{"id":3178,"date":"2021-12-02T14:46:25","date_gmt":"2021-12-02T14:46:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uncensoredarsenal.com\/?p=3178"},"modified":"2021-12-02T14:46:25","modified_gmt":"2021-12-02T14:46:25","slug":"optimistic-arsenal-versus-underachieving-man-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uncensoredarsenal.com\/index.php\/optimistic-arsenal-versus-underachieving-man-united\/","title":{"rendered":"Optimistic Arsenal Versus Underachieving Man United"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3181\" style=\"width: 670px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3181\" class=\"wp-image-3181\" src=\"https:\/\/uncensoredarsenal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ManUtd-v-ARS-1-300x169.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"660\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uncensoredarsenal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ManUtd-v-ARS-1-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/uncensoredarsenal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ManUtd-v-ARS-1-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/uncensoredarsenal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ManUtd-v-ARS-1-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/uncensoredarsenal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ManUtd-v-ARS-1-2048x1152.png 2048w, https:\/\/uncensoredarsenal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/ManUtd-v-ARS-1-610x343.png 610w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 660px) 100vw, 660px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3181\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><em><strong>Match preview by Shard aka @ShardGooner<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/div>\n<p>To Old Trafford to play the old enemy. Both clubs aren\u2019t where most of us believe they ought to be and that makes it an intriguing battle.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>ManU of course decided they needed a change because their targets were more oriented to a title challenge.<\/li>\n<li>Arsenal meanwhile are without clear targets but with more optimism especially in view of our league position. Suddenly top 4 seems more of a possibility again.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I would urge caution though as I still feel we\u2019re underperforming and even our results are not spectacular. In fact, when compared to last season, we\u2019re still 3 points (and 7 goals scored) worse off in the same fixtures. Still, confidence is a wonderful thing and for the most part the players have good reason to be so. Just as long as we can keep improving, there really can\u2019t be much to complain about.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of complaints, Cristiano Ronaldo didn\u2019t like the fact that Messi won his 7th Balon D\u2019Or. I suppose it makes for good theatre, but the only relevance I feel it has is that the 36 year-old Portuguese might want to take out his frustrations on us. He\u2019s clearly no longer the player he was, but his killer instinct remains intact. Ramsdale\u2019s jibe about wanting to face him at his best will probably egg him on further. Is that fear I feel? Probably. But not so much about Ronaldo as about our approach.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Attack is concerning<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I will say we are generally ok in defending on transitions these days. I\u2019m not entirely convinced we\u2019re a great defensive team. In fact I\u2019m sure we\u2019re not. But my real concern is our attack. Aubameyang it seems is no longer a fan favorite but I bear no grudge against him for his misses. He is that sort of player. But give him enough chances and he\u2019s a 30 goal a season striker. Even if he\u2019s aging, I believe he\u2019s still got much more a threat than we\u2019re allowing him to pose. After all, he gets praised for bringing energy to his defensive game more than scoring.<\/p>\n<p>Martinelli\u2019s finish was at the opposite end of the spectrum as Auba\u2019s miss and that\u2019s led to people remembering he\u2019s still alive and now they want him to start. Arteta was clear as mud when he replied to a question about him, but it would be quite a statement to drop Auba. So much so that I don\u2019t think Mikel will do it. Not sure he needs to either. But we need to start showing much more verve in our attack and not just aim for precision.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Challenge is great but the rewards are greater<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>A victory away at ManU is a rare thing but will be much cherished. Of course we did win there last season but this will be a different challenge, especially with them preparing for a new manager to come in. He won\u2019t be on the bench but Rangnick may well have an impact already.<\/p>\n<p>A win sees us move ahead of West Ham and into the top 4. A draw will keep us in 5<sup>th<\/sup>, at least for now, while ManU, languishing in 10th and 5 points behind us will be looking to close that gap.<\/p>\n<p>Really, any of 5 or 6 clubs behind the front 3 could imagine themselves with a chance of playing CL football next season. I hope we\u2019re excited and up for the challenge and have the consistency and the quality to get there. Still a long way to go in the season but this busy schedule is where we could gain the advantage from playing fewer games than our rivals.<\/p>\n<p>As I write this (apologies for the delay) I find myself more and more excited at the prospect of playing against ManU. Maybe it\u2019s all the recent Wenger talk, or maybe something about both teams being in a sort of shoot-out (for the CL spots if not the title) but my blood is up for this rivalry.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s go and win this. May the spirit of Wiltooooooooord guide us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Match preview by Shard aka @ShardGooner To Old Trafford to play the old enemy. Both clubs aren\u2019t where most of us believe they ought to be and that makes it an intriguing battle. ManU of course decided they needed a change because their targets were more oriented to a title&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[429,43,25,26],"tags":[24,160,211,464],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uncensoredarsenal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3178"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uncensoredarsenal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uncensoredarsenal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uncensoredarsenal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uncensoredarsenal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3178"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/uncensoredarsenal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3178\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3182,"href":"https:\/\/uncensoredarsenal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3178\/revisions\/3182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uncensoredarsenal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uncensoredarsenal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uncensoredarsenal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}