That we just ain't nearly good enough. Done in by sheer immaturity in our last grudge match against Chelski, done in this time by a simply insipid performance all round.
And you know what? What was the most damning, the most frustrating, the most unsurprising insipid performance? Cesc Fabregas. Brought on the change the game, take on the captain's arm band, and compared to the 18 year-old he replaced, looked a lacklustre copy of a Barca wannabe. More than 20 minutes to make a difference, and I struggle to remember a time when he even came never the opposing box. Nary a telling pass, with them all going sideways. What the hell Wenger was doing calling upon him again, I do not know.
Another shocker: a limp performance from Arshavin. So surprise, surprise, we failed to deliver anything worthy of Carling Cup semi-finalists in the final third. This was Partizan Belgrade redux, except this time, we did have a top notch defence to deal with.
Nasri? Well, the boy is human. Not a bad performance, and struggled at least to make a difference.
Elsewhere, Szczesny did put on a pretty decent performance. Nothing he could've done about the goal, and save a couple of dodgy clearances, showed himself worthy of a couple of games.
All in all, we do find ourselves in a mental funk.
The league's best away record, up against the league's best home record. And guess what, our fragile spines were the ones to give way.
Dammit. It hurts.
So we've lost five now. Versus Man U's zero. Are we going to be champions? No sir. Man U could probably still afford to go on a rampaging losing streak, and they'd still have room to spare. Scary thing is, they haven't been THAT good, and still, teams like ours have not been able to beat them.
I mean - they had Wayne Rooney, the lousiest, sulkiest, most divisive piece of penalty-missing crap in the league, and still, we could not beat them. Sir Alex must've figured he needed some good charitable karma in leaving Berbatov on the bench, so thanks for that.
Groundhog Day it is. Losing to the top teams again. Ah well.
At least we've got the Carling Cup to look forward to. In the meantime, here's a note to the boss:
1. For fuck's sakes. Once and for all. Leave Cesc out of the squad. He's not been fit, he's not had his head on, he's not been at it since August. Bringing him back unfit, well, that really just screws things up. Give me Wilshere any day of the week.
2. Arshavin. I dunno really. Theo had a weak game too. But I suppose he's the lesser evil. Give the Russian some time on the bench. That'll keep the rabid English nationalists something to crow about too.
3. Brains. The team needs a collective lobotomy. We just need to get that yucky piece of mediocrity out of our system.
For once in a long long time, I actually thought we had a good chance of beating Man U. Bloody naif I am. What was I thinking?
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