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Arsenal Must Not Be Complacent And Build Upon Manchester United Win
Arsenal romped to a resounding 3-0 win against Manchester United on Sunday evening, a very rare result over the last few years. We were dominant throughout. Our goals were of very high quality; both being scored by two of our few genuinely world class players, resulting from fantastic build up play from the team.
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We, on the whole, looked solid in defence. Cech was incredible, making some very important saves and even Mertesacker managed to keep the likes of Martial at bay. We bossed the midfield, and always looked dangerous going forward. Arsene Wenger even got off his seat at around 65 minutes and dictated play to his team!
As you all know, I am no longer a fan of Arsene Wenger. I feel that he is not the man to now consistently lead Arsenal to glory. By glory I do not mean one off games. I mean sustained title challenges and winning the Premier League or Champions League.
I will, however, give credit where credit is due. If Wenger had a distinct role in how Arsenal played in this game, then good for him. If the desire and passion showed by the Arsenal players in this game was down to Wenger, then good on him for getting it out of them. Pity he could not get the same passion and desire out of them for other games this season.
I do feel that this game needs to be looked at as a one off for now. Let us not forget, after all, that this is only the second win in the last thirteen league games against United. If we go on to truly compete for the league (something we haven’t done for years) or if we, miraculously, go on to win the league, then hopefully we can look back at this game as the catalyst for that. And if that happens I will give Wenger all the credit he deserves. But I wouldn’t give him the contract extension that the board probably would.
Arsenal played fantastically against Leicester City. We scored five good goals and looked like we had finally clicked into gear. But then Olympiakos happened. All I’m asking for is a bit of perspective, rather then instantly thinking an incredible result against United means that Arsene Wenger has been getting it right all season.
What needs to happen is that we need to take this result against United and use it as a springboard to further success. I’m not expecting us to go on and beat Bayern Munich twice in a row in Europe. But I want us to carry on with this form domestically. After United, in the league, we have Watford and Everton. Neither of which will be easy games, and would typically be games that we would slip up in.
Too often have Arsenal got a fantastic result like this and not used it to kick on and achieve a consistency in form. Against Manchester City away last season the players were allowed to dictate the sort of play for the team. We played defensively and won a hard fought game by two goals to nil. It was a different sort of style from Arsenal. It was meant to be the start of a change in how we played against the big teams. It was a start of us grinding out the results and not caring if we played beautiful football in doing so.
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But nothing came from it. We ended up not seeing any other games in which we played in this manner.
This result against United, as wonderful as it is, will mean nothing if we don’t use it as a springboard to further, continued, success in our domestic league campaign. It will mean nothing if we then slip up against Everton in a few weeks time.
Such a resounding victory against United in the league is a rare achievement for Arsenal lately. Let us not allow it to be for nothing. Let us hope that it acts as the catalyst for a sustained and genuine title challenge. Let us hope that we look back at this game as the moment that changed our domestic season; that led us to go forward and see our boys lift the Premier League trophy high above their heads.
Next: Arsenal v United Player Ratings