The Gunners take on the Red Devils in the Sunday match of the day. 18 Yard Box has a look.
Two heavyweights of English football,
Arsenal and Manchester United, clash on Sunday. The stakes are not that high
for this encounter as far as Manchester United are concerned but this match is
matter of huge relevance to Arsenal as they continue to fight for the 3rd
position in the league-direct Champions League qualification spot. Having been
challenged by Tottenham and Chelsea to the top spot, Arsenal has a mountain in
the form of Manchester United, the already proclaimed title winners, to scale.
18YB looks into the epic rivalry ahead of
Super Sunday encounter.
Arsenal
Arsenal are currently placed 3rd
in the league,1 point shy of 4th placed Chelsea, who has a game in hand,
and any positive result from this game will have a huge effect on the premier
league standings. Tottenham and Chelsea are hot on the heels of Arsenal and any
slip-up might drag them down to the 5th position. Having maintained
a top 4 position for the past 16 seasons, a draw or a loss against the crowned
Champions might break the jinx and Arsene Wenger would be left with some
serious fixing to do in the few remaining games of the season. However,one of
the main factors that might spur the Gunners on before this match would be to
give the Guard of Honour to the entire Manchester United team, more
particularly, Robin van Persie. Ever since the prolific striker left the North
London side for United under mysterious circumstances, his form has notched up
full speed and he is credited to being the most influential in United’s title
winning campaign.
Strengths
 |
| The resurgence of this midfielder has left Arsenal spoilt for choices in the centre |
Arsenal has been pretty much ordinary this
season, scraping past bottom-of-the-table teams and often times losing to
not-much bigger teams. However, coming down to the last few gameweeks, Arsene
Wenger has found his pefect combination in the midfield as well as defence. Sagna,
Koscielny,Mertesacker and Gibbs have been quite good this season and playing
this back 4 against a strong United attacking line-up might pay dividends for
Wenger. However, Arsene might be in a fix to choose which midfielder to choose
as Arteta, Rosicky, Ramsey, Wilshere have all hit prime form in the fag-end of
this season. Ramsey has really been the unsung hero for Arsenal in the past few
games, working hard to get the passes right and holding the midfield. Cazrola
and Walcott has been in quite a good goal-scoring form and they are the
front-runners to play on the wings.
Weaknesses
 |
| Striking problems for the Gunners |
Even though Arsenal might have found the
perfect recipe for success in the past couple of games, the availability of the
forward and and their form is what worries Wenger. After being served with a
three-match suspension for a reckless tackle on Fulham full-back Stanislav Manolev,
Giroud would miss out on this epic clash, leaving Wenger with limited options
to play the striking role .Podolski, who was played as a winger in this Premier
League campaign, might have to play the striker role in absence of the French
striker. Also, Arsenal had been quite shoddy in the past game against Fulham
barely managing a 1-0 win playing almost 9/10th of the game with a 1
man advantage.
Manchester
United
Already crowned champions for the 20th
time with 5 matches still to go, Manchester United are on a roll with
talismanic striker Robin van Persie in blistering form. Manchester United has
nothing at stake ahead of this encounter other than their own honour and exclusive
bragging rights in English football. Moreover,Sir Alex Ferguson is aiming for
maximum points in the remaining 5 games to break Chelsea’s record tally of 95
points in a single season under Jose Mourinho. He would be looking forward to
maintain a perfect record to end with in this season after having lost put on
three major trophies—FA Cup, Carling Cup and the most coveted, Champions League
Strengths
 |
| The trio have been fantastic in the past few games |
Everything has been perfect for Sir Alex
Ferguson’s side in this Premier League campaign and apart from a few disappointments,
this season has been one of the best for Manchester United. Robin van Persie, the
former Arsenal striker, has hit prime form in the past couple of games and has
notched up 24 goals in the Premier League itself putting him in pole position
to win the Golden Boot award. Van Persie has been detrimental to United’s
league achievements and his nomination in the PFA’s Player of the Year category
rightfully points out his contributions. Valencia, Rooney, Kagawa has had a
good run of form in the past few games and their contributions have been
worthwhile for the team as well. However, the most contributing player for
United this season has been Michael Carrick. From protecting defenders to
playmaking, Carrick has been arguably the best midfielder in this Premier
League campaign. With the most number of forward passes in Europe, Carrick’s
contributions to United has earned him a fighting chance to get the PFA Player
of the Year.
Weaknesses
However autumn this season might have been
for the already crowned champions, it has been a tough ride for United against
heavy opposition. Losing out to Chelsea and Manchester City in the FA Cup and
the Premier League in the past month, there have been doubts raised over
United’s approach to big games. Against many oppositions, United has been
observed to draw their opponents deep into their own halves hereby inviting
trouble upon themselves.
Importance
of a win
A win, loss or draw might not be much of a
deal breaker for Manchester United as they already have the title in their bag
but for Arsenal, anything but a positive result(win) would seriously hamper
their Champions League qualification for next season. Tottenham and Chelsea are
just 1 point shy of Arsenal and a draw might put their 3rd place at
jeopardy.
The Final
Verdict
18YB predicts a high scoring encounter
ending in a draw. Even though both teams are equally capable, Sir Alex Ferguson
might not play his best 11 to allow youngsters in his team to get a 1st
team chance thus ruling out a United-dominated encounter. A 2-1 win for the
home side could be the ideal result but with Sir Alex, not known to be
accepting defeats easily, the encounter might produce a high scoring draw.
Written by,
Rishav Ghosh
Rishav is a writer for 18 Yard Box.
Any Suggestions? Write to us on 18yardbox06@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment