Unai Emery led Arsenal to a very encouraging 2-0 win at home to Chelsea last week after some more than challenging performances and results recently. In fact Arsenal have done quite well at home to the rest of the top six this season with the exception of Emery’s very first game in charge when they lost 2-0 at home to City. They beat Spurs and Chelsea as well as drawing with Liverpool and those games were three of their best performances of the season so far.
Their away results may have slipped badly recently, but they continue to win games and score goals at home. Only City and Liverpool have taken more home points and scored more home goals while only those two teams and Chelsea have conceded less goals at home. Despite conceding far too many goals away from home it seems Arsenal are in fact showing a little bit of defensive solidity at home.
The manager switched to a diamond formation last week with a back four and three central midfielders in front of them while Aaron Ramsey played behind a front two of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette. That formation worked very well against Chelsea with the players running further than they had ever done before as a team and closing Chelsea down all over the pitch. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the same formation against United, but there will have to be at least one change in personnel.
The long term injury sustained by Hector Bellerin last week means we’re not going to see him until somewhere after the start of next season and the manager has a tough task on his hands trying to replace him. We struggled at right back when he was out over the festive season and it’s quite possible we will do so again. The choices are Stephan Lichsteiner, Carl Jenkinson, Ainsley Maitland-Niles and maybe even Shkodran Mustafi and none of them fill me with a lot of confidence.
At a push I think young Maitland-Niles might be our best long term bet with Bellerin out for up to nine months, but it’s not his natural position. If the manager can persist with him and coach him in the art of defending as well as getting him to concentrate during the game just a little more I think he could have the most to offer. If he’s up against Marcus Rashford at times against United he could find life difficult, but it will definitely teach him a thing or two as well.
I would be surprised if the manager makes too many changes from the team that beat Chelsea and if the tactics differ too much either. As good as United have been they have had a fairly reasonable run of games with the exception of their win at Spurs and an Arsenal team at their best would be their toughest test so far under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. They are just as bad in defence as us and they can struggle in all areas when the opposition press them.
Ramsey played an important part in the win last week and I suppose he sort of played in the Mesut Ozil role. Ozil is watching from the sidelines at the moment and while an FA Cup game would surely be the perfect time to reintroduce him I don’t think he will start. It seems his unwillingness to tackle back is what’s keeping him out of the side if those “in the know” are to be believed and the players are going to have to put in an awful lot of work to beat United.
We do have both Aubameyang and Lacazette up front and Lacazette in particular is very fond of scoring against the top teams. Aubameyang has missed his fair share of chances recently, but surely he’s due a goal or two and against United would be the ideal time for him to put a few chances away. He’s still the second highest scorer in the league and on course for a very good return this season.
The FA Cup might not be the most glamorous competition any more, but it’s certainly still worth winning. We have won it four times since 2004 and they’re the only trophies we lifted in that time with three of those victories in the last five seasons. We’re the only team to have lifted the FA Cup more times than United and beating them would insure that record stands for at least another season. There’s very little as special as a May appearance at Wembley in an FA Cup Final and beating United along the way would make it all the sweeter.
That’s it for today.
See you tomorrow.
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