Manchester United V Arsenal – Game of the Week!

English Premiership 2009/2010 – Game Week 4

Manchester United V Arsenal

Kick-Off: Saturday 29^th August – 17:15 GMT

Venue: Old Trafford

One of the highlights of any Premiership season sees two familiar foes do battle once more as Arsene Wenger takes his Arsenal kids up to Old Trafford to face Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United.

Although United come into this fixture as the current champions of England, it’s Arsenal who head up to Manchester as the in-form side, with ‘The Gunners’ maintaining their 100% start to the season with victory over Portsmouth at the weekend. However, United have given their team morale a big lift with the annihilation of Wigan Athletic at The JJB on Saturday.

We have two teams jam packed with talent within their squads and both will brace Old Trafford with solid wins behind them, however, only one can keep up their winning run and something tells me it could be Arsenal’s day.

Manchester United

League Position: 4^th

Recent Form: WLW

Manchester United have always looked upon Old Trafford as being a fortress with very few teams managing to get the better of United at their famous home ground. In fact, only Liverpool have the honour of being the only team to beat ‘The Red Devils’ at Old Trafford last season, so will Arsenal become one of a select few, if any, to do it this season? Well, Sir Alex Ferguson would hope not as another defeat would be a huge setback after already succumbing to the shock defeat of the season thus far when losing 1-0 away at Burnley just over a week ago.

Sir Alex did exactly what he was paid to do over the weekend and that was to rally his troops after a humiliating result in midweek. Their defeat away at Burnley looks set to be the shock result of the season despite the new league campaign being just a few games old. However, like true champions do, United bounced back in stunning fashion, demolishing Wigan athletic in a 5-0 rout. That fine victory was not only a boost to their point tally but also to the players morale as they obviously needed a big lift after their Burnley woes.

Man Utd have generally found life very difficult against Arsenal but they’ve found their best form against ‘The Gunners’ at Old Trafford, winning four of the last six encounters in Manchester. Fergie will be aiming to make it five from seven at home on Saturday as he looks towards his ‘big players’ for a huge result. However, United do lack these so called ‘big players’ now, with Wayne Rooney their only star player of note. He was their inspiration for not only their 5-0 humbling of Wigan at the weekend but he was also their only goalscorer and eventual match winner against Birmigham in United’s first win of the season. If United are to have an enjoyable weekend then you would pressume it will be down to this man. Rooney has, and will be, United’s talisman this season, especially as Man Utd look extremely light up top.

Arsenal

League Position: 3rd 

Recent Form: WW

Even Arsene Wenger couldn’t of envisaged a better start after his side dished out two thrashings within the space of a week. On the opening day of the season, Arsenal took to the field in front of the ESPN cameras and gave Everton a lesson in how to play the beautiful game. The ‘Gunners’ then backed that sublime result up with a 4-1 drubbing of a hapless Portsmouth. That’s now ten goals in as many games for Arsenal, in the league, which is a surprising feat for a team with no real recognised striker. Robin Van Persie would be classed as winger so we suppose Eduardo & Bendtnar will be Arsenal’s main strike force this season, not the best it has to be said.

Arsenal surprisingly come into this game well equipped although Cesc Fabregas is a minor doubt. However, if the Spanish maestro is unavailable then his absence will turn this fixture completely on it’s head as he’s been one of the in-form players for Arsenal in the early stages of the season. Fabregas has a hand at everything that’s positive with Arsenal’s play and he’s already added two goals to his season tally after scoring brace at Goodison against Everton. If he doesn’t start then we may have to re-think our approach to this game.

Arsenal seem to be playing with a swagger at the moment, although, in all fairness, they’ve yet to be tested as Everton are all over the place right now, what with the Lescott saga dragging on, while Portsmouth look destined to struggle this season. Even with that said, you can only beat what’s put in front of you and those comprehensive wins will give Arsenal a massive boost in confidence, especially when going forward, which is an area where they look the most deadly right now. Their full-backs are bombing forward at every opportunity while Arshavin and Robin Van Persie have been a right nuisance for the opposing full-backs. The return to fitness of Eduardo is a big plus for Wenger as the Croatian has bags of pace and does give Arsenal something a little different in the final third but he does lack the sharpness needed to make such an impact in a such a big game.

Head-to-Head:

Manchester United W: 4 Arsenal W: 3 Draws: 3 Overs – 5 Unders – 5

It’s unsurprising that this has been a closely fought fixture in recent times with home advantage often playing a huge part in the final result. The last meeting between the two really should be ignored. The pair played out a rather dull 0-0 draw towards the latter end of last season but at the time, United, only needed a point while Arsenal were severely lacking in confidence. The draw was somewhat of a formality then but that won’t be the case here. Man Utd have won three of the last five encounters at Old Trafford, with the very last game between the pair finishing in a draw but Arsenal’s last victory in Manchester came back in 2007 when they won 1-0.

As far as the Over/Under forecast for this game goes, the last ten meetings do appear to be a mixture of dull and lively encounters. However, that’s a tad deceiving as just one of the previous five meetings at Old Trafford has produced more then 2 goals. The more entertaining games tend to take place at Arsenal.

Match Verdict: Arsenal to WIN - 11/4 SkyBet

Another tight game is on the cards but we’ve been impressed with Arsenal’s early performances, both in the league and in their European qualifiers. They are the in-form team and we fancy Arsenal to give United a good run for their money here. United are lacking the threat of Ronaldo so all the big sides will hold no fear when they head to Old Trafford now. Don’t get us wrong, it will still be a very tough game and United will undoubtedly be the favourites but at the odds, Arsenal look a decent bet. Their wingers will be fearless in their attempts to raid the United full-backs, while they’ve shown in their early appearances that they can be a serious threat from set-pieces, and with Sir Alex missing his best defender and captain in Rio Ferdinand, United could be a tad vulnerable at the back.

Match Odds:

Manchester United – 6/5 Bet365

Arsenal – 11/4 SkyBet

Draw – 12/5 Boylesports

SoccerBetting Tip: Arsenal (DrawNoBet) – 13/10 SportingBet