From The Times:
(I particularly enjoy the use of the phrase "total implosion" to describe Arsenal's performance - not that I'm a sadist, or anything.
Arsenal outgunned by United
Jonathan Northcroft at Old Trafford Arsene Wenger arrived with a weakened side and left with his team weakened. In life, it can take years for the psychological impact of trauma to be revealed. In football, timespans are always shorter and we will know by the end of the season what this result has done to Arsenal. In prime position to win the Premier League title and with serious aspirations in the Champions League, exiting the FA Cup will not matter too much to them too much in itself but the scale of the defeat and the way it came about was potentially brutalising. United believed that by eliminating Arsenal from the cup they could plant doubt in their minds that could be key to overhauling them in the league; now we will see.
Of course Wenger’s men might recover —– they did, impressively, after being hammered by Tottenham in the Carling Cup — but, for 90 minutes at least, their implosion was total. United, on the other hand, were unstoppable — as good as they had been when destroying Newcastle 6-0 here, if not better. A symbol of the game came when, with his team 4-0 up, Nani ran 30 yards, keeping the ball up with his head. It was a gesture which did nothing to dispel William Gallas’s suggestion United can be “arrogant” but it was also wounding in the extreme. Justin Hoyte, who Nani had tortured all match, lashed out at the winger and Matthieu Flamini steamed in with a tackle that might have caused an amputation had Nani not jumped out of its way.
Minutes earlier he had created United’s final goal, dancing past poor Hoyte to cross to the back post, where Darren Fletcher claimed his second, with an emphatic header. It was the Scot’s best club performance in years and even then he did not make the top five of United performers. The best, Anderson, was substituted to a standing ovation. When else has the arrival of Paul Scholes on a pitch ever weakened a side?
“It’s another Manchester United versus Arsenal game; fasten your seatbelts,” Sir Alex Ferguson had said. Wenger appeared to agree — in as much as the principle of “safety first” guided his team selection.
Already missing eight players through illness and injury, and a ninth, Bacary Sagna, because of a bereavement, Wenger decided that with a Champions League tied versus AC Milan approaching on Wednesday, he would not risk Gael Clichy, who had a hamstring problem, or Emmanuel Adebayor, who had aggravated a muscle strain. Both were on the bench.
United rested Cristiano Ronaldo but they barely missed their top scorer. Arsenal, in contrast, badly needed Adebayor. By half-time United were three up, it could have been double that, and memories were turning to the 6-1 thrashing of these opponents at Old Trafford in 2001.
A major difference for United was Wayne Rooney being back and the England striker began he rout. He had already been through on goal, only for Jens Lehmann to beat him to the ball, and Anderson had menaced the German with a volley, before the first goal arrived, from a Nani corner. Nicklas Bendtner cleared, Anderson won a header to send the ball back into the six-yard box. Rooney rose ahead of Armand Traore and sent the ball skimming off his crown into the net. It was his first home goal since November and the celebration told of pent-up frustration as Rooney right-hooked the air and booted the corner flag.
Three minutes later, a game Arsenal’s striker, Eduardo, had looked forward to as a “classico”, had become a training exercise. Nani, doing his best Ronaldo impression, cruised past Hoyte and reached the byline, turned back, and crossed. In the six yard box, spindly Darren Fletcher out-muscled the strapping Gallas to score and that said all that was needed about the respective appetites of the sides.
Patrice Evra blocked an Alex Hleb volley and that was about it. Ferguson’s tyros kept finding new levels of enjoyment. There was Nani, switching wings constantly, unable to decide whether he preferred victising Hoyte, or Traore. There was Anderson, playing passes while looking the other way. At the centre was Rooney, who went close with a left footed volley and later went for a goal-of-the-season attempt, peeling cleverly away from Hoyte, chesting Fletcher’s cross and going for a first-time half-volley that he miscued. Nani put things beyond doubt in the 38th minute with the pick of the goals. Michael Carrick lobbed a lovely, left-footed pass down the centre and Nani controlled right-footed and slammed the ball beyond Lehmann, left-footed. He celebrated with a back-flip but it was Arsenal whose world was now upside down.
Star man: Anderson (Man Utd)
Player ratings: Manchester Utd: Van der Sar 6, Brown 6, Ferdinand 7, Vidic 7, Evra 7, Fletcher 8, Carrick 7, Anderson 9, Nani 8, Park 6, Rooney 8
Arsenal: Lehmann 6, J Hoyte 3, Gallas 4, Toure 5, Traore 4, Eboue 3, Fabregas 4, Silva 4, Hleb 5, Bendtner 4, Eduardo 5
Scorers: Manchester Utd: Rooney 16, Fletcher 20, 74 Nani 38
Referee: A Wiley Attendance: 76,000 [/i]