Arsenal v Manchester United – Sunday 1st May – Emirates Stadium London (15:05)
The English Premier league is coming to a close as there is a miserly 4 fixtures left and it looks like Man United will lift their record 19th English title and over haul Liverpool’s long stance.
Arsenal has suffered a dose of De JA vu as yet again it’s been as case of “so close but yet so far”. Arsenal got out the starting blocks with real pace as they brushed their opponents aside and looked to be proving all their critics wrong. Arsene Wenger maintained his confidence in his young squad and they went through a phase where people started to sit up and take note of this youthful team as they played their classy football and looked to be real favuorites to lift the title. They topped the table in December, beating their local rivals Chelsea 3-1 on the way, but yet again Arsenal just didn’t have the depth to go all the way as an injury crisis hit the team and the wheels just started falling off. They were in contention for a quadruple, but within a week they found themselves knocked out the Carling Cup final, the FA Cup and the UEFA .Champions League. This has been the case for the past 5 seasons as Arsenal just can’t .seem to grind out results in the crucial period of the season. They were dealt their final .blow last weekend when they went down 2-1 to Bolton and ultimately surrendered their .title chase.
Man United are in contention for a double this season as they remain the front runners in the league and are in the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League. Sir Alex Ferguson has proved once again that he doesn’t need the most devastating players to produce a team that will challenge for the title. In an exclusive interview Sir Alex accepted that this current squad is not one of the strongest his had in recent years but yet he has managed to keep them in contention for their record 19th English title. Man United have not been the dominant force in recent terms and many football fanatics wrote them off in this title race, claiming they just didn’t look strong enough and lacked depth within the team. As things stand Man United just need 7 points out of their last 4 fixtures to secure the title. Club captain Nemanja Vidić stated that this current crop of players might not be the most talented compared to previous squads, but one thing remains certain is that each and every player has that winning mentality and hunger.
This will be a heated encounter as it always is between these two fierce rivals. Arsenal have pride to play for whereas Man United will be out to gather the 3 points to help them edge towards their 19th English title. It will be difficult to separate these two. The draw is the favoured outcome.
