The passion and commitment we showed against Spurs was commendable and we need more of the same tomorrow night. The manager yet again changed things around when he needed to and those changes proved crucial on the day. I said in my preview that he had to find a way to beat Spurs and his in game problem solving is looking very good at the moment.
That win put us into fourth place above Spurs and we’re eight points ahead of United going into this game. A top four finish won’t be easy for us this season with five teams opening a gap over the rest of the table, but we’re in a much better position than United. Not only have their results been poor, but they have played badly and they cannot stop conceding goals either. Added to that the turmoil in their dressing room and with the manager is casting a huge cloud over the club and it seems only a matter of time before Jose Mourinho is on his way.
Despite all of their problems we still have the perpensity to struggle away to United as we have done all too often in the past. If we allow them to play their game and dominate us we will find it hard and we have to attack them and put them under pressure from the start like we did against Spurs. They are there for the taking though and I genuinely think we can take them.
We are now unbeaten in 12 league games and have won four of our six away games with our only away defeat coming in our first away game at Chelsea. Only Spurs have scored more away goals and they have only got one more away goal despite playing three more away games than us. We have scored in all of our away games and haven’t failed to score since our opening game against City.
The boss is unlikely to make too many changes to the team that beat Spurs, but he will be forced to make at least one with Granit Xhaka suspended after picking up his fifth yellow card of the season on Sunday. Matteo Guendouzi is the most likely replacement for him, but they are very different players. As much as I like Guendouzi I think Xhaka is very important to the way we play, despite his errors, and we will miss him against United.
Thankfully we have Lucas Torreira in the team and he seems to get better and better with each game. We picked him up for an absolute bargain price in today’s market and somebody, somewhere in the club deserves a lot of credit for scouting him and signing him. If we’re going to beat United we have to control the midfield and Torreira’s role will be even more important with Xhaka out.
United’s defence has been poor this season and they have an awful lot of injury problems in that defence at the moment too. In Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang we have the top scorer in the Premier League and he is the man to take advantage of that dodgy United defence. Whether he plays up front with or without Alexandre Lacazette he is the player who can win us any game at the moment.
I haven’t mentioned Mesut Ozil so far and it seems he might have fallen foul of the manager. He’s by far our highest paid player and we really pushed the boat out to get him to sign a new contract earlier this year, but if the reports are to be believed he’s out of the team because the manager doesn’t think he can play the way he wants all of his players to play. He’s an incredibly talented player and it’s hard to believe he won’t find his way back into the team, but on the manager’s terms. Of course he might have an actual injury and that could be why he’s out of the team at the moment, but I doubt it.
It would be great if we could go to United and take the three points which might just be the final straw for Mourinho’s reign. Not much would make me happier than seeing an Arsenal victory at United getting him the bullet, but I’ll be more than happy if we just take the three points. I think we can most definitely do just that if we approach the game in the same manner that we approached Sunday’s game.
That’s it for today.
See you tomorrow.
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