Manchester United vs Arsenal

Venue: Old Trafford
Date: 10th November, Sunday


Manchester United may be without Rafael, who has an ankle problem.
Jonny Evans and Michael Carrick may return after respective back and calf problems, but Danny Welbeck is still out with a knee injury.
Arsenal are confident Mathieu Flamini will be fit despite a recent groin problem, while Jack Wilshere's ankle injury will be assessed.
Theo Walcott, Yaya Sanogo, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Lukas Podolski and Abou Diaby all remain sidelined by injury.

MATCH PREVIEW

Sunday marks the 142nd anniversary of one of history's most famous meetings. It didn't take place at Old Trafford, but 4,400 miles away on Lake Tanganyika.
New York journalist Henry Stanley walked out of the jungle and greeted a Scottish medical missionary with the now famous words: "Dr Livingstone, I presume?"

Another Scot is on a mission these days. David Moyes is trying to rediscover the lost soul of Manchester United.
One minute he must think he's found the source of power that took his predecessor to 13 titles, the next moment he knows more work is needed to rekindle that burning fire of old.
But improvement is being made. They are unbeaten in eight matches. Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie have 16 goals between them.
Rooney has scored 12 league and cup goals against the Gunners, including a hat-trick in the 8-2 hammering of 2011. He was also accused of diving to win a penalty in the infamous "Pizzagate" clash that ended the Arsenal Invincibles' unbeaten run of 49 games in 2004.
The previous year, Martin Keown and Ruud van Nistelrooy had sparked a nasty confrontation. It's been ugly. It's been beautiful.
Few will forget Ryan Giggs' legendary FA Cup semi-final goal in 1999. It took the Double away from London to Manchester, setting up United for their famous Champions League victory and changing the course of football history.
This current Arsenal side are also good enough to become European champions, according to Borussia Dortmund boss Jurgen Klopp. The Gunners are balanced, stylish, full of goals and more secure at the back.
They were excellent in beating Liverpool but this will be the acid test.
United have flunked their big tests so far against Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City. Another defeat would leave them 11 points behind the Gunners and the title would be gone.
But I can't see them scoring enough to win a tight game. The movement of Mesut Ozil and Santi Cazorla will create something special. I'll take one of them to net in a 1-1 draw, proving Arsenal's title credentials are solid.
However, a home victory would mean we recognise an old force emerging again - "United, I presume?"

MATCH FACTS

Head-to-head
The Red Devils have lost just one of their last 12 league and cup games against the Gunners (W9, D2, L1).
This will be Arsene Wenger's 50th game against United as Arsenal manager. He has won 15 of the previous 49 (excluding penalty shoot-outs).

Manchester United
The Red Devils have won back-to-back Premier League games for the first time under manager David Moyes.
Fourteen of United's last 19 league goals have been scored or assisted by Robin van Persie or Wayne Rooney.
Patrice Evra will become the third Frenchman to make 250 Premier League appearances, following in the footsteps of Arsenal duo Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira.

Arsenal
Victory would give Arsenal their highest ever points tally after 11 Premier League matches.
Arsenal are the only Premier League club to have scored in every game this season. The last team to shut-out the Gunners was David Moyes' Everton in a 0-0 draw at the Emirates on 16 April.
Prior to this weekend, only five players had assisted four or more Premier League goals this season - and three of them were Arsenal players (Olivier Giroud, Mesut Ozil and Aaron Ramsey).
Ramsey has 11 goals in 17 league and cup games for Arsenal this term, and 13 in 21 for club and country.
Arsene Wenger has registered 14 Premier League victories against Moyes - his highest tally against any manager.

Personally, I'm quite optimistic for this one. Despite a new manager in Moyes, Old Trafford is always a tough place to travel to. But I'm sensing we're going to turn the tables this time around.

Predicted line up:
Sccz
Sagna Per Kos Gibbs
Flamini Arteta
Ramsey Ozil Cazorla
Giroud

Predicted scoreline: 1-3 win to the Arsenal !

I'm pretty nervous. I want to be optimistic, and the team surely is confident after their start to the season but there's that little part of my brain saying don't get too excited you will get hurt :/

I agree with your line-up, Subrat. If we go behind, expect Rosicky to come on for Flamini and Ramsey to drop back. Wilshere on the bench, hopefully Podolski too.

2-1 to us or them, heart in your mouth stuff, red cards, players falling over, managers having a go at each other, ah fuck it even the officials will start mouthing each other off!

Kidding, 2-1 either way, can't bring myself to decide who though. COYG!

As Marko said, I really want to feel optimistic about this game, but can't. This is the best side we've had in ages, and this is the worst side they've had in ages, without Ferguson too. We have momentum, they somehow have, but not as good as ours. Wenger's record against Moyes is very good. We are on a hot roll. Everything suggests that on paper, we shoud win, but I'd be happy with a 2-2 draw, honestly. Have to agree with Subrat's lineup. A solid Flamini-Arteta midfield will give the platform to the forwards to work their magic. I'd consider starting Rosicky over Cazorla based on current form and work ethic, but the Czech has played too many games and has given his all, so keeping him on the bench as an option is a good idea. I'd go with a 2-2 draw. Van Cuntface and Rooney for them, Ramsey and Giroud for us. I expect to see a penalty for them, though, after all it's Manchester United at Old Shithole.

How important would a win be though? It would put us 5 points ahead of Liverpool, 7 ahead of Chelsea and 11 ahead of United. Not even the most optimistic fan would have dreamed about such a start.

The choice in the line up comes down to Rosicky vs Cazorla vs Flamini.

Rosicky is in such great form.

If Flamini is fit, I think he has to play.

So maybe Cazorla on the bench.

pardon my french ... totally psyched for this game bitches. been waiting for this fcking match and after ages and ages this is the first time i am optimistic facing man utd.
totally agree with starting flamini and arteta. i really hope we start pushing from the very start. sometime we seem start with a very poor tempo. miracles are hard to come by but im still smarting over the 8-2 defeat and would love for some payback

Breaking news is that Mertesacker has been sent home.
Not good. Vermaelen and Koscielny do not partner as well together.

Rosicky out as well - damn. He's potent from the bench.

As if we weren't nervous enough already?

Vermaelen has barely played this season and seriously needs to turn his brain on. He can't do the same thing as Koscielny, he needs to play the Mertesacker role as well as he can. Let's hope he has a good game.

Rosicky out is a shame but it's a team game and the team still looks pretty good.

That Man Utd has beaten us in the past, whatever we think about it. They've still got one hell of a forward line there.

Fingers crossed that we can put in a performance that reflects our current good form.

why????

They're ill apparently.

Our bench looks really depressing outside if Montreal and wilshere. As if the Mert and Rosicky news wasn't bad enough, apparently Arteta is playing a bit ill today. We just can't have a bit of luck when it comes to injuries! Hopefully the ones playing aren't too fatigued and step up their game today cause we can be sure as hell that utd won't make this easy for us!

Defence is also a bit worrying, Vermaelen has only played once this season, and he usually doesn't partner well with Kos, not to mention his constant brain farts in big games! Hope he can come in and be the Vermaelen of old and not the nervy wreck of recent times.

*sigh* just as I was starting to settle in with the game, we concede. But I think we'll be able to come back, we're not the Arsenal of old anymore

60 minutes of defending counter-attacks now!

If we're sensible we'll keep playing calmly but this was always going to be tough.

We're playing awfully right now, can't hold on to the ball, they're giving us no time on the ball, the shit thing is now that they've scored they'll just sit back and counter us, and it'll probably work

We definitely need half time to come sooner. Need to regroup. We haven't been able to do much with the ball when we do get it.

Ozil,Caz & Ramsey are too far away
from Giroud!

Definitely the worst I've seen Ozil play for us thus far, been poor for the past week or so. Hope he can pick it up in the 2nd half

we need to regroup after halftime and get settled so far too erractic, passing errors. need to be quicker before they start closing on us

no surprises on van persie our ex-players always has a knack for scoring against us

Hmm...stats are surprising, claims we had more possession than Man Utd. Didn't seem like it

Man Utd's pressing denies us any time on the ball. To score, we'd need to play the slickest passing game possible, we're not doing that atm.

In my entire life, all the Arsenal wins at Old Trafford have involved us having a clean sheet. If you let them score first, they have the perfect game plan to finish us off. I'd love us to be able to get a draw, but where's it going to come from? One up front and little imagination and time time on the ball behind gives them few problems. We've got no-one to bring on up front to change it

They've got some lumps in there, with Mertesacker out, only Giroud gives us any height in defence. It's a shame, we've defended quite sensibly but for the goal we were slow.

The thing we can't afford to do now is sloppily give the ball away in our own half. Ramsey and Giroud both tried to be too creative deep in our half and gave the ball away in dangerous positions. The Giroud challenge on Rooney could easily have been a pen.

Can't see how Bendtner is gonna help salvage anything here....

Jason Morrison wrote:Can't see how Bendtner is gonna help salvage anything here....

How long is Podolski out for?

Jason Morrison wrote:Can't see how Bendtner is gonna help salvage anything here....

Who is he on for?