Obviously being in Australia I don't get the same immersive coverage as is the norm in England, but I feel utterly confident in my assumption that the exciting looking fixtures for this Sunday were billed as some SuperUltraMegatronOrgasmo Sunday Extravaganza. Needless hyperbole, right?
Now, here's where my entire opening point of view crumbles faster than an Arsenal offside trap...
Waking up this morning to hazily check the results, I had to do the classic cartoon 'rub eyes and look again to make sure you're seeing straight'. If I'd have been drinking a glass of milk (not that that would ever happen, devil juice that it is) I would have spat it out in true slapstick fashion, such was the extent of my disbelief at the scorelines from the two stand out fixtures of the day.
Reading reports and watching the highlights, it becomes starkly apparent that these were no unwarranted scorelines either.
We'll start with City, who in their 5-1 destruction of Tottenham (no less) showed perhaps the most frightening and powerful display of their capabilities since the Emirati revolution began. Edin Dzeko looks to have settled into his Bundesliga groove and has hit the ground running, Samir Nasri took to his role with consumate ease, Sergio Aguero gave another stunning glimpse of what he can do, and David Silva put in another masterful display to demonstrate that he is truly in the elite class of the Premier League. More significant and ominous than any individual performance however was the overall style from City. Fluid, dynamic, pacy and incisive, with interplay and movement that is a light year away from the turgid and negative stuff they have displayed too often in the past. Clearly they have the players to do this, as well as a defensive unit to rely on at the back; and it is this change in approach which I think could have them making a very real assault on the title this season.
If Mancini continues to send his team out to attack in this manner, when you consider the Plan B options they have on the bench, then he might just be on the verge of something special. Perhaps this was the plan all along - last year was about finishing top four which was achievable by not losing too many games and playing with caution. That won't get you to first though, so this new, terrifying City could be all part of the plan. What is abundantly clear is that Spurs are not at that level. A midfield of unsettled Modric and Kranjcar immediately looked too attack-minded and liable to leave the defence exposed, a crazy selection against arguably the strongest attacking unit in the league. The result, which could have been even more emphatic, was fully deserved, and a real signal.
Speaking of emphatic - and speaking of signals for that matter, we move to Old Trafford. The Theatre of Dreams is home to the behemoth lurking on the red side of Manchester, still, despite the improvements, casting a huge shadow over the rest of the city and the footballing nation in general.
In typical fashion (Oh, you're in the FA Cup final? Well we'll win the League a couple of hours before then, losers) Manchester United put in a display that, while perhaps owing more to the ineptitude/impotency of their opponents than their own brilliance, was guaranteed to steal the headlines from their noisy neighbour yet again.
8-2 is just an incredible scoreline. When the videprinter has to write the number just so people are utterly clear...8 (Eight) (Yeah, that's right, EIGHT) then you know you have taken a hammering. In twenty seasons of the Premier League, only 6 times has a team rattled in 8 or more goals - teams of the illustrious ilk of Barnsley, Oldham, Swindon Town, Bradford and even the useless editions of Sunderland and Derby never conceded 8 in one go.
There are mitigating circumstances...ish. It's a bad injury list that Arsenal are facing at the moment. In other news, the Earth revolves around the Sun, morons audition for X Factor and bears do indeed use the woods to go for a mud. Also, they have a number of players suspended...this one is harder to sympathise with since it is almost entirely self-inflicted - harsh treatment or not, you only have yourselves to blame. Finally, they have recently lost the creative heart of their midfield with the departures of Fabregas and Nasri - again though, neither of these transfers was exactly out of the blue.
For me, Wenger failed in two senses. Firstly, he has failed in that he has allowed Arsenal to be so vulnerable to the above scenario. Every team gets injuries, suspensions, and players departing - it is the job of the manager to mitigate against these by building a resilient squad and removing reliance on key players. Arsenal's squad is not good enough, for which he is accountable.
Secondly, once you've been dealt the cards, you consider how to play them. I'm no poker player so I won't extend the metaphor for fear of messing it up - but when Wenger knew which team he was going to have to put out, he should have adapted his approach accordingly. Namely, spend some time drilling the roles and responsibilities into each player, so they know where to be and what to do - too many of United's attacks demonstrated almost tragically the disarray in which Arsenal's back line were operating. Also, in these kind of games, more often than not, fortune doesn't favour the brave so bloody well park the bus. Clearly this is anathema to Wenger's entire ethos of football, but there comes a time when realism has to win out over ideology.
It would be remiss not to give the final word to United, who were simply excellent. You have to beat whatever team you are up against, and United took to their depleted opponents with the ruthless glee befitting a champion. The quality of the finishing was unreal - both of Rooney's free kick's, Ashley Young's first in particular and also Nani's goal, they could all make it into the August Goal of the Month. It could easily be a Manchester only edition this month...which may just be a sign of things to come, for the rest of this season and beyond.
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