FA Cup 6th Round: Manchester United V Arsenal

The most famous domestic competition in the world the FA Cup entered its sixth round today with two big games the most prominent of which being Manchester United V Arsenal at Old Trafford. As far as sixth round FA Cup ties go, they really do not come much bigger than this, the two biggest rivals in English Football battling it out for one trophy but ultimately two very different things.

Manchester United currently top of the English premier league and Arsenal currently sitting second the steaks could not be higher to progress in to the FA Cup quarter finals. Manchester United, competing with one eye on the treble and Arsenal clambering to hold onto the hope of winning some silverware this season having lost the League cup final and losing out to Barcelona in the Champions League midweek.

The teams put out by the managers at the beginning looked severely in Arsenals favour a team of big names, pace and quality, united on the other hand where playing squad players with the exception of Patrice Evra, Nemanja Vidic and Wayne Rooney, even leaving top scorer Dimitar Berbatov on the bench once again.

First twenty minutes for me was pretty much what I and everyone else had expected.  Arsenal controlling the game from the midfield not allowing Man Utd to get a foot hold, Utd’s Wayne Rooney tracking back as he does.  He was simply trying to take a hold of the game where O’Shea and Gibson had failed to do so.

Then twenty eight minutes into the game comes a great ball with the outside of the right foot from one of the two Brazilian brothers on the field for Man Utd Fabio Da Silva, rather than standing to admire what he had just done Da Silva kept running and eventually got onto the end of a cross from Wayne Rooney which Hernandez (Chichartio) failed to convert, the ball coming back off Manuel Almunia for Fabio to finish into the top of the net.  MANCHESTER UNITED 1 – 0 ARSENAL.

Arsenal’s resurgence seemed to take place at this point with Robin van Persie leading from the front having an effort pushed wide from keeper Van De Sar and the resulting corner kick narrowly missing the goal.

Manchester United started the second half on a high with the introduction of Antonio Valencia making his first appearance since breaking his leg in a Champions League clash with Rangers in September 2010.

Into the second half Man Utd keeper Van De Sar was well on the way to being named as man of the match pulling off great saves keeping United in the game.  Van De Sar’s persistence was soon put to good use when Wayne Rooney headed home past Almunia to make it MANCHESTER UNITED 2 – 0 ARSENAL.

This seemed to encourage another resurgence from Arsenal who had now brought Chamakh and Rosicky off the bench, their only problem being getting past keeper Van De Sar who pulled off sublime saves from both, the agility and awareness of this man for a 40 year old Premier League keeper is unbelievable and Man Utd are going to be struggling to come up with such a high quality replacement in the summer when Van De Sar retires.

Finishing two nil the game was of course not without incident. Arsenal centre half Djourou was stretchered off with a shoulder injury, having to be placed into a neck brace, stretcher and even put on oxygen. Manchester United veteran Paul Scholes was lucky not to have been sent off when already on a yellow card he lunged into a midfield tackle causing him and Samir Nasri to come face to face.

At the end of the day it was simply not Arsenals day, nor has it been the best of weeks for them, with what looked to be a pretty healthy trophy cabinet two weeks ago. Their only hope now is to catch Manchester United and win the Premier League title. In the end it was a deserved win for Manchester United who ended up commanding the game, and for me Arsenal always seemed to want that one extra touch that simply, was not there.