A deeply disappointing night for us at Old Trafford on Monday. Yet again we came up short against Manchester United.
Most depressing was our inability to mount any sort of sustained threat on the United goal. United’s tactics were spot on. Press possession all over the field and never let us settle. Jack Wilshere had one of his least effective games for us since breaking into the first team. He got very frustrated at times, as did the Gooner Nation in the away section and watching and listening at home or in the pub.
One bright spot in an otherwise gloomy evening for the Gooner Nation was the performance of Wojciech Szczęsny in goal. Selected ahead of Manuel Almunia to replace Łukasz Fabiański, currently carrying a knock slightly impairing his mobility, between the sticks, he performed with confidence. He clearly needs to work on his distribution and kicking game but that can be coached. He has the right build, reactions and confidence to become world class I believe. Being selected at relatively short notice to face Manchester United at Old Trafford definitely counts as being thrown in at the deep end. The young Pole swam. I’d leave him in the side on Saturday. Fabiański has put in some decent, in a few cases excellent performances since taking over from Almunia, but he’s shown signs recently of imploding once again.
The defeat doesn’t write off our chances as title contenders but it is a serious setback. We’ve just got to let that go for now and concentrate of preparing for the visit of Tony Pullis’ clog-dancers to the Grove on Saturday. Anything less than a win against Stoke City will be a real set-back to any title challenge we have pretentions of mounting.
On Friday we’ll know who our opponents will be in the Champions League round of sixteen when the draw is made at UEFA HQ in Nyon near Geneva on Friday. The draw starts at 11.00am GMT. We’ll be home first to Schalke 04, Barcelona, Real Madrid, or Bayern Munich in the New Year. Especially as we’ll be home first I think we should be hoping for Schalke 04, the team I think we have the best chance of beating on form.
It would also be an excellent European away trip. Schalke 04’s ground the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen is the very best new stadium I’ve ever visited and football trips to the Ruhr are always far, far too much fun. Unfortunately I’m not going to have the cash to go to whoever we draw in the next round. If we do draw Schalke I’d suggest any Gooners travelling to the game base themselves in Dusseldorf. It’s easy to reach from London by both air and train.
Off the field I’m coming increasingly to the opinion that we need to have a detailed internal think-in about why we appear to have reached a plateau on the field from which we appear unable to advance upwards to the summit. The board and the manager need to sit down well away from the glare of publicity and have a free and frank exchange of views. Our continued inability to ascend to the next level of performance and our continued tactical weaknesses, particularly in team defending, are becoming very frustrating. The board needs to show leadership and ambition.
Keep the faith!
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