Premier League: Big week in the hopes of Arsenal and United
Arsenal's Viktor Gyokeres (left) scores his side's third goal during the UEFA Champions League against Inter Milan. Picture: Fabrizio Carabelli/PA Wire
When Mikel Arteta gets a chance to look back on this season in the future, he may well regard this week as a defining period in the success of Arsenal’s season even though strangely, the week started with a pretty average result.
The Gunners put in a rather poor performance in their 0-0 all away draw at lowly Nottingham Forest. Such a result any other time in the season would have been seen as a major slip-up. However, Arteta and Arsenal had the luck that all their immediate contenders for the Premier League crown managed to shoot themselves in the foot with Man City, unexpectedly, losing their derby clash against managerless neighbours United. Followed, the next day, by the preposterously unexpected 1-0 stumble by Unaai Emery’s once imperious Aston Villa at home to a universally believed hapless Everton side.
So, despite not playing anywhere near their best, the Gunners somehow managed to add a point to their total and stretch their lead at the top of the table to seven points, while Pep and Unai were left to wonder how all this was possible.
Tuesday night saw things go from good to great, with Arsenal running out comfortable 3-1 winners over Inter Milan at the San Siro in the Champions League.
The result was not totally unexpected, Inter have struggled at home this time out, as last season’s Champions League finalists look a shadow of their former self. But a win at the San Siro can never be assumed whether against AC or Inter, so a three-goal return will be a big morale-boosting result. Even more important than the outcome of the game, the result confirmed the Gunners place in the last 16 round of the competition and firmly places them on top of the Champions League table with a round of games still to play.
Maybe most pleasing for Arteta will be the hunger for goals among his team, with Gabriel Jesus bagging a brace on his return to Champions League football after an enforced break from the competition of 405 days due to multiple injuries, with Viktor Gyokeres adding the third on his arrival through substitution, silencing some of the criticism for his lack of scores for the club, with a crucial goal that ended Inter’s hopes of comeback. Now, with a first or second place finish on the European table assured, Arsenal will have the comfort of having home advantage for the start of the knockout rounds.
This week will be even more fruitful for Arsenal if this weekend’s results go their way, starting with the critical game on their own patch when they host Man United at the Emirates Stadium tomorrow evening.
United, under caretaker manager Michael Carrick, will no doubt be emboldened by the derby result last weekend against City pushing to the back of the mind yet another self-destructive change of management at Old Trafford.
Word from within the United camp is that players are reacting well with his new regime that focusses on shorter and more intense one-to-one training sessions with attention given to detail being shown.
We will see how effective this new positive mood in the squad plays out tomorrow. Performing well in your city’s derby at home is one thing and something that would once upon a time be seen as the very basic starting point for a United side. But getting the better of a side that has dictated the pace of success in the league this season is another thing, especially when away.
However, United can take hope from when the sides met early in the season when Arsenal were very lucky to come away from Old Trafford with a one goal win despite playing second fiddle to United for most of the game. They will also take hope from last weekend’s results which saw them as the only side in the top five to actually win their game. A boost for a club desperately yearning for success after a decade of painfully unreliable performances against the other traditional top six sides and maybe more importantly from this week’s news that United had slipped to fourth in the annual earnings list of Premier League clubs.
We are still a good bit away from the heyday of the angry Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger confrontations of old. And it’s hard to see which players from the current squads could recreate the white heat of the rivalry between Patrick Viera and Roy Keane. But tomorrow can set the seeds of a new rivalry if United can somehow usurp the hopes of the champions in waiting, pointing the way to a possible Man United rebirth.
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