Manchester United made the trip to the capital after coming away from Parkhead with a valuable point in mid-week. Arsenal, given their problems, was supposed to be a sure three points for United. But if football was as predictable as that, it probably would not have as many fans as it has.
Garry Neville led out United as injury to Wes Brown has left United light-weight at right-back. Otherwise it was the best possible line-up that Fergie could send out to the Emirates. United did start well enough--Michael Carrick firing wide after an indirect free-kick in the box. But for some reason, Nicklas Bendtner kept getting free headers in the box. Vidic and Ferdinand were clearly not up for the aerial challenge posed by the Dane.
And then all hell broke loose--Samir Nasri fired in a Berbatov clearance that, but for a wicked deflection off Neville, would probably have been saved by EVDS.
United should actually have taken the lead earlier. Wayne was perfectly set up by Ronaldo but somehow, he shot wide. It's becoming tricky for him. October has ended and one wonders if it's a case of 'wait for next October'.
But he cannot take sole blame for the result. Nothing came off for anyone. Rooney, Carrick, Berbatov, Ronaldo , Anderson, etc all had their chances to put away but the Arsenal goal was living a charmed life. The second Arsenal goal did kill it for us but one wonders what could have been if we had made it 2-1 a little earlier. Anyways, it was good to see Rafael get his first goal for United--a well taken strike at that! We've had our problems in London, and maybe this was just another one of those "London days".
The result does leave us in an unusual position. It's not often that United are eight times behind Liverpool in the league. It will now take another run of wins to keep us in touch with the leaders till Christmas. Hopefully we shall bounce back in the same way we did after Anfield. For now, it's QPR in the Carling Cup on Tuesday.
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