There are few conspiracies as baked in as the infamous anti-Arsenal bias of Mike Dean. With news of his retirement, I thought it would be well worth revisiting whether or not this Dean was as ever as bad as we assumed. It all started, apparently, on one august day in August at Old Trafford. Blame a water bottle. Blame Lee Probert. Maybe, just maybe, don’t blame Mike Dean. Hear me out.
Continue readingAhead of our trip to Old Trafford, almost all of the news is coming up Arsenal: new interim-to-the-interim manager Ralf Rangnick will not yet be at the wheel, thanks in so small part to Brexit (see? and you thought Brexit was bad!), meaning that the current interim manager, Michael Carrick, will be. Shkrodan Mustafi—er, Harry Maguire—is fit and available. Varane, Pogba, and Cavani are probably unavailable. We haven’t lost at Old Trafford in our last three trips and sport a not-too-shabby record 2W, 4D, 4L in our last ten. They’re overconfident after a 1-1 draw away to Chelsea. Yes, indeed, it’s all starting to feel like it’s in the bag. What would possiblye go wrong? Possibly go wrong. Ha. That’s the first thing that’s ever gone wrong.
After all, we’ve never gone into Old Trafford facing a Man U side that seemed like it was on the ropes, ripe for the taking (with apologies for the mixed metaphors). Nah. Everything is sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows, innit it? We’ll be fine. This is fine. Stop with the hand-wringing and the teeth-gnashing and the rending of garments already.
More seriously, it does seem as if many of the signs augur well. I might have actually preferred Rangnick coming in midweek, doing some tinkering, and setting his side up with new, more-aggressive tactics that sow confusion in the ranks. It’s not like setting up an effective gegenpress can happen overnight, nor can it really happen with Ronaldo (who is apparently literally allergic to pressing) or Rashford (who is about as good at it as the proverbial headless chicken. Behind them, the beleaguered midfield of Fred, McTominay, and Matic can’t offer much in support. At any rate, that’s all pointless speculation now. With Carrick in charge for at least one more match, we can probably expect more of the same of what we saw at Stamford Bridge.
Absent Ronaldo, Carrick named nine starters who had been at the club last season, and they played with a greater cohesiveness and chemistry than we’ve seen from Man U for most of the season as Ole struggled to accommodate Ronaldo. Formation-wise, a nominal 4-4-2 frequently became a 5-3-2 as McTominay tucked in outside of Wan-Bissaka to deny Marcus “drink-driving” Alonso to deny him space to operate—something for Croydon de Bruyne and The Chaos Factor to consider. The problem here is that McTominay doesn’t seem to have the engine or awareness to operate in the role that Carrick asked him to play, with him frequently getting caught out of position. If McTominay is tasked with man-marking someone like Tavares, similar to his role in man-marking Alonso, well, all hell could break loose in the best of ways. Smith-Rowe, Tavares, Ødegaard, even Saka, have shown a willingness to pop up all over the pitch, and this could really spell trouble if it starts to stretch Carrick’s defensive set-up.
At the other end of the pitch, without suggesting we’re at Chelsea’s level, we’ll have to be aware of Man U simply putting the laces through it and seeing what happens. It was good enough to give the very-dangerous Jadon Sancho one breakaway and very nearly led to a second when Mendy’s lazy pass was interecepted. Fred opted to offer his best “Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better” routine with a lazy chip straight back to Mendy. On a larger level, none among Sancho, Bruno, Greenwood, or Rashford is particularly strong in the air, while our own Gabriel and Tomiyasu are very, very good. White is decent if not dominant. This would seem to largely negate Carrick’s attacking plan from the Chelsea match. With Bruno as the only truly progressive passer in the squad, we’d do well to mind where he pops up in order to deny him touches, time, or space.
Again, we’re not nearly on Chelsea’s level. Still, Carrick showed his hand last weekend, and it’s likely that he’ll play it safe again on Thursday, even if this risks sapping some of the enthusiasm of the home crowd. While it would be easy for us to feel very, very suspicious of how many factors are breaking our way, it’s easy to fear the worst that can happen. What we should focus on is what’s most likely to happen.
So. That’s a match preview then. Share your thoughts below, give the blog a follow, and don’t be a stranger.
What is going on with this squad? First, a confident, commanding win at the Etihad. A few weeks later, a sloppy, diffident loss at home against Monaco. Now, this, a gritty, determined win at Old Trafford. This marks the first time since 2006 that we’ve beaten both Manchester clubs in one season, and the first time we’ve won at Old Trafford in our last ten trips. Ordinarily, I don’t like to dwell on such track-records; after all, we’re not playing against the Man U of 2007 or 2010. We were playing against the current squad. Then again, shattering that track-record to smithereens feels pretty damned good.
At our end, just about everything seemed to click. Despite the determination and energy of the home-crowd, we withstood the pressure as wave after wave of early Man U attack slammed up against our defense, which bent but wouldn’t break. When Özil found an opening in the heart of the Man U defense, it felt almost like a let-down when he didn’t plunge into the box to shoot, opting instead to lay off to the Ox. The contrast couldn’t have been sharper. Ox took the ball and made a beeline into the area, beating four or five defenders before laying off to Monreal (who had given the ball to Özil in the first place), who coolly collected it and slotted past de Gea.The equaliser was well-earned, with Di Maria’s cross finding Rooney, who nodded home sharply past Szczęsny, well-positioned but helpless against the header.
Nevertheless, it felt like things might actually break our way. Coquelin was going toe-to-toe and chin-to-chest with Fellaini (getting a bloody nose five minutes in for his efforts), but he seemed to win just about every single duel against the bludgeony Belgian, all but negating his would-be impact on the pitch. The tenacity that Coquelin brings to the squad has been a key-ingredient to our results of late. If he can just learn to temper that tenacity with a drop of discretion, well, we might just have the defensive midfielder we’ve been pining for for some time. We’ll take a closer look at that another day.
Now, on to the gloating and boasting.
Danny. Effin’. Welbeck. Yes, he got the winner, but we’ll come back to that in due-time. He went into Old Trafford for the first time since he left the club he’d loved since childhood and he emerged as the conquering hero. Pause for a moment to savor the contrast. That long-adored club saw fit to jettison him in favor of the (apparently) sexier and more-productive Radamel Falcao. Falcao was “loaned” to Man U for £16m, yet he wasn’t named for this vital clash. Welbeck, deemed surplus to needs as a result of the Falcao loan, was sold to Arsenal for a £16m transfer-fee. For Welbeck to go into Old Trafford and nab the winner is almost too much to explain. The symbolism is too dense. Suffice it to say, his celebration, against the club that all but kicked him to the curb, is almost too ironic. When Valencia’s back-pass to de Gea was just a bit too lazy, it was Welbeck, the tireless, industrious Welbeck, who pounced on it, tapping it past de Gea before blasting it home into an empty net.
Normally, a player in this situation shouldn’t celebrate. Witness our own Aaron Ramsey after he scored against Cardiff. He offered a subdued “Ayatollah” celeberation to acknowledge his time with the Welsh club. We’ll set aside a comparison against van Persie’s celebration—it was, after all, his third appearance against us—but Welbeck’s does deserve a brief dissertation. By contrast with Ramsey and van Persie, Welbeck was shunted off. Cast aside. Consigned to the rubbish-bin. The same can not be said about the Welsh Jesus or the Dutch Skunk, each of whom saw and seized a chance at greener pastures. With that in mind, Welbeck’s celebration should be seen in a different light, one that shines on his frustration at his former club and on his (admittedly uneven) progress with his current club. He was marginalized, figuratively and literally, forced to play as a winger. The delicious irony of his goal is that it came in part because he was played through the middle—against his former club. Mmm-mmmm. That’s irony almost as tasty as bacon. Almost.
So we’ll face off in the semifinal against either Bradford (unpleasant memories) or Reading (memories more-pleasant). Meanwhile, Liverpool have to travel to Ewood Park for a replay against Blackburn, the winner to travel to Villa Park to face Aston Villa. This is not to suggest that our path to glory is now paved with gold, but it does state that we’ve taken a dramatic next-step towards defending our status as cup-holders.
Looking down the road, though, this result enhances if not exacerbates the important of our visit to Old Trafford on 16 May. If nothing else, we might have to squeeze in a rescheduled visit from Sunderland. Aside from that, the clash with Man U could carry significance for top-four positions. As it currently stands, we’re still a point above them, but we’ve now added at least one more match to our list while erasing the same from Man’s. Should we find a way to rebound against Monaco, and should Man U go on a run (shorn of any other distractions), we could very well find ourselves in a dogfight for fourth place.
We’ll revisit that sort of stuff later. For now, celebrate the fact that we defeated Man U. At Old Trafford. In the FA Cup. It looks like it might just be another barren season for Man U. We’ve done as much as we could in this competition; here’s hoping that we can do as much again in mid-May.