Wednesday, May 06, 2009

A grim day for all concerned and it's time for a rethink

I don't think there's too much point in swathes of analysis for this match because it's all quite simple.

Yes, a horrible, horrible mistake from gibbs cost us early on; yes, almunia should have saved ronaldo's forty yarder.

But 4-1 was a fair refelection of the utter dominance united had over us over two legs. If anything, 1 goal for us was charitable, as was united only scoring 4 goals.

But that's whatr you get when you stick with players who don't know how to defend at the highest level. Last night we had toure, who's lost it, and Djourou, who may never get it, as our CB partnership. we played a kid at LB. United had o'shea, not the world's greatest player, but a solid one nonetheless. we even had a united cast-off on the bench. embarassing.

We had rvp sauntering around doing not very much, unable to cut it in another big game, while adebyor was almost as ineffective as he was in the first leg. nasri, song and fabregas tried but no-one really knew where tehy were playing. theo was anonymous.

But this is what happens when you take a policy of investment in talented youth to its conclusion - a lot of potential, inconsistent results. United have invested properly in their team and will defend their trophy in Rome.

So, mistakes cost us last night. Mistakes on and off the pitch. We lost because our first XI, let alone our squad, wasn't good enough and that has to come down to decisions taken by arsene.

Yes, we got to two semi-finals this year, but how many top-quality teams did we have to play to get there? Roma and villareal would not make the top-four in england, and we fell in the FA Cup as soon as we played a decent team.

If all we get this summer are more teenagers then we won't win anything because nothing will have changed. Arsene - it's time for a rethink. Look at the impact of arshavin before you go out and buy, because if you don't then your position needs to come under review, I'm afraid to say.