Earlier this week, the Gunners took a big step in righting their ship for the season by finishing off Udinese in the Champions League qualifying round. However, they had to know this match at Old Trafford was going to be trouble. The other big event for Arsenal this week was completing the sell of Samir Nasri to Manchester City. Now with the Gunners fire sale all but over, they limped into Manchester on a short week and with very few players with Premier League credentials.
This would be total humiliation for Arsenal as United continued to impress and stay a step ahead of their cross town rivals in Sky Blue. Danny Welbeck got United on the board in the 22nd minute by ditching the Arsenal defense and scoring a header. Still all was not lost for the Gunners who earned a PK in 27th, only to have David De Gea turn aside a less than stellar penalty kick from Robin Van Persie. It was a great moment for the new United net minder.
It didn't take long for United to capitalize on Arsenal's failure to equalize. About a minute later Ashley Young made it 2-0 with a great goal from outside the 18. Ouch. It got worse too. In the 41st minute Wayne Rooney knocked a home a gorgeous free kick effort to make it 3-0. Theo Walcott nutmegged De Gea right on the stroke of half time to make it 3-1 at the interval.
The Walcott goal should have given Arsenal some momentum going into the 2nd half, but United put the game away fairly quickly. Rooney scored yet another beautiful free kick in the 64th, Nani added another strike in the 67th, and JS Park made it 6-1 with a goal in the 70th. Not a good time for the traveling Arsenal fans, but the game had three more goals to go.
Van Persie picked up the first in the 74th with a rather lucky strike at the United goal to make it 6-2. Hardly a consolation with neither side really bothering to play much defense. In the 82nd minute Rooney got his hat trick from the spot after Walcott took down Patrice Evra in the area. Ashley Cole rounded out the scoring in stoppage time, another laser, to make it 8-2 on full time. Arsenal would go limping back to London in disgrace.
This was just the fourth ever EPL match to feature 10 goals. It was also Arsenal's worse loss under Wenger, and the first time since 1897 that they have given up 8 goals in a match. If they can't make some moves in the next couple days, it's going to be a long season.
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