The Perfect Kiss

Why Howard Webb decides to come out now and say he made a mistake, Jesus, why comment at all? Anyone would think it was the most important decision ever made. If that had been a Liverpool penalty decision no one would be talking about it at all. Imagine if it had been Arsenal, people would be falling over themselves to pay tribute to their beautiful attacking play sweeping aside the opposition. Us, all we get is pathetic moaning about a close penalty goal which was 1/5th of our goal tally that day. Can we forget about it now please? Please? Why can't the papers go back to discussing Ronaldo going to Real Madrid...
And so to the actual business of football. A quality European Semi-final to look forward to. Sir Alex was certainly talking the tie up yesterday, from The Times:

“I hope we play a fantastic game and win. I respect Arsenal's ability to play good football, too, and it could be a cracker.

“Looking at the tie itself, and looking at the players who will be on view, you almost think this is the perfect semi-final. It is full of terrific footballers and both teams play terrific football. It could be that way. It has an appetising look about it.”

Although that prospect of great attacking play should be tempered with his other comments from yesterday:

“No, I don't think so,” Ferguson said when asked if the fans could expect a repeat of the open style of play that made their 2-1 league defeat by Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in November such an enthralling game to watch. “There will be more vigilance from both teams in terms of not losing a goal, particularly on your own ground. That will be the key to it. We need to win without losing a goal, put it that way. I'd be delighted to win the game 1-0.

“Of course we have concerns [about the defensive performance against Tottenham] but in all honesty I thought they were a bit fortuitous with the first goal and it gave them a great fillip.”

He also reckons Evra, much criticised for his performance against Aaron Lennon on Saturday, will be alright against Walcott:

“Patrice is quick enough to deal with that,” Ferguson said. “He's played against Walcott a few times. We are all right with that.

“When you are playing against good players, you have got to assess everything about them in the sense of looking at the best way to oppose them and we have to do our homework in that respect because the boy Walcott is very quick. He's probably the quickest forward in England at the moment so we just have to prepare the right way.”

Daniel Taylor in The Guardian suggests that Rooney will probably start wide on the left to aid Evra:

Rooney, for one, is regularly asked to play in a wide midfield position rather than that of an orthodox striker and the same may be necessary again to provide cover for Patrice Evra. Wenger will have noted the way Tottenham's Aaron Lennon had, to quote Harry Redknapp, the "hoodoo" over Evra until Ferguson moved Rooney to the left wing at half-time on Saturday, the idea being that he would offer the left-back greater protection.

Ian Ladyman in The Mail looks at the same thing, with a nice diagram, and comparisons to the Porto game:

in Porto earlier this month, Ferguson's favourite Scouser contributed one of his very best performances; the type that will often go unnoticed by fans and man-of-the-match adjudicators, but never by coaches and tactical planners.

Stationed deep on the right of midfield, his role offered him little hope of personal glory as he was told to restrict the attacking advances of Porto's leftsided players, Ally Cissokho and Cristian Rodriguez, and supplement Ronaldo's offensive efforts whenever possible.

With Ryan Giggs attempting to provide similar cover on the other flank, United at times played with supplementary full backs. It was a stroke of tactical wisdom by Ferguson - who had seen Porto cause havoc down the flanks in drawing 2-2 in the first leg - but one that could be put fully into effect only by a player of Rooney's diligence. ...

it will be a surprise if he doesn't start on the left as Ferguson looks to find a way of stopping Arsenal's Theo Walcott isolating Patrice Evra down that flank.

Ferguson is desperate for a clean sheet and Rooney will be a crucial part of his plans again.

Oliver Kay has a fairly downbeat look at the game, concentrating on a theory that we're tired... it certainly looked that way second half on Saturday...

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that they are tired and increasingly reliant on adrenalin to propel them towards the goals ahead.

No doubt Ferguson and his staff will be fiercely protective of the answers to any such questions, but a purely unscientific assessment would suggest that Patrice Evra and Michael Carrick, to name but two, have struggled with fatigue over the past month or two. Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic have had some awkward moments as well, particularly at Old Trafford, though it must be said that both defended magnificently in Oporto and in the FA Cup semi-final against Everton.

Ronaldo, meanwhile, has continued to score goals, but, whether for reasons of confidence, fitness or, more likely, frustration and disillusion, he has not dominated games as he did in the previous two seasons.

I particularly like the "Vidic and Ferdinand aren't playing well, ummmm, except when they are" line of argumentation...
There's a lot of stuff on the Sir Alex/Arsene Wenger "relationship", which I won't cover in depth, so much already been written since the draw was announced and even more since the tie became a reality. The best look is this from Paul Hayward on The Guardian blog; Matt Hughes in The Times covers similar ground; The Telegraph just stick to the quotes.
The Telegraph also ask "How can Arsenal beat us?" and it turns out they probably can't seeing as the piece suggests that they need to copy Liverpool's long ball tactics from their 4-1 win over us, something they really won't be able to pull off.
The Mail have quotes from Sir Alex on the desire to retain the trophy:

When we won it in Moscow the point was made in the press conference about no side having ever retained the cup in the Champions League format,' revealed Ferguson.

'I didn't know that was the case at the time, but you say to yourself it would be great if we could be the first do that. We are good at winning things for the first time and maybe that is a good omen for us.

'Talk is cheap, but faint heart never won fair lady and it's something I would dearly love to do.

'Some might say I am tempting fate but at Old Trafford we have always set our sights high.

'No one is saying it will be easy, and we will certainly need to enjoy that little rub of luck and freedom from injury that can make you or break you.'

The Mirror have Van der Sar on the need for a clean sheet:

"It's important to keep Arsenal from scoring in the first leg," said van der Sar.

"We had a great run halfway through the season where we never conceded any goals.

"Suddenly we had five games where we were shaky and then three games where we had clean sheets again.

"We weren't happy about how we conceded two goals to Spurs on Saturday but we've analysed it and learnt our lesson.

"You get more nerves in a European game. You hear the Champions League song before kick-off so you know it's something special.

"It's not just a Premier League game it's a semi-final, so the stakes are high and both teams will do all they can to reach Rome."

The other thing from Sir Alex yesterday was some backing for Nani:

"He's been unlucky this season Nani," Ferguson said. "The form of Ji-Sung Park has been absolutely outstanding and for most of the time he has kept Nani out of the team. So therefore to get a consistent run has been difficult for him and that has really been the problem for him and then you've got the little injuries.

"But he will be here next season and he will do very well next season. He will be a very good players for us."

This Daily Star report deserves a mention for being a fairly straight collection of quotes from Sir Alex's press conference.