Manchester United versus Arsenal at Old Trafford this Sunday, kick off at 4

Carrick/Park/Giggs seem to be SAF's CL midfield trio. They may get a run out before Sep 14th...I dont see them starting v Bolton tbh.

I could see Carrick, Anderson, and Cleverly starting with Young, Nani on the right and Rooney alone up top. We have roughed up Arsenal with a 5 man midfield over the past couple of years, and this strategy has worked like a charm. There's no sense in changing this now.
 
I wonder if Park is going to start this game with Cleverley getting a small break.

I don't think so. If Park were to start, it would be on one of the wings. However, given Arsenal's inexperience I think we will start with Young and Nani on the wings and go for the jugular from the start.
 
I could see Carrick, Anderson, and Cleverly starting with Young, Nani on the right and Rooney alone up top. We have roughed up Arsenal with a 5 man midfield over the past couple of years, and this strategy has worked like a charm. There's no sense in changing this now.

Hopefully.

Dropping Anderson - as the poster you replied to seemed to suggest - would be more than baffling at this stage.

Also, dropping Young doesn't sound like a good idea, he could cause Jenkinson some serious discomfort. Park should stay on the bench for me, no matter how good his record against Arsenal is.
 
The only thing I think can save us in this game is overconfidence and complacency from Utd and a big 'get stuck in' game from us which frankly would go against the grain

Currently you should win handsomely two or more but football being a bit strange might make it a bit closer

For me 2-0 Utd but hopefully we can nick a point

C'mon the Arse - time to start the league season!
 
Okay, I've had a think about whitch Arsenal-players is out, so Jo, Al, Pete, correct me if I'm wrong, but this should be your line-up:

Szczesny
Jenkinson - Vermaelen - Djorou - Traore
Ramsey - Lansbury - Rosicky
Walcott - van Persie - Arshavin

Is that correct?

IMO we obviously should beat that team quite comfortably, but football never pans out as we think, do it? Anyway, we should be up for this early opportunity to leave Arsenal a gap which will be almost impossible to catch up with. Come on United!
 
I think we'll go with this team:

De Gea
Smalling - Jones - Evans - Evra
Nani - Carrick - Anderson - Young
Rooney - Hernandez

We should really seize the opportunity to attack this side, and I think Fergie will. Against a side with an unproven midfield and a poorly looking defence, we should be all over them.
 
That would be my team, but fortunately, I'm not Sir Alex Ferguson.

OyWWx.jpg
 
I think we'll go with this team:

De Gea
Smalling - Jones - Evans - Evra
Nani - Carrick - Anderson - Young
Rooney - Hernandez

We should really seize the opportunity to attack this side, and I think Fergie will. Against a side with an unproven midfield and a poorly looking defence, we should be all over them.

No, never again should Carrick start a big game against good players as part of a midfield 2. He is just too slow and immobile for it to not weaken our midfield and slow down our counter attacks.

We should go 3 in the middle to accommodate him behind Cleverley and Anderson, that way we get the protection for the back 4 without losing any of the energy and fluidity of our attacking play.
 
I was flicking through the Sun yesterday in WH Smith & there was a story about Anderson referring to him starting to justify his £27M transfer fee this season.

Don't they even bother with checking simple things like this? Such a poor effort.

He officially cost 30 million euros, which is £25.3 million. That said, we don't know how much (if any) of that is bonuses for appearances/trophies etc.

http://www.fcporto.pt/IncFCP/pdf/Investor_Relations/FactosRelevantes/VendaAnderson2junho07.pdf
 
No, never again should Carrick start a big game against good players as part of a midfield 2. He is just too slow and immobile for it to not weaken our midfield and slow down our counter attacks.

We should go 3 in the middle to accommodate him behind Cleverley and Anderson, that way we get the protection for the back 4 without losing any of the energy and fluidity of our attacking play.

Couldn't agree with you more.
 
He officially cost 30 million euros, which is £25.3 million. That said, we don't know how much (if any) of that is bonuses for appearances/trophies etc.

http://www.fcporto.pt/IncFCP/pdf/Investor_Relations/FactosRelevantes/VendaAnderson2junho07.pdf

It's £25.3 million now; in 2007, however, it was a lot less than that. The pound's depreciation against the euro has to be taken into account if we're trying to calculate Anderson's fee based on Porto's financial report.
 
It's £25.3 million now; in 2007, however, it was a lot less than that. The pound's depreciation against the euro has to be taken into account if we're trying to calculate Anderson's fee based on Porto's financial report.

Rate for 2 June 2007 = 1.4738400594

£20.35M

But don't let reality get in the way of an inflated value Mr Sun...

Shit load of money all the same...:nervous:
 
Couldn't agree with you more.


My midfield in this game would be:

Carrick as a holding midfielder - to prevent the only part of Arsenals game I fear - counter-attacks.

Anderson in front of him with Rooney as an attacking midfielder and playmaker. Nani, Young and Welbeck up front. Actually I would prefer Hernandez against slow Arsenal defenders - but you can't really leave Welbeck out after his start.
 
We're not going to batter them like that. They might have some players missing, they might be weakend by a departure of two star players but they are still a fine football team that just qualified for CL group stages after beating a good Italian side home and away. It will be much tougher than most seem to think and I won't be surprised if we just about scrap a win.
 
Ya, it's silly to expect a hammering. It could be a tough game. I don't think people would be predicting such a comfortable win against teams like Everton, Stoke etc., and Arsenal still have a significantly better team than them.

I'd love a three or four goal thumping, but I don't think it's as likely as people are making out.
 
http://www.livefootballol.com/streaming/epl/week-3-manchester-united-arsenal-28-08-2011.html
For streams.
 
I'm not so sure about that.

At the very least I would say they have far more potential match winners in their team. Van Persie, Arshavin, Walcott can all produce moments, and to a lesser extent the likes of Ramsey etc..
 
4-1.

Nani two, Rooney one, Young 1.
 
Ya, it's silly to expect a hammering. It could be a tough game. I don't think people would be predicting such a comfortable win against teams like Everton, Stoke etc., and Arsenal still have a significantly better team than them.

I'd love a three or four goal thumping, but I don't think it's as likely as people are making out.

I don't expect a hammering - but this Arsenal-side (esp if a few of the doubtful ones miss the game) is not a lot better than Everton.

Lets say if Sagna and Vermaelen is out ....
 
The circumstances are absolutely perfectly set up for a rare and historic drubbing, which inevitably means a drab 1-0.