The first heavyweight clash of the season saw Arsenal visit Old Trafford on Saturday and I have to say I wasn’t too optimistic before the game. Our midfield has been exposed for its lack of creativity recently and I was struggling to see how we’d find a way past Arsenal.

As the game started I realized my fears were correct. We were being out played and out passed by a much better Arsenal midfield. Michael Carrick couldn’t make a ten yard pass and Ryan Giggs was dispossessed on numerous occasions. We simply couldn’t keep possession for longer than 30 seconds and it affected our attacking play. I lost count of the number of times we had players in good attacking positions around the Arsenal box, only for the attack to break down because of Giggs strolling around the pitch like he was walking on the beach.

The first sign of trouble came when robin Van Persie turned Vidic inside out and struck a shot at goal, only for Evra to bail us out by blocking the shot. Not long after that we survived a penalty shout. Darren Fletcher slid in to tackle Arshavin but forgot to hit the ball first. He went right through the Russian and the only part of his body that touched the ball was his hand. The referee could have given either a foul or hand ball. It should have been a penalty and we’d got away with it. Or so I thought. Thirty seconds later, Denilson played a simple ball to Arshavin on the edge of the box. Vidic stood off him, so with nobody closing him down he fired a brilliant shot into the top corner. Ben Foster got a hand to it but couldn’t stop it hitting the back of the net. 1-0 Arsenal and it was the least they deserved.

We somehow got to half time only one goal down and I thought Sir Alex would surely make some changes. The abysmal display of our midfielders was there for all to see. Fletcher was the only player earning his wages and it meant we were losing the midfield battle. It was going to be difficult to fight our way back into the game with the same players that had performed so badly in the first half, but Fergie kept the faith.

We did play much better in the second half, but still far from our attacking best. We created a few goalscoring opportunities but failed to convert them. Then Giggs sent a through ball that Rooney chased. Arsenal ‘keeper Almunia had rushed out to intercept the pass, but as Rooney tapped the ball away from him he steamed straight through Rooney to gift us a penalty. It was a completely unnecessary challenge. Rooney was going nowhere and probably would have struggled to keep the ball in play. Almunia could have stayed on his line and the result may have been very different.

Rooney took over penalty duties after Carrick’s miss against Burnley. He sent Almunia the wrong way to bring us level. Perhaps undeservedly, but I wasn’t complaining.

The second goal is almost impossible to explain. Ryan Giggs floated a free kick into the box and Abou Diaby, completely unchallenged in the area, headed the ball into his own net from 6 yards out. Even now I can’t work out what was going through his head. Still, it was 2-1 to United, what did I care?

The game opened up from that point on. It was end to end stuff but Arsenal still looked the more likely to score. Eboue couldn’t have picked a worse time to blatantly dive in front of the referee. After the controversy surrounding Eduardo’s dive against Celtic last week you’d have thought Wenger would have had words with his players about staying on their feet. Eboue had other ideas and went tumbling over with zero contact from Evra. He was promptly booked for his efforts by Mike Dean.

The referee somehow found five minutes of injury time, but by that point we were looking like scoring every time we got the ball. Arsenal were throwing every forward and leaving huge gaps at the back. Nani missed two great chances and Berbatov missed one that bobbled up just before he struck it.

It was Arsenal who put the ball in the net though. Ramsay crossed into the box and Gallas headed it back to van Persie from an offside position. The linesman’s flag was up before the ball had crossed the line, much to the annoyance of Arsene Wenger who provided some moments of hilarity on the touchline.

Final score: United 2-1 Arsenal.

A good result, but it doesn’t hide the fact that we seem to be horribly lacking something in midfield. Somebody is going to have to stand up and be counted if we’re going to have any success this season because Darren Fletcher is out shining them all at the moment. Much improvement is needed.