Manchester United-Arsenal: United Destroy Arsenal, Enter FA Cup's Last Eight

Manchester United crushed Arsenal in an amazing manner to reach the quarter-finals of the FA Cup on Saturday.

They won 4-0 in a game that never looked like a clash between the numbers one and two in the Premier League.

The reigning Premier League champions exercised early pressure by creating more scoring opportunities than in all their previous three championship games.

Anderson and Nani were just dashing and the Gunners’ defenders were at a loss while trying to stop them.

Wayne Rooney could have put his name on the scoreboard at least three times before he finally put the ball in the net after a quarter of an hour of play. He took advantage of a series of mistakes in Arsenal’s defense and put a header behind the desperate plunge of Jens Lehmann.

Surprisingly, the Gunners could not respond to this challenge in any possible way.

Although they are the only team that has scored in all their Premier League matches, they did not create a single scoring opportunity in the whole game. Instead, United continued to apply the enormous pressure that only a few teams in Europe are capable of creating.

This period very much resembled The Red Devils’ recent game with Tottenham on White Hart Lane when they were trailing by a goal for more than an hour until their fantastic offensive play finally broke the Spurs and they equalized during the added time.

Back to yesterday’s game, United just made it look like a one-team game.

They had all the possession and all the pressure. The inevitable second goal came after a brilliant raid by Nani down the left flank with Fletcher, who lost his place in the first team this season, putting away the header. Even now, the squad from Manchester did not give up humiliating their main rival in the last two decades.

Rooney squandered another opportunity while Nani was everywhere and the Gunners’ defenders seemed to just walk beside him. To crown his great performance, he scored a beautiful left-footed goal when he kicked the ball under Lehmann’s body.

Jens Lehmann, on the other hand, showed why he lost his place in Arsenal’s goal this season. He seemed unable to focus and was insecure with most balls that he was supposed to collect without trouble. He only managed to save those shots that went directly into his body while he could have saved at least three of United’s goals.

The first half ended at 3-0 with the winner being more than clear.

The second was not as full in terms of interesting situations.

Around the hour mark, Arsenal right back Emmanuel Eboue was sent off for a ferocious tackle against Patrice Evra. The red card destroyed any enthusiasm that the Gunners had left and seemed to calm Manchester as well.

Yet, they scored one final goal, very much like the first, when Nani’s cross was converted by Darren Fletcher. Again, Lehmann could have done better than just desperately waving his hands in front of his face.

In addition to proving that they can totally outplay Premier League’s leaders, United showed that they can play fantastic football even without their biggest star, Cristiano Ronaldo.

This way, Sir Alex shut the mouth of all critique saying that the team was too much dependent on Rooney and Ronaldo.

The Red Devils trail by five points in the championship but are still set to repeat their so far unmatched treble from 1999.