“Everyone knows that Manchester United are a worldclass team – and we need to make teams come to the Emirates and be scared of us,” said Walcott. “That performance will put fear in people’s minds. The players tried to ignore the criticism and we showed against Man United that if we just play like that we will be fine. United are just behind us in the Premier League table now, so that win has definitely boosted our confidence and morale in the dressing-room. We’re third now, so, hopefully, results will go our way.”
1. United had more shots on target, more shots off target, more blocked shots, greater possession, better passing completion rate, better tackling completion rate, and superior territorial advantage. Whilst it was certainly a brilliant game of football, for you to play at home and have the result decided by a deflected goal, after the away side dominated you where possession and chances are concerned, will most certainly not put fear in to the opposition.
2. Arsenal are ahead because they have played a game more than United. If we beat Stoke at home on Saturday, we will move up to third, on equal games with Arsenal.
Let’s be honest here for a minute. Arsenal weren’t good enough for the title last season because their squad was too shallow. This year, Wenger, in all his wisdom, sold on Gilberto, Hleb and Flamini. How can they possibly be expected to seriously compete for the title this season? Whilst Essien claims their pretty football won’t get them anywhere, I’d say their shallow squad is a much bigger factor, unless the manager chooses to gracefully bow out of the Champions League, which he wouldn’t do.
I’m sure all the Gooners are made up this week after beating us and there’s no denying that we’d be pretty chuffed if we’d got the win. But United’s aspirations have to be much higher than just one game for bragging rights. We get our bragging rights from tophies, afterall, we won the league in 2007 after losing home and away to this side. This season is looking like it might be harder than ever to win those trophies, but it is not the result against Arsenal that will determine our success!
Man Utd News 24/7
I think most of us Arsenal fans are aware that we won’t be winning the title this year Scott. Walcott is a professional footballer that plays for Arsenal, in case in all your years of following the game you hadn’t noticed, part of a footballers job is to come out with meaningless tripe like you have quoted above. Walcott is a 19 year old kid trying to say the right things to the press in his first real season, don’t get you knickers in a twist love;)
Accept you lost the game and stop quoting stats, I’d still put money on you being above us by the end of the season. However the gentleman below is worried it might be Chelsea.
Click link:
http://www.onlinegooner.com/exclusive/index.php?id=834
It doesn’t matter if you had more shots on and off target than the Arsenal. It’s the two that went in that count.
Arsenal could certainly have had more than two goals. I thought the better team won.
ps I’m an Arseanl fan!!!
As Gooner77 has said, Walcott is just a 19 year-old speaking his mind and trying to be optimistic. Would you expect him to come out and say: ‘We beat Man Utd. But don’t get carried away Arsenal fans, it means NOTHING. We won’t win anything this season, they’re far superior to us’.
We’ve just beaten the PL and CL champions. Give us a break, I think we’re entitled to celebrate, as you people would have had you won. Just ’cause we’re enjoying it doesn’t mean it’s all we aspire to do in the league, regardless of were we do end up finishing.
United were behind from the 23rd minute and hence needed to apply pressure by definition, so if you had similar number of shots or attempts, it is not great, it is BAD! In the 2nd half there was hardly any real threat from United.
I dont disagree with either you or Walcotts comments. Although United had the stats well on their side the overall performance of Arsenal was better on the day and they seemed to want it (need it?) more.
United will need to have fewer off days than they are having so far, if the title is to stay at Old Trafford.
I think the telling stat is the distance from goal for almost all attempts was outside the box, which is unusual. That shows Arsenals defence was largely on top, if a tad too close to home.
It was only one match but the confidence it has given Arsenal and the strength they showed (for a change) will give a big boost to their aspirations.
Just shows stats dont win football matches.
Theo right you must have been scared of the arsenal pressure because you rush all your shots and missed the goal even one hit the corner flag.
Whether we will be in contention come april remains to be seen but you’ve played the all the title contenders now away and have only got 1 point. We have a 100% record(yes i know we only played one). and it will be about what you do against the contenders.
Man UTD fans should realise they do not have a God given right to win every game.
Like Arsene Wenger says, it’s about desire commitemnt, passion and not all about experience.
Arsenal wanted to win, Man Utd didn’t.
Well Done Arsenal, you DESERVED to win.
Neutral observer.
Man U actually won the game, but Arsenal scored more goals. Just one of those things.
Essien should not note our ‘pretty football’ finished only a point behind their dull machine last season and that we both finished the season with no trophies.
Scott get over yourself. Theo talks a lot more sense than you.
And as I’m sure you know, stats can be misleading. I’m sure if United had been 2 – 0 up then the stats would have been been opposite. The stats showed that United were trying to get back in the game and the Gunners were trying to hold on to what they had.
Look at the Stoke stats against Arsenal and the same can be inferred, yet I don’t hear any Gonners saying they deserved to win that game!!!
Face it, you were out played and lost to the better team on the day.
ManU lost to Arsenal, take it like a man and dont be a sore looser! Look at ManU, they are struggling as well. They are 8 points behind the Chelsea and Liverpool. Sure, they have a game in hand but that doesnt mean they have 3 points in the bag!
If possession and goal attempts meant jack shit, Arsenal would have been champions of the last ten years!
And by the way the difference between the two teams wasn’t a deflected goal, it was a sublime passage of possession, pass and move football, involving every single outfield player which utterly bamboozled the away team and set up a strike of such quality the goalie was left ROOTED TO THE SPOT as the ball arrowed into the top corner.
United are simply terrible losers, and then call Arsenal bad losers!
How did United beat Arsenal and won the title last year? Invented penalty (ball caressing arm and not changing direction) and later invented free kick to score from, when they were outplayed and behind.
Then when Carrick handled the ball against Chelsea, Fergie fumed “how is it possible to give such a penalty in a title-decisive match?”! This time, he complained why Man U were NOT given the same type of penalty against Clichy (ball to arm again, and ball not changing direction), and pretended to be senile when it came to Gary Nevilles handling of the ball a minute earlier, or the incredible let-off for the shirt-pulling by Vidic on Nasri in the area.
You still lost though mate, we probably have more shots on target every season, but, as you guys keep telling us, that don’t count for jack.
I read a Liverpool post where there was a scouse cursing United for losing to Arsenal as it has ruined their chances of finishing third…can’t get over it…
And regarding walcotts shot hitting the corner flag, im pretty sure one of rooney’s great efforts went out for a throw in!
Funny how all the Manc excuses are coming out now… more possession, more shots etc etc. As you Man Utd fans have been telling us for a few years, it’s not about that, it’s about RESULTS! And we beat you fair and square! Who’s fault is it that Rooney and Ronaldo couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net? And let me just remind you that you had more or less a full squad to pick from – Arsenal had V Persie, Adebayor, Eduardo and Rosicky all out. That’s the equivalent of Man U having Rooney, Berbatov, Tevez and Ronaldo out!
Theo doesnt smoke he’s a good boy!!!
looking at the shots that united had there were only two real chances (ronaldo past the post and rooney over the bar…both of which should have been goals). Arsenal created by far the more clear cut chances and it would have been interesting to see how united would have coped without the aide of the ref who seemed to try his hardest to help them out (diaby through on goal hacked down, nasri through on goal shirt pulled). In addition united defended quite poorly and arsenal defended quite well. There was only one deserved winner.
Let Arsenal have their Cup Final days. We all know that, come May, they’ll be well below us in the table!
Oh, by the way, we didn’t have more shots on goal because we were losing. We just outplayed Arsenal all over the park. Simple as that.
I think Theo’s been smoking banana skins……
You lost, get over it. Having been in attendance on Saturday and not watched the biased highlights of Sky or the BBC, I can assure you it was definitely Arsenal in the driving seat, they sat off of Man Utd making it nigh on impossible to penetrate the midfield section and counter attacked with such pace it wouldn’t have mattered who they were playing, that is where the Man Utds possession came from.
If anyone should have any complaints it should be Arsenal, as they were up against a ref that was so ridiculously one sided, I had to double take to make sure he wasn’t wearing a blue shirt with a number on.
Man Utd are a good side, but they met their match on Saturday despite a depleted Arsenal squad, maybe it will be different next time, maybe not, such is the joy when the two premiership giants lock horns.
Scott sorry mate ,but it sounds like sour grapes to me.If you were to look over Arsenal’s matches againt the other top teams in the league,over the years you’d probably realised we’d on numourus occasions out played them only to be let down by our end product.i.e we lost just like you did over the weekend.You can dress it up with stats all you want.
oh and by the way all the mancs saying you outplayed us all over the park must have been watching a different match.Red nev had a absolute howler so did Van da sar,carrick,when you got your fluke of a goal you looked all at sea.Then the ref who was the worst unt’ed player on the pitch,who booked diarby for diving while being a whole 8 yards away in clear view,came to the conclusion that 6mins extra time should be played.get over it.you should never have set out to try and outplay us in the first place at home!
^ Your opening goal was a deflection that had been heading straight for the keeper. It’s hilarious that you’d come on here talking about ‘fluke’ goals!
And you’re right, the officials weren’t good enough. Everyone could see Clichy’s goalie impression to stop the ball going in to the box… apart from the officials it seems.
So you’re just going to take exception to everything any player says about their own team that doesn’t include a verbal teabagging of Alex Ferguson, is that it?
Non-news.
Pathetic reading. If I was a blogger for the Champions of England and Europe, I’d like to think that I’d have the confidence to blog about my own team rather than snipe (inaccurately) at the opposition. Everything Theo said is reasonable. Arsenal deserved to win the game on Saturday. The only explanation I can find for this blog is that you are desperately insecure about your chances. Could that be right?
scott the red still talking about arsenal tut tut tut.
get over it mate and too whoever it was that said you outplayed us all over the park.
what game was you watching?
park ji sung was your best player and thats saying something.
scott i think you’ve had a glass of that sour grapes!
and you had a 12th man in the ref and a clear penalty for samir should have been given.
and that clichy one was never a penalty.
No.1 Goon – still spending your days reading United blogs? Tut tut tut.
I don’t think we’ve had any Arsenal fans stupid enough to claim that Clichy’s wasn’t handball. Congratulations!
Just a note, this article does not mention Arsenal in the headline and does not appear on NewsNow. What the hell are you doing spending your days reading United blogs? It’s cute and I’ll take it as a compliment.
Here we go again, Gooner cunts posting shit on this site. Why don’t you all fuck off and post rubbish on your own site. No.1 Goon – shock you think the Nasri one was a penalty and Clichy didn’t handball in the area. Not like you Arsenal fans to be blinkered is it! you bunch of numpty cunts.
Scott the Red we’re all reading this post because it IS on the Arsenal newsnow site! Why else would we bother trundling through sites in order to find it?! You aint that important!
i think u maybe have seen it as a man united fan so u have not seen it good.arsenal mate was without rvp and adebaor who i think u know if adebayor could be there instead of bendner there would be at least one goal from the 2 chances in the first half.and in second half if rvp culd be instead of bendner( even vela ) there could be at least one goal from the 2 chances that bendner had.so dont say us man united played better,dont try to tell us man united lost chances.man u lost but arsenal lost too.in that game arsenal was better mate.
scott it wasn’t just a game it was more than a game for us not coze u were there but it was so coze ua re in the top four so it culd be same against cheski or liverpool,ok? and i belive u have not forget how you man u fans celebrated the win against us las year in the FA cup,hahhahaaha i just can remember how ur roonay celebrat that goal against us like he has won the title.so u should know that we celebrat like we did coze there was a game against a top four side and in case of a bad time for arsenal,it wasnt just a win against u.
soy for my bad english
alxluc- not if u dont beat the likes of fulham, stoke, and hull it wont!
just to reiterate
arsenal created the better chances and deserved to win
you had more shots but only two that were a danger (and should have been put away). Some of those ‘efforts’ on goal were laughable (rooney out for a throw in, anderson etc) and were speculative efforts at best. Arsenal’s chances were crafted. I now realize that i have actually spent time posting a comment here so i guess the jokes on me. Damn you drawing me in with ridiculously inaccurate statements!
Lets cut the gooner tripe, they are not that important.
Whats troubling me is the fact that results are not going our way away from home.
Except Liverpool in the second half, we have not had an un-United like performance against Chelsea and Arsenal.
Our passing looks good,our pace picks up when required, we are creating deadly chances.
What is the problem? Bit too much in our squad that each one relies on someone else to deliver the final blow? Or is it because a shaky defence shakes our whole team?
PS: Whats up with Veda and Rio these days? they go through 85 minutes of brilliant defending and for 5 minutes, they lose all they build up.
Do we need to rotate them more often? What wrong has Brown done?
United had three clear cut, controlled opportunites that should have been scored. Rooney, Ronaldo and Anderson (who should have pulled the ball back with his one on one). Can’t remember arsenal making chances like that, only caused us problems from crosses. It just wasn’t our day and arsenal, chelsea and the dipper’s will all have games like that this season allowing us to catch up
hey Gooners stop making excuses.. if you just whant to read about the Champions of England & the Champions of Europe.. just read dont say we found it on NewsNow.. and stop posting here just enjoy the Scott writing about our accomplishments ant trophies which you hope to see in you empty cabenit.. and enjoy the Scott writing about your f**king players and whatever he says about them i’m sure he is right, if you dont like dont blog here..
keep up the good work Scott..
We are The Pride of All Europe..
well sam thats cause you had the old manc blinkers on
bendtner had two clear opportunities which someone not as divvy would take plus we were hacked down (as usual) as both diaby and nasri were through on goal. That’s not to mention the chances from the crosses you mentioned…also…we scored two and you scored one!
BBC SPORT REPORTING
Injured Hargreaves out for season
Manchester United’s injury-plagued midfielder Owen Hargreaves will miss the rest of the season because of persistent knee problems.
This is a very odd post
We didnt deserve to win, a draw if we were lucky
Im sure United have had deflected goals in the pass, and the deciding goal was the second goal, which put the game beyond us, which was partly created by a run by non other than Walcott which dragged Vidic away
Remember the Barcelona game at OT last season? Im sure Barca had more possession and shots than us, and I bet you didnt write a post saying we didnt deserve to win.
At the end of the day, Arsenal scored more than us.
yeah yeah watever.. you won and get giddy bout it.. big f**kin deal. jog on!!
i hate it when some of this so called fans turned up and gloat then dissapear when they lose.. . you win sum and you lose sum so what.. its football.
and remember kids. CHAMPIONS OF ENGLAND!!! CHAMPIONS OF EUROPE!!.
when ur win those.. then ur entitled to gloat. thank you.
shkumbini – yeah I remember Rooney celebrating like that when we did win the Premiership title at Wigan, and also winning the European Cup in Moscow. I also remember Gallas celebrating a home draw against us last season like you had won the title, only to end up with fuck all at the end of it.
Wainy – I see alot of Arsenal sites shown on Newsnow United section, but I don’t open them because they don’t interest me as you are small time and not at all important, so fuck off using that as a shit excuse. I think you Arsenal fans need to get a life.
Firstly, he is smoking the sweet pipe of victory.
Secondly, stats don’t mean you dominated the game. Arsenal were clearly the better team, because they took their chances. Despite Man U applying a lot of presure, besides the Rooney(Penalty spot), Ronaldo and Goal, there weren’t many other good chances.
If the game was played on stats I have no doubt that Arsenal would have won the title last year or at least come equal with Man U
Stop being so bitter
Scott mate
we were outplayed.
Clichy’s was a handball and I was outraged when it didnt happen. But on reflection, the ball did still travel into the danger area, so it could be argued that the handball had no impact on the ball.
You also have to look at the Nasri penalty, the Carrick foul on Diaby (could have been sent off on another day as last man).
We did create chances – I’m not worried about that but our defence was quite poor. Vidic and Ferdinand would usually have no trouble with a guy like Bendtner, but he could have scored a number of goals.
Neville was completely outclassed by Nasri and I think his time is up.
^ I take it you didn’t see the Chelsea vs United game last season when we had a penalty against us 4 minutes from time for exactly the same scenerio as Clichy?
Gooner – you are a complete doughnut. Fuck off posting stuff on this site, and go on to your own two bob site. I have just seen two Arsenal links on this page, and swerved them as they are NOT at all interesting. You gooner cunts are obsessed with United to keep coming on here and posting such tripe. It’s lovely to know that this result is the be all and end all of your season, the way you keep on making the point of beating us last Saturday. Oh and please don’t talk about stats when we clearly scored more goals than you in the league last season, and that is not taking into account the chances we wasted in some games – we smashed Newcastle 6-0 in the second half last season, and even then we should of been 4-0 up at half-time. FACT! your statements are not backed up by fact, you are merely being blinkered as is the norm with you numpties.
Congrats to Arsenal and their victory, but i don’t get how anyone can say we were “outplayed”, they scored more than us, of course they did, we had better possession and more shots on goal, how can anyone say we were outplayed???? I don’t think I’ve ever see us put up such a dominating performance against any other top 4 side in recent years. A draw would have been a better reflection of the game, thank heavens it didn’t end 2-0 though, that’d have been flattering Arsenal a lot.
@SteRDLk: but even with all that possession, how many chances did they create?