BIG CHANCE SPURNED

 

(Image taken from Manutd.com)

 

Arsenal's visit to Old Trafford is best remembered for the wrong reasons from a United perspective. It was our first defeat of the season to a weakened Arsenal team. Not that it helped them much. Despite the old rivalries of a few years back, the Gunners have never looked like getting involved in either of the last two title races and a win in this, the first Arsenal vs United match at the Emirates Stadium wasn't going to change that. With Giggsy returning at left mid, the game still looked too close to call.

Well it was United who started off forcing the home side back to their own goal though the Gunners certainly managed to swing that around easily enough, not that they could get any of their shots on target. Admittedly the home side should have had a penalty midway through the half but the bottom line is they didn't and neither side really took hold of the match before half time, though if anything United were the side who were pumping up the pressure with a string of corners before the whistle.

The second half opened with United seemingly wanting to settle for a draw and go all-out-defensive however the Gunners were soon on their back feet again. Still, we didn't really look like scoring...untill Evra crossed to Rooney in the 53rd minute and Wayne headed in from a tight angle! The Gunners didn't have a clue how to deal with that and it looked to be a good win untill Arsene Wenger made some substitutions including Robin van Persie (who I'd thought was out injured) and in the 83rd minute Henry flicked the ball to the Dutchman. 1-1. 'What we have we hold' was Fergie's take on the situation and really you'd have thought we'd have been able to keep things level but then Eboue crossed the ball to Henry to injury time and every United fan was sick as a parrot as Monsieur Va Va Voom hit the net! That sort of thing's not supposed to happen to us!

Elsewhere though, Chelsea were headed to Anfield to face Liverpool and all I can say is congratulations to the Scousers for making the allstars look like absolute mugs! Dirk Kuyt and Jermaine Pennant did the business part of the home side's 2-0 win and Chelsea's attack looked non existant for the majority of the second half. So the gap at the top of the Premiership remains six points but Chelsea should now be more worried about the Scousers nicking second place of them than trying to catch us!

North of the border? Yeah, OK, I said something about headlining with midweek Scottish action last time out. Due to various elements offline, I was unable to put that report up.

So, first order of business was Aberdeen's Scottish Cup 3rd round replay vs Hibs at Easter Road. Well Barry Nicholson may have opened the scoring for the Dons but Steven Fletcher and Michael Stewart turned things round for Hibs by halftime. Morrocan striker Abdessalam Benjelloun then added two more for the Edinburgh side. Though winning a replay away from home wasn't going to be easy, I certainly didn't predict this sort of disaster!

There were two other 3rd round replays north of the border. Brechin were beaten 1-0 at their Glebe Park ground by Cowdenbeath in an all-D2 encounter while in an all-D1 encounter at Palmerston Park, Queen of the South drew 3-3 with Dundee, the scores remaining level after extra time before Queen of the South won on penalties. With sixteen teams left in the competition, Celtic are certainly a safe bet to do the Double though the best tie of the 4th round is probably the all-SPL affair of Dunfirmline vs Hearts at East End Road.

Returning south of the border though, there were also FA Cup 3rd round matches midweek including Newcastle vs Birmingham at St James's Park. Having managed to take the Championship leaders back to their place, the Geordies wouldn't have expected much more trouble. They reckoned without DJ Campbell though who has made mugs of north east teams before. The ex-Brentford assasin was all over the place as Gary McSheffrey opened the scoring for Birmingham with a Norberto Solano og making it two before half time. James Milner pulled one back for the hometeam but they were soon down to ten men and had no clue how to stop Steve Bruce's side. Goals from Bruno N'Gotty, Sebastien Larrsson and DJ himself had the Geordies heading to the dressing room at full time with a chorus of boos.

Carling Cup action midweek!

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