Silencing The Guns

If you are a football fan worth your salt you can probably guess the team I am referring to from the bad pun in the title of my post. Anyhow, it is once again FA Cup weekend, and Manchester United have continued their appaling luck by drawing Arsenal in the fourth round (after beating Aston Villa in another tough draw the previous round). It somehow seems a bit criminal that the two most successful teams in FA Cup history (21 wins and 35 finals appearances between them) should meet in the fourth round instead of later on, but that is part of the beauty of the FA Cup.

There have been a number of really cracking FA Cup ties between these clubs. The two that spring immediately to mind are the fantastic semi-final replay in 1999 when Manchester United went on to win their famous treble. That match had everything. Roy Keane getting sent off for two bookable offences, Schmeichel saving Bergkamp's penalty in the last minute of time and of course who can forget the Ryan Giggs wonder goal as he dribbled past half the Arsenal team from the half way line to put United into the final?

The other one that springs to mind is still a bitter memory for any United fan. It was the 2005 FA Cup final when Arsenal stole the trophy on penalties after United had them under the kosh for almost the full 120 minutes with Wayne Rooney particularly fantastic. United hit the bar, the post, and had 20 odd shots on goal but couldn't score. And Paul Scholes missed the penalty.

There was a little less drama this time around, as United demolished Arsenal 4-0 with goals from Rooney, Fletcher (twice) and Nani despite resting Cristiano Ronaldo. Both teams rested a number of key players, with Arsenal leaving Adebayor on the bench. Arsenal were poor, but give full credit to United - they played very well. This underlines how important Rooney is to United (more so than even Ronaldo is in my opinion). He adds a real drive and passion to the side that Roy Keane used to give them. It is no surprise that United have not lost a match this season with Rooney in the side.

The real player of the match for me was Nani who put in a superb disply. He may not have as much speed and acceleration as Ronaldo, but he may well be a more consistent and accurate crosser as evidenced by today's display. Given time to mature, I have little doubt that he will turn out to be quite a useful player indeed. It will be quite frightening for any team to have to face Nani/Ronaldo on the flanks. Anderson once again proved himself to be heir to Paul Scholes with his intelligent movement off the ball.

In other matches, Barnsley pulled off a thrilling giant-killing win over Liverpool at Anfield with an injury time winner (just seconds after a very good penalty appeal was turned down). It was truly a fairytale win for Barnsley and what added to it was the fantastic performance of goalkeeper Luke Steele in his Barnsley debut. In fact, Steele had only been signed in an emergency loan from WBA at the last minute after Barnsley's other keepers had been ruled out injured or cup-tied. It was perhaps all too fitting that Steele proved to be Liverpool's nemesis. After all, he was a former Man Utd player, United having signed him as an 18 year old prospect before selling him to WBA after the emergence of Ben Foster and the main United goalkeeping prospect.