R. (After Ronaldo).  How quickly they manage that process will have a massive bearing on our title chances this year.

Pete

11 points about the Birmingham match

1. Rooney's goal.  We all know the story: now Ronaldo's gone, we're expecting more goals from Wayne Rooney - especially as he's playing in his preferred position through the centre.  In which case, it was good to see him open his account on day two of the league, with his 99th goal for the club (you can watch it here).  Hopefully, there are many more to come.  Fergie certainly expects.

2. United's Zidane. There are plenty of plaudits for Rooney's overall performance yesterday - in the newspapers, on the blogs and from Fergie himself.  But the most eye-catching comes from the Brum manager, Alex McLeish, who said after the match, "Every so often natural footballers come along. You get players like Zidane and Platini and now there is Wayne Rooney."

3. Injury-hit defence.  What's wrong with our defenders at the moment?  They're dropping like flies.  United went into the day without Vidic, while Neville and Rafael are still recovering from knocks.  And then Rio goes and injures his thigh in training, and Jonny Evans hobbles off the pitch after 75 minutes.  Rio will be out for 2 weeks, but there's been no confirmation on Evans - the Beeb are reporting that the young Northern Irish defender was taken off as a "precaution", so hopefully he should be fit for the games ahead.

4. Defensive strength in depth.  Having said that, the defenders that are fit put in a decent performance.  Sure, Birmingham are no Real Madrid.  Sure, there were some shaky moments.  And, sure, Utd will never look as solid as when they have Vidic and Rio paired together at the back.  But captain-for-the-day John O'Shea marshalled his forces well, and Wes Brown and Ritchie De Laet certainly aren't bad options to have on the bench.  The clean sheet is testament to their efforts, as well as to a couple of decent saves by Ben Foster.  Despite some hints in the Times this morning, I'm not sure we need to be looking to the transfer market for defensive cover.

5. Goal-line clearance specialist.  Evra stopped one on the line against Chelsea last week, and then repeated the trick against Birmingham yesterday; getting in the way of Franck Quedrue's goal-bound header.  It capped what was an impressive performance by our left-back - reliable in defence but, also, one of our most effective attacking forces.  Just don't let him take any penalties.

6. Missed chances.  Typical United.  They dominate huge swathes of the game; should have scored a hatful; but only put one away, and end up enduring a more uncertain finish than they need have done.  Nani, Fletcher and Owen all had gilt-edge opportunities - although, to be fair, Owen's came when the match was pretty much over.  It's been said a thousand times, but bears repeating: Utd really do need to start converting more of their chances.  After all, you don't always get Birmingham at home.

7. Birmingham's best player: Joe Hart.  Of course, it didn't help that Birmingham's keeper (on loan from City) put in an impressive performance between the sticks.  Scott the Red, over at Republik of Mancunia, sums it up nicely:

"11 shots saved by the former City keeper, 9 shots off target and a further 10 blocked shots is all you need to know about what a frustrating day it was for us today. Hart was on form and their defenders were eager not to be embarrassed, so whilst I’d like to see us looking sharper in front of goal over the next few weeks, credit has to go to Birmingham’s defence."

8. Owen Watch.  After the Valencia game, Owen won't have appreciated that missed opportunity in the dying minutes of the match.  But he'll have taken heart from the positive reception Old Trafford gave him when he replaced Berbatov in the 74th minute.  I think most people expect the goals to come.

9. A confidence-boost for Foster.  After his wobbly performance at Wembley last week, Ben Foster needed a solid match to reassure both the fans and - you assume - the manager, his teammates and himself.  And that's what he delivered: some fine saves - especially from Christian Benitez late in the game - and less jitteriness with the ball on the ground.  Indeed, Fergie paid tribute to Foster afterwards, saying that, "We know he has ability and he proved that again today."  The perfect tonic for our stand-in keeper.

10. Same old Nani.  The Portuguese winger looked quite good against Chelsea last week - he really did.  But yesterday it was back to the same old Nani: wasteful in possession, lazy when off the ball, and sloppy in front of goal.  He partially redeemed himself with his cross for Rooney's goal.  But this wasn't the performance to make us forget a certain other Portuguese flyer.

11. Mighty Spurs!  United's performance may not have been the best, but a win's a win - and that win was made infinitely sweeter by Liverpool's defeat, later in the day, at White Hart Lane.  Last season, Benitez's men only lost two games.  One match down, and they're already half-way there...

Pete