It was a great day to show appreciation to the only Arsenal manager all my friends that support the club know. It was Arsene Wenger’s 60th and final game in charge of Arsenal against Manchester United since he took charge of the team in 1996. The French man who brings his 22 year association with Arsenal to a close at the end of the season had enjoyed one of the league’s biggest rivalry especially when the great Sir Alex Ferguson was still at the helm for United.
Despite Manchester United being ahead in the Manchester United versus Arsenal series, the Gunners found joy in winning the Premier League twice of the three titles they have won so far on United’s turf (1998 and 2002).
This was a game I was 70% sure United would win and this was because Arsene Wenger was likely to rest some key players for the more important Europa League semi-final tie against Atletico Madrid on Thursday night. The Gunners had played a 1 all draw with the Spanish based side at their Emirates Stadium making it an uphill task for them as Atletico barely lose or hardly concede goals at home.
Manchester United versus Arsenal was always the game to look out for before the other money bags decided to invest in the English Premier League making it more competitive and interesting for the neutrals. Before kick-off Sir Alex presented Arsene Wenger with a gift and I am sure Arsenal fans were also expecting the United lads to lose the game as some sort of sendforth for their manager.
As expected Messr Wenger fielded a relatively inexperienced side with an average of about 24 years and the 8-2 annihilation the Red Devils meted to the Gunners in August of 2011 came straight to mind. I just relaxed sipping my Goldberg as the game went on. I was not going to wait for too long before Paul Pogba gave the Red Devils the lead. It was a 16th minute goal in a United dominated spell though the young Gunners kept us on our toes a few times with a couple of penalty claims to show for their effort. The Red Devils led 1 nil at half time.
The Gunners equalized 6 minutes after the 2nd half kicked off through former Man Utd player Henrik Mkhitaryan. This made him the first player to score for and against the Red Devils in the same season. The game wore on and it looked liked it was going to end in a stalemate which would have been a good sendforth for Arsene Wenger.
IMaroune Fellaini had ideas of his own, the gangling Belgian leaped above Konstantinos Mavropanos to nod home a 91st minute winner for Man Utd. He probably wanted it to be on record that he scored the winner in what was Arsene Wenger’s last game against United at Old Trafford.
The game ended 2-1 and Victor Lindeldof was the obvious man of the match for me. He put in a stellar performance.
The victory sealed Manchester United’s position in the top 4 of the Premier League which guarantees them a spot in next season’s Champions League even if they lose their last 3 league games this season.
Au revoir Messr Wenger and all the best for the future.
Have a fab week ahead guys………….. BLESS !!!
