Andy Gray and Richard Keys: Wayne Rooney form worry for Manchester United

Sport360 staff 19:21 02/10/2015
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  • Manchester United, currently riding high at the top of the EPL travel to Arsenal tomorrow to take on the Gunner who were one of the pre-season title favourites.

    Andy Gray and Richard Keys, who front beInSports’ EPL coverage, discuss whether Louis van Gaal’s team can consolidate their place at the summit.

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    Andy Gray: In big games like this the home team very rarely loses. United are good enough to go to the Emirates and win because at the top end of the pitch they have plenty of pace with Memphis Depay, Antony Martial, Wayne Rooney if he can find his form, and Juan Mata, all players who can hurt Arsenal.

    But if the Gunners are firing on all cylinders I think they just have the edge, although I have some concerns about the centre of defence where they look vulnerable and we don’t know how that midweek result against Olympiakos has affected them. They will be gutted after losing that and you have to hope their players will respond positively.

    Rooney has been criticised this season despite becoming England's all-time top goalscorer.

    As for United, I am concerned about Wayne Rooney and as a former player I know what he is going through because I went 12 to 13 games without scoring and it was horrendous. My team was winning but I went home at night wondering when I was going to start contributing with goals.

    It doesn’t matter how good you are, you begin to doubt yourself and in Wayne’s case where he drops into midfield looking for the ball there is a danger that he could find himself drifting further and further away from the sharp end, still contributing but not scoring goals like he used to. I would like to see him up top a bit more because he needs goals and this is an important time in his career.

    He is still a fine footballer with an awful lot to offer but he should be the Cristiano Ronaldo of Manchester United, dominating games, That just isn’t happening for him at the moment so I really hope he can start putting the ball in the net again. He might get one today but I reckon Arsenal will win this 3-1 simply because they are the better team.

    Richard Keys: United can win the title but I don’t think they will. This is probably their first serious test of the season and I think they will fall short. The Gunners have more quality than Manchester United, if they play to their full potential. I know they have not been playing that well but I tipped them to win the title before the season started and I am sticking to that.

    United are at the top at the moment because they have managed to grind out some good results but it has been against teams which, frankly, you would expect them to beat. This game will be a different story. I hope Arsenal get wired into United straight away, move the ball about quickly and start asking questions from the off. What I don’t want to see is a pass-fest, one of those games that descends into 750 passes each and no goals.

    Alexis Sanchez has started to find his goalscoring touch this season.

    Walcott has scored 12 goals in 13 starts in the Premier League, Aaaron Ramsey is due a goal, and Alexis Sanchez is finding his feet so there is no shortage of goal scoring potential. 

    Mesut Ozil needs to start performing because at the moment I have no idea what he does, apart from draw a fat salary, so maybe this will be the game when he finally delivers.

    I think Van Gaal has stumbled across a decent starting eleven but I agree with Andy on Rooney. He used to dominate games like this but we haven’t seen that for far too long. He is being overshadowed by Martial who has had a brilliant start to his EPL career and looks a top drawer player but for me there’s no legs in midfield and that is where Arsenal can get control of this game.

    Wenger has been criticised this week for not playing Petr Cech against Olympiakos and he will know, if the player is not injured, that he made a mistake because that was a must-win game as is this. Arsenal will bring United back down to earth by winning 2-1.

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