Showdown or Showstopper

It’s early days yet concerning the fate of the league title this season, but Monday night’s showdown against Manchester United at Old Trafford will help point to the destination of the title. As Arsene Wenger has said so often in the past, you don’t win the league in December.

True indeed, but December nonetheless, neither Wenger nor Sir Alex Ferguson will want to concede ground on this one. The two old foxes may look war-weary, but they haven’t lost their battle-hardedness and are always up for such confrontations.

Already, there’s a spiky feeling about this one no thanks to big-mouth Patrice Evra trying to engineer an atmosphere of hate with his comments about Arsenal being a mere “training centre”. Consummate professionals don’t say such things about other teams, but we all know Evra has no tact or self-respect which was why he behaved to type at the World Cup and his international career ended disgracefully. A Nicholas Anelka clone with less brain cells than a termite.

Interestingly for the first time in recent memory, the Gunners go into this match ahead of Manchester United on the log. It’s not something that has happened in a long while. Since the 2007-2008 season, when Arsenal led the league for four months before giving it away at St. Andrews to Birmingham on the February afternoon Eduardo’s leg was snapped in two, we haven’t managed to edge ahead of Sir Alex’s empire.

For all manner of reasons, we’ve always remained in the shadow of the all-conquering Mancunians. Since then, Sir Alex has gone on to lift two league titles as well as a Champions League trophy. He was only denied a hattrick of league triumphs by Carlo Ancelotti’s resurgent Chelsea seven months ago.

This time around, with 16 games played in a 38-game season, we find ourselves one point in front of Sir Alex for the first time in a long, long while. This has happened despite our four league defeats already – three of them at home!

Titans of English soccer...Ferguson and Wenger

 Manchester meanwhile are unbeaten in the league but their campaign has been hampered by seven damaging draws. Despite playing one game less than us, they must still be kicking themselves that they cannot break away from the muddle at the top. Sir Alex, the old warhorse that he is, knows the value and importance of such big ties as Monday night’s clash and surely sees it as a must-win. December or not.

Already as seen so far this season, many teams have stepped up to the plate to take adavantage of the break up of the famous Big Four through the demise of Liverpool. This state of affairs has seen even promoted sides Blackpool, Newcastle and West Brom fancy their chances against the established sides and taken them with two hands.  Accordingly as we have all borne witnesses to so far, even Manchester United’s outstanding game against Blackpool can so easily leave them empty handed after 90 minutes. A look at the league standings this morning will show us that none of the promoted sides are currently in relegation zone.

The tables of fortune which favours the brave have turned full square in the premiership.

Gone is the fear of the mythical Big Four. Gone are the days of rolling over and allowing the likes of us and Man Utd to walkover the perceived small teams.

Which is why winning the league now may turn out to be harder and more gritty than it has ever been since it all started 18 years back.

Sir Alex knows it very well and therefore the bread-and-butter games with the lesser lights of the league are simply, no more what they used to be. It seems now that the days of winning the league despite not beating any of the big teams, may have gone with the past. There are simply no teams to walkover anymore. Arsene Wenger and his bunch had that lesson rammed down their throats painfully and decisively by first West Brom and later, Newcastle.

Monday’s showdown couldn’t have come at a better time for both teams as they seek to measure themselves against each other. As a parameter of how far they have progressed or regressed so far this season, Monday night is pivotal.

Yes it may be just December, but this showdown between first and second in the league will surely not produce a Real Madrid-Barcelona style annihilation. Because despite the game taking place at Old Trafford, the stadium has actually been a good hunting ground for Arsenal over the past few years. We only lost there last year thanks to a crazy Almunia penalty-giveaway and an even crazier Abou Diaby own goal after Andrei Arshavin had blasted us into the lead. The previous season, with the destiny of the league already settled, we held Man Utd to a goalless draw there. If we discount the Christiano Ronaldo-inspired Champions League 1-0 defeat there in April 2009, we have a decent record on the ground.

Added to all this, is the fact that Man Utd these days is more of a ship managing to stay above water, than a tank firing on all cylinders.  Up until three weeks ago, we had a better goals’ difference than them. Dimitar Berbatov’s five-goal salvo in that 7-1 crushing of Blackburn two weeks ago changed things for them but as mentioned earlier there won’t be any such scoreline on Monday night.

Manchester Utd are slowly putting the divisive effects of the Wayne Rooney saga behind them and getting everyone to singing from the same sheet. Nemanja Vidic now seems happier after casting admiring glances at Spain and Italy all through last season. Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes may finally be feeling their ages at last but in their places, the immature Anderson is finally finding his feet, while his younger compatriots Fabio and  Rafael are emerging as talented players, if still inexperienced. Another young tyro, the Mexican Javier Henandez  remains a dangerous arrowhead of their attack if needed.

Since Ronaldo’s departure, Man Utd have lost the thing that makes them tick. Rooney for one, being a huge victim of his departure.

Arsenal, like all other teams so far in the league, will seek to exploit that feeling of ‘emptiness’ at Old Trafford and in the likes of Samir Nasri, Jack Wilshire and Marouane Chamakh, they have the ammunition to make their presence count.

Arguably, Nasri has been the outstanding player of the season so far not only for Arsenal but in the entire league. He has suddenly become what Florent Malouda was to Chelsea last season. The most-improved player across all 20 teams, with Tottenham’s Gareth Bale definitely a close second.

He has scored against Man Utd in the past – when we beat them 2-1 at Emirates in October, 2008. So doing it again; at a time when he is in the form of his life, ought not to be too much to ask.

I’m really looking forward with a huge appetite to Monday night. Yet another opportunity to see how far Wenger’s bunch has come in their collective development. Because at Old Trafford there normally is no hiding place.