[quote=“KIB man”]Viera scored one and set up another, your point is again?
Puke average ball hop is laughable.[/quote]
don’t take my word for it…
United storm the battle of Highbury
- Guardian report
- Match facts
Premier League
Arsenal 2
Manchester United 4
A spirited and inexhaustible Manchester United cannot have given up hope of the title after this. They must feel that any adversary is within their reach, even if Chelsea will hold their biggest advantage of the season, with an 11-point lead, if they win at Blackburn tonight. Mere numbers are too puny to intimidate United this morning.
Their powers of recovery were immense as, buoyed by a pair of Cristiano Ronaldo goals, they twice came from behind to beat Arsenal despite the dismissal of Mikal Silvestre for butting Freddie Ljungberg when 21 minutes remained. With moments to go, the substitute John O’Shea scored by chipping stylishly over Manuel Almunia to emphasise that Arsenal’s interest in the Premiership is over.
There were allegations and recriminations, fouls and dives, but the deepest impression was left in the minds of the crowd rather than on the bruised limbs of the combatants: United were markedly better. It should be a while before anyone dares argue that Arsenal are still a more evolved species of football team.
United must believe they will re-enter the Champions League this month in far better condition. With an extra man deployed in midfield they eventually dominated as Roy Keane had one of those nights when power somehow surges through his ageing body.
His first confrontation took place even before the game had started. Tempestuous ill-will was spawned in Arsenal’s defeat at Old Trafford in October and the Highbury tunnel proved to be an overflow area for that animosity prior to kick-off. Keane squabbled with Patrick Vieira and the captains had to be lectured by the splendid referee Graham Poll.
The next extended view Keane would have of the Arsenal captain featured Vieira wheeling away in celebration. It is rare indeed for Arsenal to score from a corner but the Frenchman got in front of Gabriel Heinze to head in after eight minutes.
In that moment Keane’s belligerent exchange with Vieira looked lame, and, for a while, anyone who had talked heatedly about this fixture rued their words. Sol Campbell, so frank about the yearning for revenge, did inadvertent harm to Arsenal’s cause at the equaliser in the 18th minute.
The determined Paul Scholes charged down his clearance and then picked out Wayne Rooney on the left. The teenager showed a perfection of touch in a first-time cutback which was swept into the net, with a deflection off Ashley Cole, by the on-rushing Ryan Giggs.
Rooney, deployed as an out-and-out centre-forward, embodied the divided character of the evening. He had the pace and touch to receive a pass from Giggs and race past Cole before firing against Almunia’s legs four minutes before the interval.
In the remainder of the first half, however, he was booked for persistent fouling and looked near to a red card for dissent. A veteran understandably found it much simpler to show how commitment can be properly directed. Dennis Bergkamp was full of subtlety and enthusiasm from the fourth minute, when he slipped through a pass which Roy Carroll only just blocked with his feet.
Just as Sir Alex Ferguson’s team seemed to be subduing Arsenal, Rio Ferdinand, in the 35th minute, stood off to let Thierry Henry take a Vieira pass and turn. Bergkamp charged through on the right to accept his team-mate’s service and fire home through Carroll’s legs from an angle.
Arsenal might also have had a penalty by then since Silvestre seemed to make contact with Robert Pires as the midfielder ran across him in the 22nd minute.
Arsne Wenger’s side must be aware that a degree of vulnerability is as inescapable a part of their nature as panache. Opponents with United’s zest and skill are virtually impossible for Arsenal to contain and a knee injury to Campbell could now aggravate the problem.
When Rooney and then Giggs, with impeccable technique, moved the play to the left in the 55th minute Ronaldo charged clear and drove low beyond Almunia from an angle. The momentum of United could not readily be checked and, from a short free-kick, Rooney hit the woodwork seconds before Arsenal’s brittle resistance was snapped once more.
Pires lost possession to Keane after 58 minutes and the captain angled a pass inside Vieira on the right. He had no hope of catching the sprinting Giggs and Almunia induced a crisis by bolting out to the wing. Once the United winger had clipped a low cross beyond him Ronaldo slipped the ball into the net. After that, not even the red card for Silvestre, who butted Ljungberg after shoving Bergkamp over, could stop United’s relentless progress to victory.
