man united vs arsenal : 1715 hr uk time 29 aug

By Myles Palmer

 

He was gutted when that goal went in.

Arsenal were 5-0 up in aggregate against Celtic in injury time and Thomas Vermaelen threw his body at a shot by Scott McDonald, just as Steve Bould, Lee Dixon and Tony Adams used to do. Just as Nigel Winterburn used to do.

The ball hit Vermaelen and rebounded to a Celtic player who crossed beyond the far post and an Italian scored a late consolation goal with a volley across a Spaniard that went in off the post.

As Donati's shot went in, Vermaelen threw his arms up in despair. His legs buckled. He was so disappointed. His face expressed real pain.

Body language tells me more than quotes tell me. Vermaelen's body language said it all. That irrelevant goal was not irrelevant to him because a true defender takes pride in keeping a clean sheet. That's his job. That's his raison d'etre.

To guys like him, success is walking off the field having conceded nil. In that, he's like Martin Keown. He takes pride in what he's doing.

Last season, being impressed by Kompany and Fellaini, I said that Wenger should sign a couple big Belgians.

He signed Vermaelen for £10m which might be £8m plus add-ons.

The Belgian has made a difference. He has revived Gallas, who is playing like a 23-year old. Sagna has improved too.

Now Vermaelen can test himself against Rooney and Berbatov.

So that's how I view this game : It's Gallas and Vermaelen against Rooney and Berbatov at 5.15 and it's the first game of the season. It's the 29th day of August and the first game is worth 10 points.

If Arsenal win, it's worth ten points in confidence. But if they get battered it will cost them 10 points in confidence.

Right now, Wayne Rooney is fit and buzzing and full of bright ideas. He's in the middle and leading the charge.

He once said, "I think of myself as a centre forward." Personally, I thought of Rooney as a No.10 who could do a bit of everything. Lately, post-Cristiano, he has been narrower, further forward, more specialised. And he's worked on his heading.

Vermaelen says, "We will see how it goes against him. It will be my first time playing against Wayne Rooney but I am not nervous. You have to look forward to playing these kind of games and against players like him. For me it is nice to play against United. They are a good team. They sold Cristiano Ronaldo but they still have very good players. When I saw them last year, they played very well as a team and that is very important.

"In Arsenal, if you play in the Premier League every game is a hard game. In Holland sometimes you had a game at home and it was easy. But here you have to fight hard in every game and you look forward to each match but Saturday is a special game.

"Manchester United is the biggest game of the season for us and it will be a good test for us. It is a difficult game. We have played on Wednesday and they have had a free week. It's just the start but there are a lot of games to come for me and for Arsenal. The team is helping me to adapt here and I think it is going well so far.

"It is too early to say how well we will do. We have had a good start but the most difficult thing is to maintain the start we have made in these four games."

FABREGAS has a fitness test today.

If he fails it, Wenger won't play 4-3-3 and he might not play 4-3-3 anyway. If Cristiano was still there, definitely wouldn't dare to play 4-3-1 at Old Trafford.

If Sir Alex is worried about Arshavin on the left, he will deploy O'Shea and Fletcher on that side. Or O'Shea and Park. 

Berbatov now has to prove that Sir Alex was right to spend £31.5 million on him. He has to show he's not a luxury flop like Veron.

Getting in the box far more, getting his feet trampled on, flicking the ball with bodies round him, Berbatov is trying to supply artistry in the combat zone.

I'm really looking forward to the game. Sometimes these clashes seem to come too early. But this old beatnik is up for this one. Bring it on ! Let's see how good Arsenal are. Let's find out how good Man United are without the one-man army we called Cristiano Ronaldo.

 

Aug 28, 2009