A Valentine Gift to Manchester United
Arsenal FC loss at Old trafford was a belated valentine gift to Manchester United. A lot had been spoken during pre-match press conferences that alone, just by words, could have won the cup game.
But from the lineup, right before the game, anyone would see a foregone conclusion that Arsenal FC has prepared a victory gift to Manchester United. The team presented, its player positioning, player choice, by player-game standard would easily lose to Manchester United, even Kean’s Sunderland would be grateful to such a lineup. It was merely a fulfilment of fixture requirement of just to play regardless of the outcomes of the game.
The Club chose to ignore the actual problem of its Old trafford lineup, instead rushed to lament about the pitch conditions and the fact that they could not regret about the loss. Perhaps, as the reason, players’ image must be protected by the management.
But if the two teams had been subjected to similar conditions, then, such would not be an excuse. What everybody must accept is that it was a thorough beating by Manchester United, as good as the Spurs one. Yet also, if Arsenal FC had won, it would all be praises for the team and nothing else.
From the Spurs game lessons seem not to have been learnt. Arsenal FC continues to play certain players just to appease them to silence the talkative ones from threatening to leave the Club. Others continue to be played experimentally to improve their game, even in critically competitive games.
Hoyte, for example, is a player who would boast for his flexibility but one striking aspect of him is that he plays best in his unnatural position (left-back and minus attempts for long-ball crossing) than he could on the right-back.
For Toure, his injury in African Cup of Nations affected his form. In fact, in the game with Egypt, he was constantly a like Boumsong, a former Newcastle player –meaning that his game was embarrassing to watch, especially for us, who are fans of Arsenal FC. With such Senderos could be ahead of him for any serious game.
Gallas, too, got caught off his usual game. What a surprise. Perhaps, he could have been affected by team “potholes” and that he could not suffer from 65% of the burden to nurse errors and blunders from some of his tea-mates.
It would have been thought that those on the bench could not have come on to player in such a mess, given their usual decent displays. These include; Ade, Flamini and of recent, Senderos.
Much as it would have been appreciated that that Club had suffered from serious injuries on key players, the available team could have been utilised to contain Manchester United, to the greatest extent. With the players Arsenal presented, Reading FC would b its equivalent but it would not be beaten as embarrassingly as was Arsenal FC.
Given the same players Arsenal FC would still, in future, find it self with as those who played at Old trafford, 1) Hoyte would go to the left and Traore out or rather would act as left-winger. 2) Kerea Gilbert would step in as best right-back, if not Eboue. And, 3) Hleb would be right-winger. With consistency in position playing of a player over time, believably, such arrangement would have prevented the weekend embarrassment or at least reducing it to 1:0 in favor of Manchester United or 1:1 for both.
Jacob Waiswa,
Situation Health Analyst
