Manchester United 8-2 Arsenal

The way pre-season went and the first couple of games have gone, my excitement levels have steadily risen. I have been waiting for us to start giving teams a drubbing, especially at home, but not in my wildest imagination did i expect us to give it to Arsenal and for us to get eight.
Mind you when i saw their teamsheet the 6-1 performance where Yorke got a hatrick did go through my mind. As good as United were, and i don't buy this, they weren't that good, Arsenal were diabolical, and the buck does lie with Wenger. The lack of a spine in that team has been apparent for a couple of seasons now, United just mercilessly exposed it.
United looked sharp right from the off, but there was no hint of the massacre to come. The first goal came from a cute chip from Anderson that the vistors defence couldn't deal with and Welbeck headed home his second of the season. Evans who was excellent again blotted his copybook for the day when he gave a penalty away, but i don't know why, i always felt De Gea would save it and save it, he did. I knew he had a pretty good record in Spain but it wasn't the best attempt from Van Persie. Within minutes Arenal were rueing the miss as Ashley Young hit the first of two absolute blinders, the doubters have well and truly been silenced, he is proving to be an excellent acqusition.
As if the second wasn't good enough, the magnificent Rooney then added a third with a tremendous free kick from the edge of the box. From that moment i knew there would be more goals in the second half, it was just a question of how many. Arsenal managed to get one back at the end of the half where United's defence went to sleep, but i am not going to moan about shipping in two softish goals when we score eight at the other end. The only negative from a cracking first half was the loss of Welbeck to a torn hamstring, he has been a big part of United's great start to the season.
The gooners played their best football of the game for the first ten minutes of the second half as some fans as mad as it seems now started to worry they were getting back into the game. Rooney's second a free kick even better than the first knocked that on the head. Minutes later another sweeping United move cut the vistors defence to ribbons again to leave Nani to chip nonchantly over the oncoming szczesny to make it five. The floodgates had now opened, every time United went forward we looked as if we might score.
It can't have been nice for Arsenal to then see Giggs and Park come on and it took the South Korean just two minutes to get on the scoresheet to make it 6-1. There was no thought of defence from United which was typified from the sight of right back Smalling bringing to ball forward only to see centre half Jones overlapping him, attack, attack attack, i fucking loved it. Unfortunately the next goal came the other way and it was another soft one, Van Persie making no mistake.
Rooney collected his hatrick from the penalty spot after Evra had been brought down, Arsenal youngster Jenkinson was sent off after bringing down Hernandez when through on goal and Ashley Young scored a second unstoppable right footed shot in injury time to make it eight. The hatrick could have been even more spectacular if a chip from outside the area hadn't have hit the bar, that would have been just perfect. It was the kind of game you will remember for years to come, brilliane goals and marvellous football. It will be no consolation to Arsenal but that will not be the last drubbing seen at Old trafford this season.
The goalscorers will get all the headlines and rightly so but i must mention Cleverley he gave another superb performance in the middle of the park, he is such a clever footballer. Smalling was immense at right back, i still see him as a future centre half but it's nice to have another string to your bow, he might even be the best right back at the club now. All in all, i'm not sure i have ever been as excited as i am about the current United squad.

Richard Williams looks at the revival of Wayne Rooney after Sunday's virtuoso display against the Arsenal. I did my best not to mention City's victory at Tottenham which was probably almost as impressive as ours, though Spurs were almost as bad as Arsenal, but james Lawton looks at the footballing renaissance in Manchester. He really means at City.
Tim Rich looks at Ferguson's faith in this younger generation, dsecribing 8-2 as a youth team scoreline. Alan Smith gives us five reasons for Arsenal's decline after Sunday's mauling brought thw world evidence of how far they have slipped behind. The bit about Wenger not being a coach stands out, the great Arsene, not a coach after the eulogies his press acolytes have bulshitted us with so long and that from one of Arsenal's stalwarts. Strong stuff.
Lee Dixon argues that Fergie knows that you must mix youth with experience and wonders why Wenger doesn't seem to get that. His ex players aren't exactly standing up for him. Mark Ogden continues the generation game theory and argues it is behind Fergie's continued success.

It will be interesting to see how many reds get into Capello's starting line up on Friday as Smalling and Jones get promoted from the under 21's. What a pity Welbeck got injured, even if he hadn't of started i think he would definitely have been brought on. Of course Fergie doesn't have much time for the FA still, though i'm not really sure why he brought that up on Friday, he usually has a reason to bring a subject up when he does, but it doesn't really stand out in this case.

The Mail are running some titbits from Gary Neville's upcoming autobiography, sounds interesting. I wasn't totally suprised to hear that Fergie had ended his seven year boycott of the BBC, but was about how low key the announcement was and the lack of explanation of how it came about.
The People run with the real story behind Nasri's departure from Arsenal, not very edifying, and i think United eventually did the right thing, but he is a good player and he will improve City unfortunately.
Andrew Cole reveals that money is not the best motivation for footballing success, but that some footballers are quite happy to sit on the bench and count the money.

Juan Mata's move to Chelsea doesn't bode well for La Liga writes Sid Lowe. The one club besides the big two that did spend were Malaga, using their newly dound Qatari money, ex red Ruud Van Nistelroy says they are rebuilding with "care and vision".

Charles Moore who i despised during his editorship of the torygraph is fast becoming a must read at the moment, here he describes why Britain shouldn't feel guilty about the part we played in ousting Gaddafi.

The Economist argues that Bernanke has played for time with his Jackson hole speech, or crossed his fingers and hoped for the best. Karl Marx is resurrected again this time by UBS economic advisor George Magnus, who argues that policymakers should be studying their Marx as he argues we face a once in a lifetime crisis of capitalism.

John Kampfner comments that it's about time that the argument that the wealthy should pay more tax should gain ground and wonders why it has taken so long. The British treasury have followed the Germans in agreeing a deal with the Swiss authorities to recoup unpaid cash garnered from British tax evasion in the country.
The Spectator's David Blackburn argues that the deal makes the idea of Britain following Switzerland's lead as an ultra low tax economy looks optimistic. Richard Murphy is not impressed, arguing there can be no other explanation for the deal than that Cameron and Osborne support tax evasion, read further blogs for even more trenchant views.

Goldman sachs is facing the heat in the States over its machinations before and during the crisis of 2008 as a legal crisis looms.

Mark Kermode goes to town over big budget productions and the cynical rejection of intelligent movies.

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