On a mild afternoon on Sunday 28 August 2011, Manchester United put in a display to be remembered, when Wayne Rooney scored a hat trick to lead Manchester United towards a resplendent 8-2 victory over Arsenal.
The North London outfit, who at the time had a certain Dutch forward who now leads the line for the Red Devils, suffered heavily at the hands of Sir Alex Ferguson and his tactical masterplan.
I personally remember the day vividly, on our way to the game an Arsenal fan pulled along side us and started saying that they were going to win 4-0. I’d loved to have seen him again after the game, just to see if he had the same amount of joy as before.
However, it did take the Reds 21 minutes to break the deadlock. Nonetheless, once the first goal struck the back of the nets, the floodgates well and truly opened. Former United striker, now donning the Arsenal jersey, Danny Welbeck scored our first goal of the game with a beautifully worked header, which lobbed Wojciech Szczezny.
From this point onwards there was no going back for Manchester United, Ashley Young added a delightful second before Rooney contributed a third minutes before half time.
Visiting wideman Theo Walcott did manage to secure an early consolation against the run of play on the stroke of Howard Webb’s blow for half-time, but Ferguson’s army continued their colossal attack throughout the remaining 45 minutes.
Again, it took some time to break the deadlock in the half, but there was no stopping United once they found their form in front of goal. Rooney managed to add his second from a beautifully struck free-kick, before Nani humiliated the Polish goalkeeper with a chip from close range.
Fan favourite Park Ji-Sung was next up to add his contribution to the scoresheet, before Robin van Persie added a second of the afternoon for Arsene Wenger’s side. The deficit was soon widened once more through the influential performance of Rooney, who grabbed his third, and his side’s seventh, of the outing.
Finally, Young rounded off the goal fest, and completed the rout of the Gunners by leaving Szczesny helpless one final time – with Carl Jenkinson previously being dismissed for his second caution.
However, it was not only the monumental strike force that inflicted the damage on the European hopefuls, with goalkeeper David de Gea playing an underrated role in the victory, forced into saving a penalty form van Persie, which would have seen Arsenal equalise and potentially change the game.
Still to this day I find it difficult to explain exactly what happened, but everything United struck found it’s way into the back of the net. Victory had embarrassed and demeaned Arsenal, and Arsene Wenger has no excuses for the diabolic performance. Admittedly, his side was weakened due to numerous reasons, but justification cannot be granted for such a result, and the Red Devils will hope for a similar outcome on Sunday.
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