The Game

A warm welcome to what will hopefully be an entertaining and positive night of football at Old Trafford.

As Samir Nasri said, it is surprising that we are top of the table having lost four games already this season but in a way, what is important to show today is that we are the best team in the country and that we fully deserve to be up there. And winning away at Manchester would indeed demonstrate all of this.

This morning, headlines were saying how Lukasz Fabianski is out of the game with Wojciech Szczęsny ready to come in and start his first Premier League game of the season. If true, huge pressure will be on the youngster’s shoulders but we all know him, he’s a gutsy lad and will not be shy to impress tonight.

A late fitness test will be carried out to assess the fitness level of Cesc Fabregas with striker Robin van Persie fully fit and possibly in the starting eleven of manager Arsene Wenger.

The game kicks off at 20:00 in the UK and as always credit goes to all those who woke up or didn’t sleep at all to follow the game.

And, until you wait for kick-off, check out why Andrey Arshavin loves to play alongside Jack Wilshere and also why Patrice Evra’s pre-match remarks were disrespectful according to right-back Bacary Sagna.

As always, please do join the discussion in our chat room which will also be active after the full time whistle. You will be glad to know that from this season, to provide a better chat experience to our readers, users can be banned if they post offensive comments.

Streaming Links

For those who don’t know where to watch the game, maybe we can help, follow this link for streaming options. Links are updated before and during the match.

The Line-Ups

Manchester United

Van der Sar, Rafael Da Silva, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Fletcher, Carrick, Anderson, Nani, Rooney, Park

Subs: Kuszczak, Brown, Berbatov, Giggs, Smalling, Hernandez, Obertan

Arsenal

Szczesny, Sagna, Squillaci, Koscielny, Clichy, Song, Rosicky, Wilshere, Nasri, Chamakh, Arshavin

Subs: Fabianski, Fabregas, van Persie, Walcott, Denilson, Djourou, Bendtner

Half-Time Thoughts and Analysis

First of all, this is not over, far from that. We had a very poor first half of football but I believe we can still manage to at least get a point.

Unfortunately we all know that our defensive department is not the most reliable in the Premier League and yet again we concede a goal which saw three of our players around Park but no-one close enough to challenge him with the Korean who went on to enjoy a free header.

In midfield, Samir Nasri had a very, very anonymous game so I believe he is to be moved on to a more central position and maybe take Tomas Rosicky off and give Theo Walcott a chance in the second half. Another change I would make is to introduce Robin and take off a very disappointing Chamakh.

Anyway, come on, it’s not over, there’s still 45 minutes to play and a draw would be a great result tonight.

At half time, it’s Manchester United one, Arsenal nil.