Ji-Sung Park once again sunk Arsenal as Manchester United went back to the top of the Premier League. Park’s fourth goal in seven starts against the Gunners decided the Old Trafford showdown.
Park plays in all the big games for United and they will miss him when he heads off to the Asian Cup in Qatar after the Boxing Day fixture with Sunderland. Park is expected to miss 7 United games.
United boss Alex Ferguson was understandably delighted with the result.
“We had to play well. In these major games you want to perform. We did that, especially in the first half. You have to play well against Arsenal. But we have been playing well and this was very good. Arsenal came into it in the second half and pegged us back a bit but they did not create many good chances.”
The score should have been worse for Arsenal as Wayne Rooney did his best Jonny Wilkinson impression and skyed a second-half penalty high into the Stetford End.
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger put their defeat down to United’s defending and a bad pitch.
“We gave everything. Both teams were well organised. The intensity was very high on a very bad pitch. The technical quality suffered from the pitch. Both sides made technical mistakes. Our passing was not quick and sharp because of the pitch. We lost a game, which can happen here. You have to give credit to Manchester United’s defensive qualities. They defended very well. We tried very hard and gave everything to create chances. I have to take a lot of encouragement from this game.”
Wenger can blame the pitch, but once again his Arsenal team failed to show up for a game against their biggest title rivals. In their last ten games against Chelsea and Manchester United, Arsenal’s record is 0-9-1. That is not the form on title contenders.
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