Arsenal Are Scared Of Manchester United

If you didn't know already Arsenal have been drawn away to Manchester United in the next round of the FA Cup. You'd be forgiven for thinking the match had already been played and that Arsenal lost at Old Trafford, missing out on the club's best chance of silverware this year, given the reaction to the draw. 

Truth is, I'm not overly confident myself. It's almost like Old Trafford and Manchester United has become a psychological barrier that Arsenal simply cannot overcome. The words themselves do promote a bit of fear, worry and dread. If Arsenal turn up though, get over the "it's Manchester United" hoodoo and play their best they are more than good enough to beat this United side. Honestly.

The last time Arsenal beat Manchester United on their own patch was in 2006. To put into perspective how long ago that was these were the sides that day and where they are now.

Manchester United

Tomasz Kuszczak (currently keeping goal for Wolverhampton Wanderers)
Gary Neville (Retired, second best pundit in the country after Thierry Henry)
Rio Ferdinand (Warms QPR's bench, complains about 1st world problems on Twitter)
Wes Brown (Struggling at Sunderland after struggling at United)
Mikael Silvestre (Just finished a season at Chinnaiyin FC in the Indian Super League)
Darren Fletcher (Now at West Brom. Sh!ts himself a lot)
Paul Scholes (Retired. Michael Owen finds his level of punditry boring)
John O'Shea (See Wes Brown)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Turned out pretty good. Now at Real Madrid)
Wayne Rooney (Now United's holding midfielder, kinda fat, had few a hair transplants)
Louis Saha (Retired)

Arsenal

Jens Lehmann (Retired)
Emmanuel Eboue (At Galatasaray, fans still coming only to see him)
Johan Djourou (Now at Hamburg)
Kolo Toure (Seeing out his career at Liverpool)
William Gallas (Arsenal's worst ever captain has now retired)
Tomas Rosicky (Still at Arsenal. Hasn't aged I think)
Freddie Ljungberg (Retired. No longer has red hair, still hates Man U)
Gilberto Silva (Retired)
Cesc Fabregas (WORKING, nothing more, at Chelsea. Ugh)
Alexander Hleb (Career went rapidly downhill after leaving Arsenal now at Genclerbirligi)
Emmanuel Adebayor (Under a voodoo curse which makes him play crap for Spurs)

Arsenal were unlucky to not beat United at The Emirates earlier in the season, we all know that, their fans even admitted as much. Last season though, United were truly atrocious and yet Arsenal still managed to fail to even take any points away from Old Trafford. Only Arsenal could have their greatest chance to beat United at their place and then fall to flu. The home game last season was particularly annoying because, for reasons I cannot explain, Arsenal refused to really go for the jugular against a vulnerable United side who's defence was easier to beat than the TV times crossword. That psychological hurdle again?? 

Last season was the first time Arsenal finished above Manchester United in the Premier League since the 04/05 season. Last season, as I've mentioned, Arsenal should really have done better against United but before then we probably struggled because, quite simply, they were superior to us. They were a better team, they had better players and Fergie had Wenger's number. I lost count of the amount of times I would see Arsenal dominate possession only to be hit on the break to devastating effect. They're not at that level any more, we need to realise that.

I saw a lot of fans calling it things like the "worst possible draw". Don't get me wrong, it's tough and I'd have much preferred Reading at home but the worst possible draw in my opinion would have been Liverpool at Anfield. It can only be the "Manchester United away" factor that would make Arsenal fans think otherwise. It's been well documented how similiar Van Gaal's record at United is to that of sacked manager David Moyes. If it wasn't for Arsenal, Liverpool and Spurs all being so bad in the first half of this season then I think Louis Van Gaal may have found himself and his tactics notepad in the job centre. The three mentioned teams have all hit quite a good run of form now, playing good, entertaining and, more often than not, convincing football, whilst United continue to struggle and just about stumble over the line. Liverpool away is a much more daunting prospect at this moment in time than United away.

It's said by many that Manchester United are no longer feared by teams in the Premier League. I think there's one team that do. Arsenal. It's time to get over it. We certainly owe them one and I think if you compared man for man Arsenal have better players than Manchester United. We'll be going into this game with an in form Ozil, Cazorla, Alexis and Giroud. Our defence has looked solid recently whilst their's continues to look shakier than a sh*tting dog. Their fans didn't want Arsenal either. There's a reason for that, it's because they know Arsenal are better than them and that if Arsenal let go of the shackles they'll more than likely lose.

Arsenal, let go of the bloody shackles.  

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