The Magnificent Anderson

The Mangnificent Ambersons was a great film by Orson Welles, The Magnificent Anderson is equally theatrical and full of innovation. Ba-doom Tsch.

United played Arsenal at the Emirates on Saturday, and, as I expected, Fergie sent out his team with a bit of caution about them. Hargreaves and Anderson played deep, hustling and harrying the opposition. Anderson was impressive for a man so young, in a high profile game and after only a few games for United. His play-acting though, was shameful. He could have had a few yellow cards, he got the merest flick on the ball before engineering a foul from Fabregas and rolling dramatically across the turf, and he waved an imaginary yellow card in front of the ref.

All in all not a good show from the Brazilian, but I expect Ferguson to sit him down, a la Ronaldo, and tell him to cut the shit out.

Back to the game - it was interesting, but never a classic as we had hoped. The first half trundled along with United's tactics doing the job against the one man up front, Adebayor. Hleb, so lauded recently against Liverpool, was missing, while Rosicky and Eboue in midfield offered little. Flamini doesn't look particularly impressive as the nominal holding midfielder, but his distribution is good. Gilberto has been marginalised so far this season, but I would expect him to have a bigger role to play.

The second have livened up a lot, Arsenal kept the ball superbly but, arguably, it was United who had the better chances - Rooney certainly should have scored with a header. Ronaldo, despite doing almost nothing for the entire match, has done a bit to throw off his 'big game bottler' tag, by setting up Rooney to score, and by tapping in Evra's pass. Giggs had another poor game, and Nani surely should have replaced him as the second half wore on. Tevez was pretty terrible, and Saha made much more impact in his short time on the pitch.

Wenger left his changes til late, but Eduardo and Walcott didn't convince. Gallas made up for his own goal (and some poor defending aside) to lash home the equaliser.

So Arsenal passed the test, they have great team spirit, great skill and a great manager. For United, however, they have left the Emirates disappointed at getting a draw, and not many teams will feel like that this season.

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Chris Hutchings has been sacked, which came as surprise to nobody. He won only two of his 14 matches in charge, which is reminiscent of his time at Bradford, where he won one game in 12. Dave Whelan, the Wigan Chairman said "Chris has worked very hard since becoming manager and I cannot fault his effort and commitment to the cause. "

Well, I wouldn't like to see the results if he wasn't trying. Titus Bramble must be shedding a tear that his mentor is gone. Looks like he'll never get that England place now....

Mark,

http://www.okeydokefootball.com/