PREVIEW: Manchester United v Arsenal

Match Preview

Manchester United v Arsenal

Old Trafford

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Kick-off: 16:00

So early on in the season and we have the biggest away game of the season. To be honest we always go to Old Trafford and expect us to get some kind of result as we dominate play. Yet we always come away with a loss. 2006/2007 was the last time we won with away to Manchester United with Fabregas running the show that day and an Adebayor finish in the dying minutes.

In the last 23 away meetings we have only managed to win 5. That stat doesn't bode well for today as we have a young and inexperienced squad by the looks of it. With Song, Wilshere, Frimpong out, we'll have to have a sturdy player, who can handle their own in the middle of the park, to just sit in front of the back four. That man (kid) looks set to be Francis Coquelin. He has bundles of energy and a loan away from Arsenal last season in France would have benefitted the youngster.

You'd like to think with Arsenal having a poor run in the league, a match of this size could spark something to kick start our season and leave that terrible run of our last win being against our opponents today last season. But with the likes of Jack Wilshere, Alex Song, Gervinho, Emmanuel Frimpong, Sebastien Squillaci, Kieran Gibbs and Niklas Bendter all out we've had to rely on youth, and this is really inexperienced youth with Francis Cquelin, Oguzhan Ozyakup, Gilles Sunu, Ignasi Miguel and Henri Lansbury.

Who can we call to come off the bench and make an impact? I'm guessing Oxlade-Chamberlain will make his debut at some point today. He gave Man Utd a torrid time when at Southampton, when they were 2-0 up against the Red Devils in the FA Cup, only to lose in typical United fashion, coming back to win 3-2.

The Gunners are going to give it all they've got today and make sure possession is is wavered side to side, but a more direct approach will harm Utd with no Ferdinand and Vidic at the back. It'll be close, but it also can be an onslaught from Man Utd and we'll just want to hurry up and sign several players urgently.

Talking about signing someone, South Korea captain, striker and set piece specialist, Park Chu-Young is set to join us today after nicking him underneath Lille's nose. He should unveiled in our 'unlucky' number 9 shirt.

August is a Tough One

Every football fan can't wait for the opening day of the Premier League to get rid of the boredom of a vacated summer of football without a European Championship or World Cup to entertain us. Tiresome pre-season friendlies fill the void slightly, how ever it's competitive football us fans await for. Oh what a wait us Arsenal fans have in hand for our opening month to the league campaign!

Arsenal have one of the toughest fixture lists out of any team in England and six points out of nine would be a great start. The curtain raiser for Arsenal is at St. James's Park against Newcastle United. After the first 45 minutes last season, we would be going in to this match very confident, having been 4-0 by the time the referee blew for half-time. The second-half proved one to forget. But with every fresh new season comes new optimism and this match has no title/relegation odds baring on it, with no real form from either team. It could easily go either way.

With Arsenal finishing fourth last season it has given the Gunners an extra two games in qualifying for the UEFA Champions League group stages. These matches are just before the tough home match against Liverpool and then sandwiched between Liverpool at the Emirates and to then face the champions Manchester United at 'The Theatre of Dreams'.

We haven't won at Old Trafford in the league since Adebayor scored to win 1-0. That was back in the 2006-2007 season. That seems like an eternity now. Liverpool at home last season was a difficult affair, making hard work of it, to then earn a penalty in injury time and go 1-0 up. What came next was unbelievable but honestly typical to then go and give a stupid penalty away moments later. To give the game up so cheaply when a win seemed more than likely, that just ended Arsenal's season completely mentally.

This season we could come out of August looking in a dire position, but on the other hand Arsenal could be facing a much easier task by the title run in. But didn't we think last last season? Let's just hope it'll be a cracking start to the season!