Same old shite at Old Trafford

The game at Old Trafford told us all we need to know about Man Ure and Arsenal – not that we didn’t already know it.

As we’ve seen time after time Arsenal played fantastic football and totally dominated the game but failed to make the scoreline reflect their superiority and paid a high and totally unjust price. As we have also seen time after time, Manchester United will always be awarded penalties when they need them. There can be no doubt that Rooney played for the penalty but it was correctly awarded. Cynical, yes. Cheating, no. Almunia made a bad decision and Rooney ruthlessly exploited the rules of the game. However, earlier in the game, Darren Fletcher brought down Arshavin in the Man Ure penalty AND handled the ball in doing so. Clear-cut, cast-iron penalty but nothing given. Then Diaby compounded the sense of injustice by inexplicably heading into his own goal giving Man Ure a major slice of good fortune and a hugely undeserved win. To add salt into Arsenal’s wounds, they had a last minute equaliser (correctly) ruled off-side and Arsene Wenger was subjected to utter humiliation by referee Mike Dean in the farcical charade that followed.

Old Trafford is a vile place and the home of everything bad about football. What happened to Wenger was an absolute disgrace and, if there is any justice, Dean should face the most severe reprimand on a par with the treatment he subjected Wenger to. It won’t happen, of course.

Man Ure’s 2009-10 team is a shadow of those we’ve seen in previous seasons. Their best players apart from Rooney are all defenders. The likes of Berbatov, Carrick, Fletcher, Scholes, Giggs, Park, Foster, Brown and O’Shea would never appear on the wanted lists of the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool, Barcelona or Manchester United. Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal all have stronger first XIs.
The trouble is, Man Ure’s manager is the master of the dark arts and they will always get the breaks at the crucial moments. As a result, they will be the team to beat again this season. Right now Chelsea look favourites to beat them.