No sign of Fletcher on Satdee, not even on the bench?

Originally Posted by The Return of JC

I agree with most of that, especially the defence of Giggs - brilliant cross for Rooney header. His experience was vital in there.

But I don't agree that Fabregas played well. He wasn't bad, but we nullified him very well. Compared to how influential he's been and how prominent he normally is, he was very very quiet.

Given his form, If someone had told you before the game that he'd have as much influence on the game that he did then I think you'd take it.

You say he was at the heart of all their good stuff. Yeah, which was next to nothing. Hleb had more impact than Fabregas. Anderson upset him and, although he tracked back and worked hard, he seemed frustrated and couldn't really get into the game. This culminated in a booking.

Below his usual standard and the credit should go to us for that.

As you say, though. We looked far more dangerous than they did and we were the away side. Everyone seems to ignore that Arsenal were at home so the emphasis was on them to make an impression.

oh, i agree we nullified fabregas for the most part. but that was true of the teams in general: they nullified each other. tevez was quiet. adebayor was ineffective. ronnie was much less threatening than normal, but still scored and set one up. fabregas was less influential, but scored and could have got a second. i thought anderson outplayed fabregas, though, as i said.

i thought giggs was very important to us on saturday and had a very good game as a third m/fder when we lost the ball. he didn't show much in attack but he made it very hard for them to get anywhere down the left. i doubt many on here will share the feeling, but i thought his contribution on saturday was excellent.

agreed