Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger has defended his decision to replace Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain with Andrey Arshavin during the 2-1 defeat by Manchester United.

Some Arsenal fans booed when Oxlade-Chamberlain, who helped create Robin van Persie’s equaliser, was taken off.

“I’ve been a manager for 30 years and have made 50,000 substitutions. I don’t have to justify every one,” he said.

Arsenal trail fourth-placed Chelsea by five points in the Premier League race for Champions League qualification.

Oxlade-Chamberlain was one of the brighter elements of Arsenal’s performance at the Emirates.

The 18-year-old, making his first Premier League start, set up Van Persie during a period when Arsenal had begun to dominate.

“I can understand that the fans are upset about the substitution, especially when it doesn’t work, but he had started to fatigue,” Wenger said of his decision to substitute the former Southampton winger.

“He was sick in the week. Arshavin is captain of the Russia national team. You have an 18-year-old kid making his first Premier League start and a player who’s captain of his country and they are querying the substitution?”

Asked how the defeat affected his team, Wenger said it was a match Arsenal “couldn’t afford to lose” before adding: “It leaves us in a very difficult position.”

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson felt his side deserved the victory which keeps them three points behind leaders Manchester City.

“I felt eventually we were the better side,” he said. “Credit to the players at the back, who did a great job.

“We rode our luck a bit but on the counter-attack I thought we could have scored more goals.”

Asked about the pursuit of City, he said: “It’s going to be hard for both of us to collapse.”

Earlier on Sunday, City beat third-placed Tottenham 3-2 after a Mario Balotelli penalty deep into injury time.

The result left Spurs five points behind United and eight adrift of City, with 16 matches remaining.

Ferguson added: “It was a really disappointing result for Spurs – they deserved better but football’s a funny game.

“Come March and April you never know what’s going to happen. At the moment we’ve got a few points clear, the both of us.”

United’s win came at a cost as Phil Jones was carried off on a stretcher after 15 minutes with ankle ligament damage.

In addition, Nani left the Emirates in a protective boot after going off injured in the second half, Wayne Rooney was hobbling at the final whistle and Michael Carrick suffered a sore hamstring.

The injury to Jones is particularly worrying for United as they were without Rio Ferdinand, who missed the game with a suspected back injury, and Nemanja Vidic, who is out for the rest of the season following knee surgery.

Ferguson is also without Anderson, Tom Cleverley, Ashley Young, Michael Owen and Darren Fletcher.

“It’s not good news for us,” Ferguson said. “I think Jones will be out for a few weeks – it’s ankle ligaments.

“Carrick was feeling his hamstring in the second half and he just had to sit in the middle of the pitch.”

A key figure in United’s victory was winger Antonio Valencia, who headed the first goal and created the winner with a mazy run.

“He was absolutely fantastic; he was really in top form,” Ferguson said of the former Wigan man.

“In the last few weeks he’s really come into his game. He’s got over the bad injury he had last season and he’s getting better all the time.”

(BBC Football)

 

Ibrox mayhem as police charge brawling football thugs at subway station

Jan 23 2012 By Mark McGivern

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SHOCKED football fans told yesterday how they were caught in 15 minutes of mayhem outside Ibrox as Aberdeen casuals clashed with Rangers supporters.

One said: “It was the worst violence I’ve seen in years. I thought we’d heard the last of football casuals, but evidently not.”

Mounted police were called in and CS spray and batons were used after fighting erupted outside Ibrox subway station near the stadium 20 minutes before Saturday’s match.

Fans threw punches and hurled bottles and pieces of wood. Two police officers were injured and two people were arrested.

Witnesses said the trouble started when 30 to 40 Aberdeen casuals came out of the subway station on Copland Road and began baiting Rangers fans heading to the game.

The yobs had apparently boarded the train in the west end of Glasgow to avoid being segregated by police monitoring stations in the city centre.

A Rangers fan who saw the violence told the Record: “I knew something was afoot when I came out of the subway.

“There was a bunch of Aberdeen fans emerging right into the thick of the Rangers fans.

“They were all psyched up and immediately shouting for Rangers fans to come ahead.

“There were hundreds of fans and quite a few did ‘come ahead’ before the police had time to make any proper response.

“It went off for about 15 minutes and a few people took some punches.

“One tiny WPC got decked by one of the mounted police and a few fans were hit by batons as police tried to disperse the crowd.”

Another Rangers fan, posting on the Follow Follow website, said: “This is the most serious football violence I’ve been caught up in.”

The fan claimed the Aberdeen casuals started throwing “table legs” after they were baton-charged by police, and he was struck by one of the missiles.

Other, unsubstantiated, reports on Follow Follow claimed that people with “London accents” were involved in the disturbance.

Some posters claimed Spurs hooligans had travelled north to link up with the Aberdeen casuals.

A third Rangers fan described the fight as “the biggest, in terms of numbers, I have seen for a while at a game”.

He claimed to have heard men who ran from a nearby pub to get involved shouting “ICF” – a reference to the Inter City Firm gang of Rangers hooligans.

The fan added: “Three police on horses tried to get in between both set of fans and were swinging batons at anyone.”

A police spokeswoman said: “At around 1440 hours, prior to the match, we received reports of a disturbance between rival fans outside Ibrox Underground.

“Officers, including mounted branch, were immediately on the scene and quickly got the situation under control.

“Two men, aged 23 and 42, were arrested and detained in police custody.

“A male officer received a suspected broken hand and a female officer suffered a leg injury.”

The two arrested fans are expected to appear at Glasgow Sheriff Court this morning.

 

(Daily Record )