Arsenal v United (may contain scores)

PHB

What a game, couple of things noticed:

Bad Ref

I felt tonight that the ref was absolutely utterly terrible.
Why did Slyvestre lose his cool, why did Rooney go nuts at him, why did Berkjamp go nuts?

It was because 60 seconds in he ****ed up the game.
The first two fouls were pretty pointless, it set up a game for diving.

Diving:
The following people need to be banned for 3 matchs, like that Israeli guy was for unsportsman like behaviour.
Cole, Vieira, rofl I can't remember the third player(I guess at Pires).

If the ref had shown some sense, he would have allowed the game to develop properly, and the over whelming drive of man utd and arsenal to play a fast paced game overruled him.

Major mistakes:

Didn't give peno
Gave Rooney a yellow
Didn't give Henry a yellow for slamming the ball down
Didn't give yellows for diving
Vieira got away with quite a few fouls when he shouldn't have

---

As for the match itself, what a ****ing amazing game:
1-0
1-1
2-1
2-2
2-3
2-4

No matter who is playing that game is going to be amazing, and it was.

Ronaldo played good, got 4 major goes of the ball in the game, wasted 2, set up great passing movements with the other.
Then scored two goals, one which was very impressive, one which was scored because the moment that Keane passed the ball, he ran from the halfway line to the goalline in about 10 seconds, amazing.

Giggs is just unreal, playing the best footbal I've ever seen him play, he's just breathtaking.

Keano, controlled the game, him and Scholes worked well together as they always do. kept the ball despite huge pressure form Arsenal to get it back. Keane started one goal, Scholes started 3 goals.
Just plain old amazing.

Slyvestre, grr, drop him let Brown play for a while, see if he does it again.

Ferdinand, apparently a ball watcher.
How'd Henry do, arguably the best striker in the world, definally in the top 5, against him tonight? You would think he could beat a ball watcher, right?

Neville had a poor game imo, but for him thats an average game, was solid.

Heinze was great, made 6, yeah I counted them, huge tackles/interceptions, two of which were definate goals if he had missed, but he didn't.
Adjusted amazingly to gettinga yellow card 10 mins in.

Caroll did well, I felt he did the best he could, maybe could have done more for both of the goals, but I could't fault him hugely.
He is not however world class.
Schiemcal would have dealt with the first goal, by coming out for it, and probably owuld have saved the second, but he was special.

Fletcher I felt played well, sad to see him go off injured.
O'Shea was ok when he came on, great strikers finish but didn't do his job great, but the goal will allow that to be forgotten

Rooney had a very good game tonight,
set up the first goal amazing,
unlucky not to score near the end of the second half,
chased EVERYTHING DOWN, EVERYTHING, and nearly got lucky a couple of times.
Great great game

---

Arsenals defence was quitesimply poor.
Nothing needs to be said about it.
Cygan, whatevr about his personal ability, made their defence useless imo.
Cole was terrible, which is incredibly unusal.
Lauren was not able to cope with Ronaldo or Giggs imo.

Vieira had a very good game, did the best he could.
Flamini was too young, couldn't hack it at that level, which is understandable.

Lnunberg was fantastic, great pace and attacking.
Pires was good, creatd chances.
Henry was weak, another big game that he has been weak in.

Dennis Bergkamp:
he is quite simply one of the most amazing players that I will ever see play, a huge favorite of mine.
He played absolutely amazing tonight, gave it his all even towards the end, when the rest of the team had given up two goals down, he kept on plugging.
Man of the match

Brian017

Stekelly wrote:

who is that aimed at? I havent seen any whinging or people making excuses (we wuz robbed etc)

The arsenal players

wheres me jumpa

what a game, i have to admit i thought arsenal were looking good at half time but utd were fantastic in the second half.

arsenal are very bad at the back. glad to see utd won by playing football rather than the physical game.

john oshea has just assumed legendary status!

fade2black

PHB wrote:

What a game, couple of things noticed:

Bad Ref

I felt tonight that the ref was absolutely utterly terrible.
Why did Slyvestre lose his cool, why did Rooney go nuts at him, why did Berkjamp go nuts?

It was because 60 seconds in he ****ed up the game.
The first two fouls were pretty pointless, it set up a game for diving.

Diving:
The following people need to be banned for 3 matchs, like that Israeli guy was for unsportsman like behaviour.
Cole, Vieira, rofl I can't remember the third player(I guess at Pires).

If the ref had shown some sense, he would have allowed the game to develop properly, and the over whelming drive of man utd and arsenal to play a fast paced game overruled him.

Major mistakes:

Didn't give peno
Gave Rooney a yellow
Didn't give Henry a yellow for slamming the ball down
Didn't give yellows for diving
Vieira got away with quite a few fouls when he shouldn't have

---

As for the match itself, what a ****ing amazing game:
1-0
1-1
2-1
2-2
2-3
2-4

No matter who is playing that game is going to be amazing, and it was.

Ronaldo played good, got 4 major goes of the ball in the game, wasted 2, set up great passing movements with the other.
Then scored two goals, one which was very impressive, one which was scored because the moment that Keane passed the ball, he ran from the halfway line to the goalline in about 10 seconds, amazing.

Giggs is just unreal, playing the best footbal I've ever seen him play, he's just breathtaking.

Keano, controlled the game, him and Scholes worked well together as they always do. kept the ball despite huge pressure form Arsenal to get it back. Keane started one goal, Scholes started 3 goals.
Just plain old amazing.

Slyvestre, grr, drop him let Brown play for a while, see if he does it again.

Ferdinand, apparently a ball watcher.
How'd Henry do, arguably the best striker in the world, definally in the top 5, against him tonight? You would think he could beat a ball watcher, right?

Neville had a poor game imo, but for him thats an average game, was solid.

Heinze was great, made 6, yeah I counted them, huge tackles/interceptions, two of which were definate goals if he had missed, but he didn't.
Adjusted amazingly to gettinga yellow card 10 mins in.

Caroll did well, I felt he did the best he could, maybe could have done more for both of the goals, but I could't fault him hugely.
He is not however world class.
Schiemcal would have dealt with the first goal, by coming out for it, and probably owuld have saved the second, but he was special.

Fletcher I felt played well, sad to see him go off injured.
O'Shea was ok when he came on, great strikers finish but didn't do his job great, but the goal will allow that to be forgotten

Rooney had a very good game tonight,
set up the first goal amazing,
unlucky not to score near the end of the second half,
chased EVERYTHING DOWN, EVERYTHING, and nearly got lucky a couple of times.
Great great game

---

Arsenals defence was quitesimply poor.
Nothing needs to be said about it.
Cygan, whatevr about his personal ability, made their defence useless imo.
Cole was terrible, which is incredibly unusal.
Lauren was not able to cope with Ronaldo or Giggs imo.

Vieira had a very good game, did the best he could.
Flamini was too young, couldn't hack it at that level, which is understandable.

Lnunberg was fantastic, great pace and attacking.
Pires was good, creatd chances.
Henry was weak, another big game that he has been weak in.

Dennis Bergkamp:
he is quite simply one of the most amazing players that I will ever see play, a huge favorite of mine.
He played absolutely amazing tonight, gave it his all even towards the end, when the rest of the team had given up two goals down, he kept on plugging.
Man of the match

Theres the post of the month right there

talla

Great result, Sylvestre what a muppet but i hope that Berkamp gets done by the FA for 2 blatant elbows on Sylvestre seconds before he was sent off!!

Harry2001

credit to moan utd coming back to win tonight, but Chelsea need to lose tomorrow to get the full benefit of those three points.

Arsenal out of it now, can't see Utd dropping more than 3/4 points for the rest of the season after that performance so Chelsea will have to keep winning

fade2black

lets talk about this match for at least another week.

PHB

Arsenal out of it?
Maybe if they are pyschologically damaged because of it?

If Chelsea lose, nothings happened so surely that have as good a chance as before?
If Chelsea win, Arsenal have lost 2 points, not overcomable.

Its never over until its bloody over, you think people would understand that by now?

wheres me jumpa

silvestre deserved to be sent off but ljungberg was disgraceful for it. by the letter of the law its a sending off but in reality it was nothing.

if pires wasnt so lightfooted in the past he prob would have got th peno in the first half.

wheres me jumpa

by the way PHB i take it back about fletcher, thought he was very good tonight, used the ball well, but still a small bit light.

Dewey

Brilliant just brillliant. I predicted United to win 3-2 and i put a €5 on at 28/1 but i was delighted anyway to see O'Shea score that brilliant goal. what a goal did you see his reaction?????.........he couldnt belive it. he wont score a better one.

I'm delighted Ronaldo scored 2, he has been getting so much stick. What a brilliant match. the chase is still on for United but over for Arsenal as Wenger said.......Losers out of title race.


YEEESSSSSS!!

wheres me jumpa

happy ronaldo scored twice but did anyone else think he was very quiet for the rest of the game?

Villain

Great game, United deserved the win, they wanted it more over the 90 minutes and really pulled together when they went down to 10 men (Silvestre should get a long ban, totally out of control).

2 points I'd like to make:

1: Ref was a disgrace, he didn't give what was a defo penalty because his positioning was awful for the incident, he made two big decisions in 2 big games and both went against Arsenal

2: I really think this game won't affect who wins the premiership, Chelsea's defence is quite simply much better than the 2 defences we saw tonight.

Fair play to O'Shea 2 chances in 2 games and he finished both very well.

Big Ears

So Arsenal will be the ones facing the possible banana skin tie , somewhere in central/eastern Europe , to make sure they qualify for the Champs League .

wheres me jumpa

i thought poll done well. the peno was the only thing he go wrong but as adams said the linesman was right up with that incident and he didnt give a decision. polls position wasnt bad just thought scholes might have blocked him slightly. like i said above if pires wasnt so quick to go down in the past he might have got that decision.

i think poll should be praised for what his performance, he is one ref that isnt afraid to put players in their place. he often laughs at players and often pulls players out of dangerous situations.

Gangsta

talla wrote:

Great result, Sylvestre what a muppet but i hope that Berkamp gets done by the FA for 2 blatant elbows on Sylvestre seconds before he was sent off!!

ah he tried to but missed da plonk

arsenal are finished for the season.poor poor defence.im so depressed.

The Muppet

irish1 wrote:

1: Ref was a disgrace, he didn't give what was a defo penalty because his positioning was awful for the incident, he made two big decisions in 2 big games and both went against Arsenal

I thought the ref had a good game. If we want to scrutinise his decisions what about Vieras and Coles dives Bergkamps elbow Pires kicking Fletcher all which he could have produced red cards for the Gunners. He let the game flow and because of that we saw a fantastic flowing games of football. Well done that man.

mike65

Rooney- someone should put him across thier knee...if he was'nt playing football he'd be in a Youth Offenders wing.

Mike.

Jivin Turkey

What a game. It was so tight but United won it because they just wanted it more, they totally deserved it. I think it will strike a tough blow for Arsenal because they cant complain about decisions really, and they actually played quite well. It says a lot that they played well but still got beaten.

I tipped them at the start of the year but I hold my hands up now. Their first XI is pure class, and probably the best in the league when on form IMO, but when you go past that they are lightweight. They are in big trouble now for their next league game if Campbell is out, along with Toure. I dont understand how Wenger cant see that they are frighteningly short of players at the back, how he ever let Matt Upson go I dont know.

The game itself was a joy to watch, and I thought the ref did a pretty good job considering both teams hassled him at every chance, and both did their fair share of diving.

Villain

The Muppet wrote:

I thought the ref had a good game. If we want to scrutinise his decisions what about Vieras and Coles dives Bergkamps elbow Pires kicking Fletcher all which he could have produced red cards for the Gunners. He let the game flow and because of that we saw a fantastic flowing games of football. Well done that man.

Come on man, none of the incidents above could have changed the game as much as giving that penalty at the time.

If United had lost and been denied a clear penalty every united fan would be going mad. I'm a neutral here and as I said IMHO UTD deserved the win, but Poll got this penalty decision wrong and the one with Rooney in the last game.

jonny68

Sickener for Arsenal and anybody who thinks the title is over is very much mistaken..ive backed United at a very nice 12/1 for the title..ITS FAR FROM OVER..............

wheres me jumpa

he got it wrong but arsenal still took the lead and lost it. arsenal were 2-1 up at ht and looking very good. they have no one to blame but themselves.

Jivin Turkey

PHB wrote:

Bad Ref

I felt tonight that the ref was absolutely utterly terrible.
Why did Slyvestre lose his cool, why did Rooney go nuts at him, why did Berkjamp go nuts?

It was because 60 seconds in he ****ed up the game.
The first two fouls were pretty pointless, it set up a game for diving.

Diving:
The following people need to be banned for 3 matchs, like that Israeli guy was for unsportsman like behaviour.
Cole, Vieira, rofl I can't remember the third player(I guess at Pires).

If the ref had shown some sense, he would have allowed the game to develop properly, and the over whelming drive of man utd and arsenal to play a fast paced game overruled him.

Major mistakes:

Didn't give peno
Gave Rooney a yellow
Didn't give Henry a yellow for slamming the ball down
Didn't give yellows for diving
Vieira got away with quite a few fouls when he shouldn't have

So its the refs fault that Silvestre headbutted Ljungberg? That Rooney went mad after being booked for handling the ball, then kicked it away and then started f'ing and blinding to the ref (after already riding his luck with a relatively late challenge on Lauren, a ticking off after an incident with Pires)? That Bergkamp is a generally tough and at times cynical player?

Dont be so quick to point the figure solely at Arsenal players for diving. The Vieira one with Rooney I assume you are talking about? They didnt show a clear angle of that (the only slo-mo was from behind), it looked to me in real time like he might have just grazed him, even if Vieira played for it. Ronaldo is as bad as anybody in the league at it, and the only reason he didnt pick up a yellow card for a complete swan dive on the edge of the box is because the ref had booked him already (very harshly IMO after his second goal).

As for the "major mistakes", Ive seen players walk after constantly cursing at the ref, Rooney got what he deserved. Henry threw the ball down but you are claiming that the ref should have let the game flow but are criticising him for not booking Henry for this? He didnt even hit it hard.

PHB wrote:

Ronaldo played good, got 4 major goes of the ball in the game, wasted 2, set up great passing movements with the other.
Then scored two goals, one which was very impressive, one which was scored because the moment that Keane passed the ball, he ran from the halfway line to the goalline in about 10 seconds, amazing.

But his overall contribution was again poor. He failed to beat the first man with many crosses. Lost the ball after one good trick on two or three occassions. The goals will paper over the cracks on what was ANOTHER below Uniteds standard performance, and until he starts to score more goals more regularly I wont rate him.

PHB wrote:

How'd Henry do, arguably the best striker in the world, definally in the top 5, against him tonight? You would think he could beat a ball watcher, right?

Quiet enough, but still managed to have all the time in the world to lay in Bergkamp for his goal. He also made the first goal, and was unlucky not to his a spectacular equaliser at 2-3. He also had some great touches in a lot of Arsenals intricate moves around the box, only for them to run out of room.

As regards Arsenals team, I thought a lot of them played well individually, but they just missed something that United had tonight. Cole and Lauren were good going forward, but the entire defensive unit was poor as a whole. Campbell had a poor game, so there was no organisation.

I thought Flamini did well enough, and Fabregas had some great touches in his cameo. Vieira solid. And Pires suprisingly worked his socks off. Bergkamp was class, and got stuck in, a little too much at times.

The Muppet

irish1 wrote:

Come on man, none of the incidents above could have changed the game as much as giving that penalty at the time.

If United had lost and been denied a clear penalty every united fan would be going mad. I'm a neutral here and as I said IMHO UTD deserved the win, but Poll got this penalty decision wrong and the one with Rooney in the last game.

I thought the ref had a good game . Your post indicated that his decisions favoured United I pointed out incidents to counter your claim. He may have got that one wrong but he also got ones wrong that favoured the Gunners.
Your not seriously arguing that if Cole and Viera had been sent off for cheating that it would not have changed the game.

Either way the match was decided by the players and not the officials the game was won by 2 clear goals by the best team on the night and not by a 50/50 decision.

wheres me jumpa

The Muppet wrote:

I thought the ref had a good game . Your post indicated that his decisions favoured United I pointed out incidents to counter your claim. He may have got that one wrong but he also got ones wrong that favoured the Gunners.
Your not seriously arguing that if Cole and Viera had been sent off for cheating that it would not have changed the game.

Either way the match was decided by the players and not the officials the game was won by 2 clear goals by the best team on the night and not by a 50/50 decision.

good point, the ref was always going to be scrutinesed intensely for this game but at the end of the day the players decided it, utd wanted it more on the night.

i think henry is a great player but once again he failed to do it in a big game. at times he has produced one moment in a big game and proclaimed as a genius but in games like tonight you have to do it over 90 mins, and he just didnt do it. some nice touches(bergkamps goal) but ultimately you would expect more from a player of his calibre.

mr_angry

Perhaps it was impossible for the ref to have a 100% perfect game considering the mentalities of the teams involved. However, that doesn't alter the fact that he got several major decisions wrong. I don't see many United fans claiming it wasn't a penalty, just downplaying its significance.

The goals changed the game an awful lot. At 2-1, Arsenal looked to be on the brink of scoring another, but after Uniteds two goals to go 2-3 up, they solidified the defence, and Arsenal rarely looked like breaking it down.

The better team won definitely. United's resiliance in very trying circumstances was in stark contrast to Arsenal's form all season. Looking at our performances against the other big clubs - defeat to United, defeat to Liverpool, draw with Chelsea, defeat to United. Simply not good enough.

gandalf

Just watched the highlights and from what I saw United deserved the victory. Arsenal's weakness was the defense. The only reason I assume Arsene didn't try and get a new keeper and central defender was because the funds are just not available.

I noticed that for the first two goals all the defenders were migrating towards Cygan, was it because they were nervous he would get the ball. Yes Arsenal should have had a penalty but I do not think it would have made a difference in the end, the defense without Toure is weak and against a team with good attackers (which I begrudgingly admit united have!) they will leak goals. As for the walkabout for the third goal wtf was he up to !!!! Uniteds 4th was a lovely goal by O'Shea fair play to him he seems to like that midfield spot.

The sending off, yes Bergy swung his arm but missed totally, but then Silvestre reacted, barged DB10 to the ground and then headbutted Freddie. Fergie should give him and Rooney a kick in the nads for stupidity!

Now I am in the horrible position of wanting united to win the league because my sisters hubby is a Chelsea fan and I will have to listen to even more gloating like last years after the Champions League games. And that is just not a pleasant prospect for me!!!

Mossy Monk

the fight for 2nd place is far from over

i think Chelsea have it wrapped up

jank

Hmm where did it all go wrong??

Arsenal looked to be in control and then 4 minutes later the game was over even though there was 35 minutes still to play. I said to my mate who supports utd that the arsenal will not score as utd would just pack the defense

The defense ****ed up arsenal. Conceding 4 at home is not good enough. Henry was ok (2 assists) Bregkamp outstanding. I thought vieria and flamini was very good. But as i said the defense ****ed them up.

Lauren was ball watching for 2 goals. what was he up to????
Alumina is dire should have done something for at least 2 of the goals

Where did it all go wrong?

Utd deserved it though keane is having an indian summer of a career. Remember that it is the utd old boys in that are carrying this team not the new players

On diving yea it was bad form but utd are no angles themsleves.

The peno could have changed things and the offside was def on. If bergkamp scored that it would have been 3-1 and imo it would have been too much of a ask then for utd.

Full credit to them though they never gave up and deserved to win. Wenger needs to sort out the defense over the summer. Funds have to be released.


On the tunnel thing i think keane is a lying git. Look at the tv coverage and you will see vieria talking to some offical or some else(ie not gary neville). Keane then goes mental shouting and cursing at him. Unless this gary neville thing happened earlier i dont know but it doesnt add up at all.

And is keane saying that gary neville isnt tough? Cause he is! It would be different if it was ronaldo or fletcher or someone young. But gary neville is as tough as they come(even if he does have a dodgey tache )


On the overall league well chelsea have anyway and did have it for a few weeks now. Cant see them losing it now. The champs league is only 2 weeks away so I hope arsenal recover in time for those games.

Utd fans can enjoy their moment but I think the best arsenal and utd can hope for this season is the FA cup. Sad but true

DoctorEdgeWild

jank wrote:

Utd deserved it though keane is having an indian summer of a career. Remember that it is the utd old boys in that are carrying this team not the new players

On diving yea it was bad form but utd are no angles themsleves.

Ronaldo with two goals, O'Shea with another. Heinze = brilliant. Old boys?

If you mean that Giggs, Keane and co. are playing some of their best football then I agree but they are far from caryying the likes of Ronaldo, O'Shea, Fletcher and Heinze who for me is our player of the season already.

As for the diving thing, Arsenal are the worst offenders in the premiership imo. Look no further than Pires and Cole. Van Nist is another offender but for every dive he has ever conned, Pires must have at least 5.

PHB

Jivin Turkey wrote:

So its the refs fault that Silvestre headbutted Ljungberg? That Rooney went mad after being booked for handling the ball, then kicked it away and then started f'ing and blinding to the ref (after already riding his luck with a relatively late challenge on Lauren, a ticking off after an incident with Pires)? That Bergkamp is a generally tough and at times cynical player?

Dont be so quick to point the figure solely at Arsenal players for diving. The Vieira one with Rooney I assume you are talking about? They didnt show a clear angle of that (the only slo-mo was from behind), it looked to me in real time like he might have just grazed him, even if Vieira played for it. Ronaldo is as bad as anybody in the league at it, and the only reason he didnt pick up a yellow card for a complete swan dive on the edge of the box is because the ref had booked him already (very harshly IMO after his second goal).

As for the "major mistakes", Ive seen players walk after constantly cursing at the ref, Rooney got what he deserved. Henry threw the ball down but you are claiming that the ref should have let the game flow but are criticising him for not booking Henry for this? He didnt even hit it hard.

No, you dont seem to understand.
Its all about consistantly, if the ref is consistantly hardsh, the players wont bat an eyelid, if he is unpredictable, the players et very very annoyed.

Rooney wasn't pissed off about the fact he was gigven a foul against, he was pissed off because he was booked for something he definately should not have been booked for.
While the Arsenal players were not, Henry and Bergkamp for similar offenses.
Thus he got very very pissed off due to the ref.

Can you tell me once, in his entire time at united, that Slyvestre has ever been violent towards another player?
Who causes that? Its because of the general tone of the game, which the ref sets entirely.

If he had booked Cole at the very start for a dive, we would not have seen one more in the entire game, however he didn't.

All these decisions made the game more about the ref than it should be.

----

Not to be a contrafactual historian or whathave, but wasn't Pires peno claim at 1-1?
In which case it would have changed thegame entirely?
If you want to say that 1-3 would have been too much to overcome, I can simply say that we won 4-2
YOu cannnot be sure that Arsenal would have gotten a third goal after the peno if it had happened, cause well its just in our heads.

kida

PHB wrote:

No, you dont seem to understand.
Its all about consistantly, if the ref is consistantly hardsh, the players wont bat an eyelid, if he is unpredictable, the players et very very annoyed.

Rooney wasn't pissed off about the fact he was gigven a foul against, he was pissed off because he was booked for something he definately should not have been booked for.
While the Arsenal players were not, Henry and Bergkamp for similar offenses.
Thus he got very very pissed off due to the ref.

That was exactly the same point I made during the game. Bergkamp had played on after an offiside minutes earlier and nothing. Henry slammed down the ball after a free was given against him for handball and nothing. Rooney played on after having handball given against him - yellow card. This is why he got annoyed - referees have to be consistent - if Bergkmap had been booked , Rooney and Henry probably wouldn't have had their incidents.

Overall thought Poll was awful, needed to be far firmer with the Arsenal cheating from an earlier stage. Video evidence also needs to be used to see what triggered the Sylvestre incident, he was furios for some reason - still no excude but what caused him to be like that, he is not usually rattled.

Also see Viera could be in trouble for allegedly threatining United players in the tunnel before the match.

Here hoping for a Blackburn result tonight

The Rooster

Rooney was booked for the handball, not for playing on. He'd already been involved in two incidents that might have warranted bookings, so he'd already been given two warnings. I think the ref was right, and Rooney was very lucky not be be sent off immediately for foul and abusive language towards the ref - Poll did very well to calm that down, and asking Keane over was a very common sense thing to do.

He was also right not to book Henry and Bergkamp. Henry got a stern warning, rightly. His mistake were not booking Cole, Vieria and Ronaldo for diving. The linesman was disgraceful for Arsenal in the first half in not giving the peno when he'd a clear view of it, and giving offside when Arsenal would have had a great opportunity to go 3-1 up.

I thought both centre back pairings were very much below par. Worst I've ever seen Sol play,and 5Live mentioned that Keane gave Rio an unmerciful rollicking after letting Henry have a clear shot at goal late on (that went high and wide). John Terry has gone from number 3 (or number 4 behind Ledley King in the eyes of the eejitss who do the Jimmy Hill program on Sky) to undisputed number 1 in the space of a few months.

SteM

What a match, the office gooner is over pouting in his corner again this morning. I wasn't very optimistic at half time but luckily Rooney calmed down after going mad at the end of the first half and started producing the goods. I though Fletcher was okay tonight, played some nice balls but still looks lightweight. Keane had a great second half though and was my man of the match. Once United had a player sent off I had a feeling we'd win, especially when we brought on Brown instead of just moving O'Shea to the back.

I was talking with a mate in work this morning. He said that his brother who's living in Oz called after the match. Here Sky cut away just before the game when the players are shaking hands. Over there they showed it and apparently Carroll and Keane would shake any of the Arsenal players hands and Neville was a bit nasty about it too.

SteM

Great pic of Roy in the tunnell before the match at the bottom of this page by the way.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2002390000-2005051550,00.html

LizardKing

great game , had it all .. glad my draw prediction was wrong

yop

"GANDALF - Well done to United and in answer to a previous post on here, United supporters outnumber Arsenal by at least 2 to 1 here.

Off to sulk now "

Graceful in defeat, you should teach the Arsenal manager and some of the players how to be graceful also.

WHAT A GAME - I thought I would need to be karted away to A&E but the result was totally unexpected especially after the 1st half. Took pure balls and guts to pull it out and a bit of luck and poor reffin.
Cole should have been booked for defo, as should Viera for his dive.
Definate penalty on Pires but a case of the boy calling wolf too many times.
Silvestre deserved to walk and as said should have this lad cut off for his stupidity.
Rooney want to be takin aside before he blows his top.

Keeper could have came for the first goal, not sure what Heinze was at, Carroll poor for 2nd.
One again Henry does not step up when playing against the big teams, still an excellent Premiership player but not world class.
Saha was very good when he came on and JOS -what a finish.

Cannot wait for Arsenal to get out of that 5-aside pitch, ridiculously tight, once again United kick them down the pecking order further.

Bergkamp, what a legend, unreal skill and vision, will be a massive loss.

Still only a fight for 2nd place, no one will catch Chelsea, will be a "3" division PL, 1st place, fight for 2nd, then fight for 4th place.

Gwan United

BaZmO*

jank wrote:

Utd deserved it though keane is having an indian summer of a career. Remember that it is the utd old boys in that are carrying this team not the new players

Bergkamp anybody?

jank wrote:

On the tunnel thing i think keane is a lying git. Look at the tv coverage and you will see vieria talking to some offical or some else(ie not gary neville). Keane then goes mental shouting and cursing at him. Unless this gary neville thing happened earlier i dont know but it doesnt add up at all.

And is keane saying that gary neville isnt tough? Cause he is! It would be different if it was ronaldo or fletcher or someone young. But gary neville is as tough as they come(even if he does have a dodgey tache )

I wouldn't say Keane is lying, something definitely went on, but I do find it strange that he felt that he needed to pick up for Gary Neville, hardly a junior member of the squad. But all in all it made for a good tense start to what turned out to be one of the best games I've seen in years.

B.

LizardKing

Keane outwitted Vieria .. Keane stuck up for his boys in front of everyone , made the team want to fight for him .. vieria had to be the one to move away / back down ... keane won the battle from the tunnel and on the pitch .. fair play

yop

LizardKing wrote:

Keane outwitted Vieria .. Keane stuck up for his boys in front of everyone , made the team want to fight for him .. vieria had to be the one to move away / back down ... keane won the battle from the tunnel and on the pitch .. fair play

That is one way of looking at it alright, could be true, definately worked!

SteM

BaZmO* wrote:

I wouldn't say Keane is lying, something definitely went on, but I do find it strange that he felt that he needed to pick up for Gary Neville, hardly a junior member of the squad.

Someone should ask Wenger if he saw what happened, then maybe this mystery would be cleared up.

d22ontour

irish1 wrote:

1: Ref was a disgrace, he didn't give what was a defo penalty because his positioning was awful for the incident, he made two big decisions in 2 big games and both went against Arsenal

maybe he didn't give it because of the unpunished dive by cole, poll probably presumed it was just another dive

LizardKing

Cannot just blame Poll ... The referees assisstant never flagged either and he was in a better position , Thought ref did ok considerin the hype and start to the game ....

Iago

jank wrote:

On the tunnel thing i think keane is a lying git. Look at the tv coverage and you will see vieria talking to some offical or some else(ie not gary neville). Keane then goes mental shouting and cursing at him. Unless this gary neville thing happened earlier i dont know but it doesnt add up at all.

And is keane saying that gary neville isnt tough? Cause he is! It would be different if it was ronaldo or fletcher or someone young. But gary neville is as tough as they come(even if he does have a dodgey tache )

You could clearly see Viera was in someones face in the tunnel, to be honest I thought it was Wayne Rooney he was having a go at first but if you look at what Keane is saying to Viera and the ref you can see that he's hardly making it up

First of all he goes after Viera saying

"we'll see out there, come and have a go at one of us" "act like mr nice guy every week on the telly" "you want to watch your fcuking self and shut your fcuking mouth" (or something along those lines)

Then when Poll comes down Keane says to him "having a go at Gary neville, why doesn't he come after one of us lads?" "he'd want to shut his fcuking mouth" (or something along those lines)

He was really riled up about it and it was obvious that something happened..

dirkey_wynne

irish1 wrote:

Come on man, none of the incidents above could have changed the game as much as giving that penalty at the time.

If United had lost and been denied a clear penalty every united fan would be going mad. I'm a neutral here and as I said IMHO UTD deserved the win, but Poll got this penalty decision wrong and the one with Rooney in the last game.

Just wondering, where you in the Utd-Chelsea post complaining about the two penalties Utd were refused over the two legs? Or are you just one of those fans who points out peno decisions when they wrongly go in our favour??

And correct me if I'm wrong, but it was 1-1 at the time of the decision (could have been 2-1 but i believe 1-1). If it was 1-1 at that stage, and they had scored, they have been 2-1 up, a position they were in when they then went on to lose the game.

dirkey_wynne

jank wrote:

On the tunnel thing i think keane is a lying git. Look at the tv coverage and you will see vieria talking to some offical or some else(ie not gary neville). Keane then goes mental shouting and cursing at him. Unless this gary neville thing happened earlier i dont know but it doesnt add up at all.

And is keane saying that gary neville isnt tough? Cause he is! It would be different if it was ronaldo or fletcher or someone young. But gary neville is as tough as they come(even if he does have a dodgey tache )

You can say what you like about Keane, love him or hate him, but to call him a liar is wrong. If there is one thing about Keano it's that he's honest. He can be dirty, yes. He can be rough, yes. But he's not a cheat. He's not a liar. He's 100% honest. Have you ever seen him lose it in the tunnel BEFORE a game? No, neither have I.

I didn't see too many Arsenal players standing up for Viera - don't you think they would have had nothing happened, and had Keane been losing it for no reason? i sure expect they would.

Did you hear Viera interview after the game. "I think Gary Neville is a big man who can look after himself." Didn't exactly deny it now did he. Now perhaps I'm wrong, but to me this would suggest something had in fact happened, and he was implying Keane was wrong to stand up for Neville - ie he should let Neville fight his own battles. Would he have said this had he done nothing? I don't think so.

Villain

I just give my opinion as I see it, no bias except when Villa are playing

If Arsenal had got the penalty it would have been a great advantage to get back in front so quick, but remember I did say in my earlier posts that I believed UTD deserved the win.

joe.

what if ? what if ?


what if keane had of knocked out viera with a punch before they got onto the pitch. my life would be complete

BolBill

Poll was his usual useless self, was totally bullied by Utd players in the first half. Defo pen, Rooney should have been booked well before he was, Cole should have been booked for diving too. poll had no control at all - and hes the best (apparently) that they have to offer. After saying that Utd deserved to win it because they showed they wanted it more, Lauren was muck (again) and Cygan is just not good enough at this level. Anyway its gonna mean nothing as Chelsea are gonna stroll it.

Brian017

Something did happen they showed it on MOTD before the match.