Men against Boys as United brush Arsenal aside

It was men against boys again today as Manchester United gave Arsenal a lesson in ruthless attacking football at the Emirates stadium.

Goals from Nani (or was it an Almunia OG?), Wayne Rooney and Park Ji Sung silenced Arsenal until Thomas Vermaelen’s deflected shot forced a late flurry of pressure on United’s back line, but by then it was too late.

United started brightest, led mainly by in form winger Nani. Arsenal were quick on the counter attack, but Arshavin was disappointing in front of goal and failed to test Van der Sar once.

Good defending from William Gallas kept United out until Nani’s piece of brilliance in the 33rd minute. He appeared to be stuck near the corner flag with two Arsenal players for company, but a flick of the boot and he was in between both and into the box. He then did a quick dummy past the defender and crossed the ball to the back post where Almunia turned it into his own net. Whether the ball was already going in remains to be seen, but Nani’s part in the goal is not to be underestimated.

It was Nani again tormenting the Arsenal defence and creating United’s second goal. Wayne Rooney collected the ball just outside the united penalty area, saw Nani galloping up the right flank and sent him through. Rooney then sprinted forward to get on the end of the move and when Nani saw him making a run into the box he supplied an inch perfect pass which the in form striker rifled past the helpless Almunia.

The second half was very much the same as the first. Manchester United were dominating the ball and Arsenal could only resort to long shots from outside the box.

Park settled the points 7 minutes into the second half when he ran half the length of the pitch unchallenged before sliding the ball neatly past Almunia for United’s third.

It wasn’t until around the 70th minute mark when Arsenal actually had a shot on target, but even then it didn’t trouble Van der Sar.

They fluked one back in the 80th minute after Vermaelen’s shot deflected past he united ‘keeper.

So the final score was 3-0 but even that didn’t reflect United’s dominance and superiority in a game where they could have scored 5 or 6.

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