Old Trafford awaits as media regurgitate their own bile

So we narrowly go out to Barcelona, the team touted as the 'best in the world' by many an expert, with the aggregate score being 3-2 despite us playing for almost a quarter of the tie a man down, unfairly a man down I may add, and the media seem to think that we are useless, have 'no leaders', cannot defend, et cetera. How very sensationalist, reactionary, stupid and tiresome. It's not unexpected though, it makes easy writing for some very lazy hacks who are just happy to trot out the same old dross week in week out. The Online Gooner makes a good point that we should all get behind the team and not react lazily like the media all the time.

"They (Uefa) are difficult people to deal with - they don't listen to you and they never have done....Maybe one day they might - but I am not going to hold my breath."

The above quote is from Peter Hill-Wood and makes for some very interesting reading, to me it appears that Peter is calling UEFA a bunch of dictators in a rather polite manner. The fact that UEFA and our football governing bodies are effectively run like dictatorships does make them prone to becoming intrinsically corrupt. Any individual or organisation that is unaccountable and unwilling to change in response to valid criticism will inevitably become stagnant and corrupt, this is what we have going on at FIFA/UEFA and the FA. By corrupt I simply mean that these organisations are serving their own interests and propagating unfairness, rather than serving the interests of the game and striving for a fairer process.

Anyway moving onto today's game at Old Trafford, there's no doubt about the importance of this one, both in terms of psychology for the league title race and in terms of winning a cup. Almunia will come in for Szczesny, Cesc drops out with his recurrent hammy, Song and Theo are still out. Arsene will field a strong eleven and this is who I would play:

Almunia

Sagna Djourou Koscielny Clichy

Diaby Wilshere Nasri Arshavin

Chamakh RVP

I think we missed the pace and skill of Arshavin against Barca, he made a difference when he came on, albeit a bit too late. Let's have a go at United, I don't want to see us sit back and fail to throw the kitchen sink at them. Vidic is back for them but they have been leaking a few goals of late, let's hope that can continue. Although it is a 4-4-2 above, it would work more like a 4-3-3, I think dropping Nasri deeper is a far better option than playing Rosicky or Denilson. Come on you Gunners, let's show people that we do have some leaders!