Manchester United 2 Arsenal 1
“JUST like Eduardo,” is what Arsenal will feel. To the “Scottish conspiracy” Arsène Wenger complained about, perhaps he will add Sir Alex Ferguson to the list of plotters.
Arsenal’s wonderful start to the season and their likelihood of a first win at Old Trafford since 2006 evaporated in a moment of acrimony and controversy. A striker went through, a goalkeeper dived at his feet, the striker launched himself to the turf enthusiastically and a penalty was given. Just like Eduardo?
Wenger, certainly, would have seethed with indignation when he sent on Eduardo as a late substitute and the stadium resounded to a chorus of “cheat”.
The Arsenal manager’s argument is that English fans look differently on the actions of foreign players than when homegrown ones are involved, and blind eyes are never more likely to be turned than when the perpetrator is a national treasure like Wayne Rooney.
He has a point, Rooney has dived in the past — and to win penalties against Arsenal — but there were differences here. When Rooney raced through onto a Ryan Giggs pass and Manuel Almunia slid out to meet him, the goalkeeper was heedless with his challenge and made firm contact upon Rooney’s ankles with his arms. Rooney had seemed to use a bit of timing to invite the foul and went down a little too happily, but an offence had been committed, unlike when Eduardo fell over Celtic’s Artur Boruc in a Champions League match on Wednesday.
Eduardo risks being given a two-match European ban for his actions while Rooney, yesterday, merely enhanced his hero status among United fans. The line between faking and exaggerating a foul is an ultra-fine one but a cynical pro might argue that Eduardo’s crime was not to dive, merely that he did not dive at the right time, or well enough.
Rooney got up, brushed himself down and — with Michael Carrick missing Manchester United’s last one — accepted the responsibilty of taking the penalty. After a meditative moment in which he took deep breaths and stared at the ground, he smashed the ball home. It was the key moment, offering United the equaliser in a game that Arsenal, leading thanks to a gorgeous strike by Andrey Arshavin, seemed they might close out. Soon after Almunia’s rush of blood, Abou Diaby scored a crazy own goal to give United a 2-1 lead. Nani and Dimitar Berbatov both missed embarrassingly when given chances to seal their side’s victory but there was a further moment of angst for Wenger when Robin van Persie turned the ball home deep in stoppage time, seemingly for 2-2, only for William Gallas to be judged offside during an earlier phase of the attack.
Wenger, also angered by seeing his players on the receiving end of six of Mike Dean’s nine bookings, protested and the referee sent him off.
By bringing in Wes Brown for Jonny Evans and Giggs for Berbatov, Ferguson was reverting to the familiar, but the set-up of his team was distinctly new age. A United traditionalst would always want to see two up front in a home game — even with visitors as formidable on the break as Arsenal — but Rooney played as a solo striker, with Giggs, Nani and Antonio Valencia deployed behind him.
Ferguson’s aim was to have bodies in midfield but so was Wenger’s. Mirroring United’s formation, Arsenal were built for caution with the returning Van Persie, their captain, at their apex. So two of attacking football’s oldest and most steadfast apostles contrived to produce a first half that seemed like the Premier League at its most workaday: all hurry, discipline and sweat. It needed the extraordinary to break the pattern and Arshavin provided it.
When the little Russian took possession in the penalty area and Darren Fletcher careered across and cleaned him out it looked a certain penalty, but the referee played on. Yes, Fletcher took some ball but redefined rules mean a challenge should be considered reckless, and therefore foul play, if the player making it is not in control of his body and, through launching himself, makes dangerous contact.
Not that Arshavin dwelt on Dean’s mistake. Less than a minute later, when Gael Clichy found Denilson, Arshavin flitted into a pocket of space, received Denilson’s pass and clumped in a shot that moved wickedly in the air and beat Ben Foster from 25 yards out. The impression was that the ball was at an easy enough height for Foster. The goalkeeper, hoping to be among the 23 names announced this evening in Fabio Capello’s England squad, did his prospects more good with a prodigious reflex save from Van Persie just after half- time.
Fletcher had lobbed a shot over when Rooney found him during the early stages and Rooney bent a free kick close after Gallas took Patrice Evra down. But the home side lacked the speed and choreography in attack normally associated with Ferguson teams. Giggs tried to lead a breakaway but lacked the legs to get clear of Alex Song, who made an excellent tackle, and Nani lacked the awareness to latch on to Giggs’ pass when the Welshmen fed him a through ball after Rooney’s clever decoy run.
Until the game exploded after United’s equaliser the most impressive play, Arshavin’s strike excepted, came from defenders. Thomas Vermaelen was mobile, robust, switched-on; a real find. Fletcher (on Abou Diaby) and Song (on Giggs) made terrific tackles. In this context Arsenal’s sudden outbreak of defensive shakiness was all the more baffling. If Almunia’s challenge against Rooney was rash, what was Diaby thinking when Giggs whipped a free kick into his box and, unthreatened by opponents, he rose and placed a firm header past his own goalkeeper to put United 2-1 ahead.
MAN UTD: Foster 6, O’Shea 6, Brown 6, Vidic 7, Evra 7, Fletcher 7, Carrick 6, Valencia 5 (Park 63min), Giggs 7 (Berbatov 85min), Nani, Rooney 7
ARSENAL: Almunia 5, Sagna 6, Gallas 6, Vermaelen 8, Clichy 6, Denilson 6 (Eduardo 79min), Song 7, Eboue 6 (Bendtner 71min), Diaby 4, Arshavin 7 (Ramsey 81min), Van Persie 6
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