Arsenal get the Cup but not the glory
Sun 22 May, 11:05 AM
LONDON (Reuters) - Arsenal will have left Cardiff's Millennium Stadium with the FA Cup trophy and the sneaking suspicion they are still no real match for Manchester United.
United shattered Arsenal's Premier League title defence with a 2-0 victory in October, dumped them out of the League Cup in December, humiliated them in a 4-2 win at Highbury in February and played them off the park on Saturday.
Arsenal had the last laugh by wresting the Cup back from United after the first penalty shootout in the history of the world's oldest club competition. But they had little else to celebrate.
United were by far the better team on the day, limiting a plodding Arsenal to one scoring chance in two hours of football -- a wickedly curling free kick from substitute Robin van Persie.
Even allowing for the absence of injured striker Thierry Henry, the Premier League's top scorer, it was small beer for a club so admired for their fluid attacking style.
Despite unexpectedly playing with a fifth man in midfield behind a lone striker, Arsenal made little headway in the final third and foundered completely when faced with Rio Ferdinand in United's defence.
Ironically, the Arsenal player who rose to the occasion was the one who had been regularly dropped by manager Arsene Wenger and criticised by the media -- keeper Jens Lehmann.
The German twice needed help from the woodwork but his sharp reflexes were a match for Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo, while the superb penalty shootout save against Paul Scholes eventually proved decisive.
With performances like Saturday's, which followed a strong finish to the season, Arsenal's once-pressing need for a new goalkeeper is now looking like an optional extra.
BRIGHT POINTS
The other bright points for next season are the young players who have stiffened the Arsenal spine, central defender Philippe Senderos and midfielder Francesc Fabregas, and the promise of forwards Persie and Jose Antonio Reyes.
However, United were still able to carve their way through an Arsenal defence which had no real answer to Ronaldo's swashbuckling raids down the flanks or Rooney's surging runs through the middle.
For United boss Alex Ferguson also has youth on his side in the battle with the new force in English football, champions and League Cup holders Chelsea.
As Ferguson pointed out, his United side is a mixture of youngsters, players in their mid to late 20s and only one older player in skipper Roy Keane, who will be 34 in August.
"We're heading towards a new team with some of the young players that are here, and we've got no problems age-wise apart from Roy Keane really," Ferguson said.
"The ones who are 30, and Ryan Giggs at 31, are fit lads and they can play for another two or three years quite easily."
Missed chances meant United ended 2005 without a trophy to show for their new owner Malcolm Glazer, while Arsenal's third FA Cup in four seasons needed large dollops of luck to secure.
Both issues will need to be addressed if the two clubs who dominated the English game for most of the past decade are to derail Chelsea next season.
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I have never liked penalty 'shootouts' but at the end of the day its a game of two halves ... er, and two other shorter halves ... and then some penalties.