A fight on four fronts has become a battle for a single trophy for Arsenal after Manchester United completed a miserable fortnight for Arsène Wenger’s side with a 2-0 win at Old Trafford tonight.
Battling for the quadruple only 13 days ago, when they took on Birmingham City in the Carling Cup final, only the Barclays Premier League is left now for Arsenal. United, meanwhile, are into the semi-finals of the FA Cup, a competition they last won in 2004.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s line-up for this quarter-final looked bizarre on paper, with seven United defenders in the line-up, but the Da Silva twins played in advanced midfield roles and demonstrated their versatility with superb performances.
Arsenal were bright, lively, had ample possession and chances and showed few signs of fatigue following their chastening Champions League exit to Barcelona in the Nou Camp on Tuesday. In a way, that made this defeat even harder to take.
Wenger’s side will leave feeling they merited a draw, but even an experimental United were more pragmatic and solid than their opponents and at the back, Edwin van der Sar, Chris Smalling and Nemanja Vidic impressed. It was a fine response from United to their tame defeat by Liverpool last Sunday and a boost to confidence ahead of next week’s Champions League home tie against Marseilles.
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Almost as perky, in fact, as Ferguson’s programme notes, in which he hit back at his critics after his complaints about the officiating of his side’s defeat by Chelsea last week, and attempted to justify the brief media blackout that followed.
While this was a much-improved effort from Arsenal compared with their 1-0 Barclays Premier League defeat here in December, losing again to their league title rivals will surely be demoralising, even if it will allow Wenger’s men to focus on a sole competition as they chase their first silverware in six years.
Fabio opened the scoring in the first half, following up to stab the ball in the net after Manuel Almunia could only parry Javier Hernandez’s header. It was a moment that again underlined how fragile Arsenal’s back line can be.
Wayne Rooney profited from more delinquent defending three minutes into the second period. Seconds after a superb double save from Van der Sar had denied the visitors the equaliser, United broke, Rafael tricked his way past Kieran Gibbs with ease and his cross was deflected into the air, Rooney with the space and time to head the ball past Almunia from an acute angle.
Marouane Chamakh, a substitute, should have scored with a header after 75 minutes but again the United goalkeeper was in superb form. There was more good news for the league leaders as Luis Antonio Valencia made his long-awaited return from injury in the second half.
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As if to rub it in that this would not be Arsenal’s day, Johan Djourou collided with Bacary Sagna, his team-mate, late on and had to be taken off on a stretcher with an apparent dislocated arm. It left the side with only ten men, Wenger having already made three substitutions. The game was then all but over, save from a couple of dreadful tackles from Paul Scholes which raised the temperature of an otherwise firm but fair contest.
Arsenal must now aim to keep the pressure on United in the league with a win against West Bromwich Albion at the Hawthorns next Saturday. It is all they have left.
Manchester United (4-1-4-1): E van der Sar – W Brown, C Smalling, N Vidic, P Evra (sub: P Scholes, 80min) – J O’Shea – R da Silva (sub: R Giggs, 64), D Gibson, W Rooney, F da Silva (sub: L A Valencia, 46) – J Hernandez.
Substitutes not used: T Kuszczak, D Berbatov, G Obertan, J King.
Booked: Scholes.
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Arsenal (4-3-3): M Almunia – B Sagna, J Djourou, L Koscielny, K Gibbs – Denilson (sub: M Chamakh, 59), J Wilshere, A Diaby (sub: A Ramsey, 72) – S Nasri, R van Persie, A Arshavin (sub: T Rosicky, 72).
Substitutes not used: J Shea, S Squllaci, G Clichy, E Eboue.
Referee: C Foy.
For the teams and all the statistics, click on the Match Stats tab above