We left 5 minutes before the end - the first time I've left before the end of a match since the 60's, so I don't feel too guilty. We did so in order to get home before midnight, which we did thanks to a very quick getaway. 5.15 p.m. up North is a crap time for travelling fans but no-one gives a toss about away fans do they? Especially not our team on Saturday it seemed. For the benefit of those who've not been up to the Mancs place of late, leaving the area of OT by car is a nightmare, had we left at the final whistle it would have added another hour or more to our miserable journey home.
Highlight of the day for me was travelling to OT via Snake Pass on crisp bright sunny day it was stunningly beautiful. I thought their Munich tribute above the Megastore was very impressive but totally negated by the fact that they saw fit to include AIG advertising on it which really cheapened it for me.
When Arsene picks a mixed team, as he did at Tottenham and Manchester it clearly sends out the wrong signals to the players. Ok so you could argue that a lot of them were not fully fit, needed to be rested for Milan and so on, but the message is negative and the resulting passion matched it. This was a game against our major rivals and the message from AW was I don't give a toss if we lose this game. He was saying I'd like to sneak a win with a weakened team but don't care about the outcome really. So the players reacted accordingly with a spineless performance and inept defending. My take was that we attempted to start with a 4-4-1-1 going on 4-4-2 and got flooded by a five man manure midfield who played as a unit. Rooney was brilliant while the physically strong Anderson was dominant. He and Carrick who was clearly playing for a regular first team place ran the midfield. Our full backs were woeful our forwards non existent and our midfield missing. United needed to gain a psychological advantage over us and did so emphatically. But at the end of the day the five point gap remains and our goal difference is unaltered. Whilst watching us play like a shower of sh*t however that didn't seem too of a consolation.
Ok so Alan Wiley didn't once see Bendtner moving sideways in mid air during challenges form Vidic and Ferdinand. The linos were bent and nothing ran our way from the 50-50's. I can't remember one marginal decision going our way and we picked up some damn stupid cards. There was a laughable offside decision and I've seen many more obvious red cards than Eboue's. None of which excuses such a pitiful performance. None of which makes me feel better on the day after and more importantly none of which persuades me that on this performance our attitude was right or our squad strong enough for the really big games.
If I were to slag off individuals I'd say Eboue is not worthy of the shirt, his endless stupidity lowers the tone. Eboue did one thing in the entire game and that was to make himself look a total arse. Traore hasn't progressed and lacks positional sense - but he's still very young. Gilberto is past his sell by date and although he really tried hard and attempted to rally others he regrettably no longer has what it takes. Bendtner worked hard but lacks pace and a certain degree of upper body strength. Gallas put in an awful performance - at a time when he needed to lead his back four he was one of the causes for our panicky defending.
Eduardo was the only one who looked to be giving his all in a totally inept first half display by Arsenal. United played well but that was largely down to the fact that we let them.
All Wenger's second half substitutions were about saving players for the Milan game and the net result was an unwanted yellow card for a stupid and obvious dive by Adebayor.
Had I stayed to the bitter end I wouldn't have felt in the slightest like applauding the players for such a totally hapless performance. We'd already wasted money and a day of our lives supporting a team unworthy of the support on this occasion. All in all the 9,000 fans who were shafted by the players put in a massive performance. 'Say we are top of the league, say we are top of the league'.. 'You're just a fat granny shagger' when Rooney dived and got booked. 'Three-nil and you still can't sing'...'We'll be back, we'll be back, we'll be back to win the league'.
If we're League Champions in May or win in Moscow none of this will matter, right now though it hurts having to suffer such an embarrassment. In some ways I'm glad we've thrown away a chance at Wembley because the two major trophies are more important and I hope Wenger has got it right. He certainly knows we're not good enough to win all three. Right now it feels like we've been commendably punching above our weight all season and have finally been caught out. We need the luck to maintain a fit team if we're to win anything this season.