Arsenation

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Our bodies contain two vital organs. The heart and the brain are equally important to our being however, can behave in contrasting ways. What you might feel may be totally different from the reality. This is how I am feeling as we embark on another trip to Old Trafford.

Can we beat them? Of course we can! We are Arsenal, we have the quality to carve up their defence, we will outplay them with our slick passing and movement. We will teach Van Persie a lesson on loyalty. We all believe it can happen. We all know what our team is capable of when it is on fire, we can be unstoppable.

While it is isn’t unfathomable to envisage our team playing at our peak and handing United a defeat, is it realistic though? I’m afraid not.

They have the wood on us

There’s no denying that ever since the Arsenal/Man United era of dominance ended in the mid noughties, that United have really had the measure of us and realistically it doesn’t look like changing. Yes at the Emirates we’ve had wins here and there, but at Old Trafford it hasn’t been pretty. Need I remind you of the scoreline last year? The last time we won a game there was in 2006, when a late Adebayor strike secured a 1-0 win. Even when we’ve looked good we’ve managed to lose most games against them, and this psychological effect alone is enough to put us on the back foot. What do we have to do to beat these guys? Their Theatre of Dreams is our Theatre of Nightmares.

This isn’t 2004, we can’t expect to match them. I’ve noticed a worrying trend against these guys in recent years, it’s typically us either getting owned, or playing well but still losing through some excellent counter attacks by them.

We aren’t in form

It’s easy to be on cloud nine on the back of the Reading result, but none of those players are expected to feature against United. Some of them like Walcott, Giroud and Arshavin might come off the bench, but they will be tired after an 120min epic. Judging by the performances of our first team at present, I’m not terribly optimistic. You are only as good as your last game and scraping a result at home against QPR isn’t the best preparation. Although the prospect of Arteta, Wilshere and Cazorla playing in the same midfield is a tantalising prospect, they’ve only played once together.

They tend to get the decisions

Against United at Old Trafford, you need some luck. It doesn’t help when United tend to get lucky nearly all the time. Howard Webb is the referee for the match.

Look I’m not into this whole Howard Webb conspiracy, at least not yet. I know he has had made some questionable decisions against other teams but he has yet to harm Arsenal in a significant way, and frankly, that’s all I care about. Lets not forget that in that ugly game at Old Trafford last year, we were awarded a penalty by Howard Webb when we were 1-0 down.

I’m not saying there will necessarily be bad refereeing decisions, but Man Utd tend to get lucky in general and tend to always find a way to win, even if they play badly.

Look I know we are capable of beating Manchester United and I believe we can, we all do. But when you think about it, realistically the odds are against us. I would be very happy with one point. Anything more I’d be over the moon.

I hope I’m wrong though and the team puts on a memorable performance and break our duck at this less than happy hunting ground.

Come on you Gunners!

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