Arsenal's Win over Manchester United Shows That the Gap Between Them Is Small

At one point this match was billed as the title decider. Many felt that the Arsenal vs Manchester United clash at the Emirates stadium would decide who would lift the Premier League but Arsenal’s shocking form has seen them slip up to third and heading to this clash, the Gunners sat nine points behind United with just a mathematical chance to win the league.

At the end of Arsenal’s first win against Manchester United in the last eight attempts, it was Chelsea who were handed a huge lifeline in the title race. Arsenal’s win over Manchester United ensures that Chelsea’s clash with United at Old Trafford next week will surely decide if Manchester United scrap home to win the league or if Chelsea can pull off a ridiculous comeback to seal the title.

This was a welcome win for Arsene Wenger and his side that has come under severe criticism in recent weeks as they failed to capitalize on United’s slip ups and ended up throwing away the league when they had a great chance to win the league.

Prior to the start of the match Wenger insisted that the gap between the two sides was small and he was sure that his Arsenal side had closed the gap on Manchester United this season. On the back of Sunday’s assured performance, Arsene Wenger was proved right as the Gunners finally stepped up to the task and put in a clinical performance that oozed with class and maturity.

The win will put to bed for now at least the rising anger among Arsenal fans regarding Arsenal’s failure to capture a title for six years now. With Cesc Fabregas out injured, Wenger was forced to bring in Aaron Ramsey and he justified his selection with a superb finish to win the game for Arsenal. With Ramsey starting this was Arsenal’s youngest side to start in the Premier League with an average age of just 23 years and 296 days.

This victory will be a bittersweet one for Wenger as it once again showed how close his side was to the league trophy as they put in a performance that epitomized those put in by champions as a firing Manchester United side was largely subdued mainly due to the efficient shift put in by Arsenal’s defenders and Alex Song in particular. But right now Wenger can be proud of his boys as they beat arch rivals Manchester United.

Wenger’s pre match claims that the two teams were close to each other in terms of quality was proved right as Manchester United choked when they had a great chance of virtually wrapping up the league.

In recent weeks the criticism that Arsenal and Wenger has faced has been overwhelming and this victory will affirm the fact that the talk about Arsenal’s demise has been exaggerated and the positives to take away from this eventful season are many.

Manchester United’s scintillating European form has masked their ordinary league form and with United looking to strengthen their squad with some big money signings this summer many felt that Arsenal would be left far behind the Red Devils.

On the table the gap between the teams has been reduced to six points and it could have been so much lesser had Arsenal held onto leads against the likes of Tottenham, Liverpool and Newcastle.

Manchester United under Sir Alex Ferguson have developed a winning mentality that has allowed them to snatch victories on several occasions. Their ability to pull off stunning victories has often resulted in the media in painting several rosy pictures of their brilliance and this combined with Arsenal’s poor form  in recent months has left some Arsenal fans and neutrals feeling that the current crop of Arsenal players are far inferior to Ferguson’s side.

But in reality the gap between the sides has never been smaller in the last five years and Sunday’s win just showed the potential of this Arsenal side. One reason why we sometimes get the feeling that Arsenal are far behind teams like Manchester United and Chelsea is the common tendency to overplay Arsenal’s faults and the common tendency to paint pictures that indicate gloom and doom for the Gunners when a few results go against them.

This season when it comes solely to quality there is hardly anything to separate United and Arsenal. Arsenal have one of the league’s most talented midfields and attacking line ups and on their day can wreck havoc against any team as demonstrated against Chelsea, Barcelona and now, Manchester United. While Manchester United may have a better defense right now, a fully fit Arsenal defense is far better than people give them credit for and Arsenal’s first team is more than a match for United’s line up.

But as a whole Arsenal have improved massively over the last year with key players like Song, Wilshere, Sagna and van Persie improving tremendously. Arsenal’s defense too has improved over the past year with Djourou and Koscielny at the heart of it. Arsenal’s fantastic away record and their ability to deal with injuries better is testimony to their massive improvement.

The only reason United may edge out their competitors is because of their mentality as mentioned above. It is largely due to their ability to produce wins from improbable situations that has seen them go to the top of the summit.

Arsenal’s critics have been quick to jump on the fact that Arsenal win when the pressure is off them and Arsenal’s win over United hardly proves anything. But let us not forget that considering it is also said that United are at their best when the pressure is on them and considering the fact that Chelsea had won the previous day, the pressure was indeed on them to notch up a victory at the Emirates. And they failed to do so as they were outclassed by Arsenal and ended up losing deservedly.

In Arsenal’s last seven games against United they have lost six and drawn just the one, scoring a paltry three but conceding a poor 13 along the way. They finally ended that poor run of results with a win. Going into the team, United were in great form with the attacking duo of Wayne Rooney and Javier Hernandez being close to unplayable in recent weeks. In recent weeks many teams have been crushed under the collective force of Rooney and Hernandez, just ask Chelsea and Schalke. But Arsenal were supremely successful in stifling their attack with Alex Song showing the rest how to keep Rooney silent as the Englishman struggled to leave his mark on the game.

In recent times Arsenal have piled on aimlessly against United, throwing caution to the wind and leaving themselves exposed to the ruthless counter attacking play of United.

But this time it was a much more mature performance as Arsenal played sensibly and kept it extremely neat and tidy especially at the back. A year back, Arsenal would have been ripped apart by United in matches like this but this time the Arsenal we witnessed was a side that showed much more commitment, passion and resilience than given credit for and it showed as they beat United and have reignited the title race albeit for Chelsea this time.

All this shows the progress Wenger has made with this young and developing Arsenal side. In the maze of criticism that has been showered on Arsenal, their faults have been overhyped, making them look poor. But with signings coming in this summer and with players like Jack Wilshere, Wojciech Szczesny and several loan players gaining valuable experience, Arsenal are bound to improve this summer.

 Arsenal this season have been ravaged by injuries as usual but most importantly they missed their defensive leader, Thomas Vermaelen for the entire season, an injury that proved devastatingly costly as Johan Djourou too struggled with injuries and Sebastian Squillaci proved to be a poor signing.

But despite some harsh refereeing decisions going against them the Gunners battled hard for the title and were in the title race until couple of weeks back as they began to collapse.

But despite these disappointments and setbacks the Gunners have performed admirably this season.

Arsenal were in the thick of things for large parts of the season and until the last two weeks represented the best chance of preventing United from winning the league.

This season represented Arsenal’s best chance in recent memory to pip United to the title but they failed towards the end of the season but at the end of the day, Arsenal are extremely close to United and expect them to continue their progress next season.