Arsene Wenger Deserves Credit

When Arsenal drew the game against Tottenham Hotspur and especially after losing the game against Stoke City, many fans felt low and hurt. To criticize Arsene Wenger was a knee jerk reaction and was natural. 

Now that Arsenal have beaten Manchester United, it's time to give credit to the man.

Here's a man who has given his all for the club, for football and he had to sit at a press conference before a huge game and answer questions about him leaving Arsenal. There were some Arsenal fans saying that Wenger should leave.

I wonder what they're saying now.

Whether Arsenal deserved to win or not is in my opinion, a moot point. As Cesc Fabregas said in his column in the Sun, the result was of utmost importance - if we did that playing good football, it was only a bonus.

That said, this was a game which was of the highest quality. Both the teams seemed to want to play the game in the right spirit and it was fast paced one at that. 

This game was simply the best advertisement for the English Premier League.

Arsenal certainly were helped by Theo Walcott coming back and William Gallas was also quite superb at the back. He held the team together and every single player on the pitch today gave it his all. As an Arsenal fan, I couldn't have asked for more.

Mikael Silvestre was one of the bravest players on the pitch - playing with a broken nose against his former club musn't have been easy, but he handled all the pressure manfully. 

People were questioning Cesc Fabregas' body language in the game against Fenerbahce. I have one question for every single one of them - what will you tell me about Cesc after today's game?

Arsene Wenger was criticized for not replacing Alexander Hleb and Mathieu Flamini. I still stand by the fact that he should have found a replacement for the latter, but Alexander Hleb has not been missed by Arsenal. I'm not all that sure if he would have taken the two goals the way Samir Nasri did. 

Nasri had a superb game, showing that he has a tremendous upper body strength and more importantly—an eye for goal. His second goal in particular was a brilliant team goal, starting from Diaby on the right side of the pitch to the goal itself, which was a brilliant finish.

Manchester United also played some superb football. What surprised me the most is that the likes of Michael Carrick and Gary Neville didn't get in Arsenal's faces early in the game. Manchester United allowed Arsenal to play their passing game and made the game quite open.

But the fact that Wayne Rooney was taken off after 76 minutes in his current form just speaks volumes about the way Arsenal handled him. He had a few chances, but overall his impact on the game was not what Manchester United fans would remember. Cristiano Ronaldo was decent in patches as well, but never imposed himself on the game.

After the tense finale though, one question will be lingering in every Arsenal fan's mind:

Has the team learnt from its mistakes? 

Possibly not. Not a single player wanted to take the ball to the corner flag and hold the ball up. Even for the Manchester United goal, Alexandre Song could've simply put his boot through the ball instead of passing the ball tamely when the team was under pressure.

But people will not bring that up now because Arsenal have won.

This is what should have happened in the game against Tottenham. What happened that night was a freak story—it rarely ever happens in football. Tottenham have since shocked Liverpool by scoring a goal in injury time - so I suppose that things should now be put in perspective.

Before the game, I heard the buffoons on ESPN-Star talk nonsense. Their coverage was Manchester United centric, and if anything—they spoke about Arsenal as if they were from one division below Manchester United.

It was appalling—I'd like to see the faces of those pundits now. 

This game was without a doubt one of the best I've witnessed in awhile. The credit must also go to Howard Webb, who despite making a couple of mistakes, seemed to have a handle on the game.

When a game is played at such a high tempo, refereeing becomes very difficult—I'm sure that Sir Alex Ferguson might complain about some of his decisions, but Arsenal deserved a penalty themselves.

At the end of all this, I feel happy that Arsene Wenger has been vindicated in a certain sense. All the idiots who called for his head should hang their heads in shame because they are simply a disgrace.

I'll be interested to see what the press makes of all this - don't be surprised to see "spineless" Arsenal become "heroes." 

And after all the criticism against the man, Arsene Wenger might be called a "genius" for "masterminding" the victory over Manchester United.