Arsenal vs Man Utd is, pretty obviously the main focus today.“I couldn’t understand why they were written off.The Independent have a look at tactics, arguing that our defeat of Arsenal in last year's Champions League forced Arsene into a rethink:
“A young team like Arsenal, that is maturing, has to be respected and regarded. Six-one at Everton was an amazing result. In all my time at Manchester United, I can’t remember anyone doing that at Goodison Park before.
“But one thing Arsene Wenger has done fantastically well is sell at the right time.
“He has always known the right time for a player to leave and he has done it again with Adebayor and Toure.
“It is not easy to manage that kind of change but I don’t think the level of ability has changed one bit and he seems to have a good harmony in the squad.”
Arsenal's switch to 4-3-3 has reaped impressive dividends with the team winning all four matches this season scoring 15 goals in the process.And elsewhere they have Sir Alex looking back on the Champions League games and saying we need to do better in the league against the "big 4:"The stimulus appears to have been last season's two Champions League ties against today's opponents, Manchester United, when his midfield two were overrun. Wenger's new formation features a third central midfielder usually Alex Song, in a holding role. Song does not just protect the central defence, he also gives freedom to his fellow midfielders, and eases their workload. ...
The weakness is that the full-backs have a heavy load. With a narrow midfield they must provide attacking width, but can lack defensive support. Today's match may turn on whether United, who conversely have moved to a more traditional 4-4-2, can expose that dual-role, or whether Arsenal's midfield trio can control the game.
"We made the right start at the Emirates," Ferguson said, recalling what he considered to be United's performance of the season. "The atmosphere was terrific; they had their fans right behind them but we killed that in seven minutes or something.
"It was a great performance. I don't think anyone could have lived with us that night – and we had a 1-0 advantage from the first leg. If you have a 1-0 head-start going into the second leg of a semi-final, I think it's a big advantage.
"But I think we have to start doing well against the top teams," Ferguson added. "Last season we won the championship but dropped six points against Liverpool, five against Arsenal and two against Chelsea. That has to change."
When quizzed about Carrick’s absence for the season-opener against Birmingham City at Old Trafford less than a fortnight ago, Ferguson was reported to have told the television cameras, “There’s no injury to Michael Carrick, you’ll have to ask him why he’s out,” sparking rumours that the pair had had a falling-out. ...“There are no issues with Carrick and Anderson,” Ferguson said [at yesterday's press conference]. “What you’ll find is they’re not playing and when they’re not playing, you make it an issue, not me. I read about a dust-up with Anderson, which is absolute rubbish.
“We played Burnley on the Wednesday and had played the Saturday before it, and it was a chance to freshen up — that’s what we did.
“We’d got back [Darren] Fletcher and [Paul] Scholes [for the Wigan game], who were fresh and hadn’t played against Burnley, so it was just a matter of freshening it up. What we are also trying to do is push on Gibson as much as we can because the boy has improved at a fantastic rate of knots. We’ve been really impressed with him. That’s the reason [Anderson and Carrick were left out]. There’s no reason other than that.”
It was those one-sided characterisations, in part, that so infuriated Ferguson, who, though less well-travelled, has far more extensive interests away from football — and these go beyond his well-documented passions for horse racing and wine. As he memorably put it in an interview with The Times in 2003, “They say he’s an intelligent man, right? ‘Speaks five languages.’ I’ve got a 15-year-old boy from the Ivory Coast who speaks five languages!” ...Some interesting comments from Evra in The Sun. On the last Arsenal game:
The question remains: did Ferguson soften his attitude towards Wenger because he no longer regarded Arsenal as a threat? “No, I just think the game has changed a little bit,” the United manager said yesterday. “When Arsène first came to Arsenal, there were feisty things between the clubs, which probably transferred itself into both managers, but the personalities of the teams have changed. There has always been a respect for each other and for the work done by both managers. Nothing has changed in that respect.”
"What Arsenal did that day was shameful. I was asked if it felt like there was a contract out on me and I had to say 'yes, yes, yes'."It's not at all the way in which Arsenal normally handle matches because they usually play really good football and are not overly aggressive - it was a big change. That's why I have to thank the referee.
"He came up to me and said 'Look I don't know what's going on but since half-time all the Arsenal players seem to be out to injure you. Don't get involved." ...
Evra explained: "I particularly didn't like the reaction Fabregas showed in that game when he knew full well we had a Champions League final to play that month.
"Yet he put in a bad tackle on me which could easily have robbed me of that final.
"We'll meet again one day, hopefully off the pitch, and I'll be able to let my personality tell him what I think."
Evra refuses to back down from his "men against boys" taunt which sparked all the ill-feeling.
He added: "I only said what many other people were thinking given that we beat them home and away and 4-1 on aggregate.
"Everybody knows I don't mind winding things up a little bit but all I did was speak the truth in this instance.
Maybe I could have said 'Yes, we have a little bit more experience than this young Arsenal team'.
"But I simply like to express myself a little more frankly than that so I said what I thought.
"If people are honest then they'll know that most agreed with my point of view.
"I'll always speak honestly but I'm still disappointed in the way all this has ended up.
"I know very well that every time we play Arsenal this row will surface. But I'll deal with it, no problem. That's just football as far as I'm concerned."
"I think the difference between us and the other three of the so-called Big Four in England is that we are totally and utterly fixated by our major objective which is to win the title again and again."It's easy to win a title but the tough thing is to retain it.
"So to lift the Premier League trophy three or four times on the trot is a hugely impressive achievement."
Just one other thing, Louise Taylor in The Guardian has an article praising Darren Fletcher which is worth a read, although it does include a rather insulting comparison:
Despite sometimes deploying him in a more attacking role in Scotland colours – when he is as good as regarded as a tartan Steven Gerrard – Butcher believes that at Old Trafford Fletcher now dictates matters. "Darren can get games by the scruff of the neck and inject pace and tempo," the former England captain said. "He understands the game, reads it well, is improving all the time and United rely heavily on him."
There was a time when many would have scoffed at such praise. Those were the days when the player's admirable box- to-box energy was frequently undone by needless concessions of possession and seemingly wayward positional sense. Happily, maturity is increasingly highlighting his technical ability and emphasising that a player who maybe once tried to do too much, too fast, boasts a decent football brain after all.
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