FULL-TIME – Arsenal lose again. So many chances to score, but no result in the end. The decision to sub Chamberlain for Arshavin proved to be disastrous. Crowd is booing, and getting into Champions League football next year looks like a distant goal.

Good night.

Two minutes remain of extra-time, and Arsenal will surely lose their third Premier League match in a row.

Man Utd are sensibly trying to play down the clock, and Walcott clatters Evra to the floor…which is always a good thing.

Arsenal now wildly clearing balls in their own third, and Mike Dean has decided to lose his mind. I’d be very surprised if Arsenal get something out of this. Man Utd seems to have full control.

GOAL 1-2 – Welbeck scores to put United 2-1 up. Arshavin partly to blame for the goal, as he failed to reduce a threat from out wide.

Meanwhile, Park is coming on for Ramsey.

Walcott stays on the floor after a weird attempt to score. Replays show he landed on his face. He gets up after a minute or so, looks groggy.

Man Utd brings on Ji-Sung Park for Rafael. Park is heavily underrated. When he’s in form he is very dangerous.

Chamberlain showed excellent control and first touch as he took down a long pass before setting up Van Persie for the equaliser. As Man Utd has been depending on the counter, the question is if they can change gear and take back control of the match.

Meanwhile, Chamberlain comes off for Arshavin. Supporters are not happy about the decision, which had been taken long before Chamberlain set up the goal.

GOAL 1-1 – Chamberlain creates a stunning pass for Van Persie, who slots it in after a diagonal run. Excellent movement.

Park and Arshavin are getting ready to come on.

Szczesny makes a weird save, but the ball is still in play. The Polish keeper seems to have hurt his hip. Welbeck is United’s danger man at the moment, he’s been free on goal a couple of times in the last 5 minutes.

Mertesacker clears the ball off the line as the last defender after Welbeck was free on goal. Match is swinging back and forth at the moment, Man Utd using the counter as the main weapon of choice.

Koscielny bombs forward to set up Chamberlain with ANOTHER excellent chance to equalise, but the shot goes just wide. Arsenal need to just keep going and the goal will come.

Oh interesting, replays show Lindegaard didn’t block Rosicky’s shot, but Evra was actually blocking it with his left elbow, inside the penalty area.

Another excellent chance is missed, as Rosicky has a shot blocked by Lindegaard inside the box. A goal is hanging in the air, but Arsenal need to be careful about Man Utd’s countering threat.

Both teams are quite poor, there have been some ridiculous misses from Man Utd. Yennaris is playing a sensible game though, vastly improving our right flank in the defensive phase.

Ramsey attempts a shot at goal from just inside the area, as Arsenal are slowly building momentum. Lindegaard should be tested more.

Van Persie misses a golden opportunity to go level, after Rosicky breaks free to serve the Dutchman a good pass inside the area. Not good enough.

Team is looking sharper at the start of the second half, Walcott seems to have calmed down, and Yennaris has managed a pretty good challenge already.

SECOND HALF – Djourou is being subbed for Yennaris after the poor display in the first half. Second half is now on.

I’m going to drink a whiskey so I’m prepared for the second half. Feels like this day will end in darkness.

HALF-TIME – Arsenal players are falling down, stumbling over each other, Djourou is having trouble understanding the full-back role, Walcott is too fired up. Chamberlain and Rosicky are the only players showing promise in the first half. Arsenal have allowed Man Utd 5 shot attempts, which is way too many.

GOAL Djourou’s inability to mark tightly finally came back to bite him on the ass, as Giggs is allowed to feed a perfect cross into the box.

Chamberlain attempts an explosive run down the left and is showing great attitude. With Rafael at right-back, we should attempt to serve Chamberlain with more passes, to test Rafael’s ability. We should also attempt more shots, as Lindegaard could be under pressure to perform as well.

Wayne Rooney is on the floor after being caught by an Alex Song elbow. Ouch. Rooney and Song have been going at each other for the last 10-15 minutes.

Nani has a chance to make it 0-1, but attempts a horrible shot that goes far wide.

Arsenal finally creates a good opportunity in a counter-attack created by Rosicky, who’s been on fire all afternoon. Ramsey’s cross didn’t reach Van Persie though, but the build-up was excellent.

Wayne Rooney goes down in the penalty area, but replays show there was barely any contact with Song. Nice hair though.

Arsenal are losing the plot, making sloppy clearances and looking desperate. Nani almost scores.

United’s patient play is starting to pay off, and they’re gaining ground slowly but surely. A goal is hanging in the air.

Man Utd wins a free-kick in a dangerous position outside the area. Replays show Vermaelen is pulling Giggs’ shirt.

Man Utd are patient and disciplined, letting Arsenal play their possession game and waiting for perfect counter-attacking opportunities.

Theo Walcott looks fired up, but slightly too much. Complaining about decisions and showing frustration with Chamberlain. He needs to calm down a bit and just play his normal game.

Walcott has started to glide over to central positions, creating a link-up with Chamberlain.

20 minutes into the game, Arsenal have had 2 shots on goal, Man Utd 0. But Man Utd have a very good goals-per-shots ratio, so they won’t need many attempts. Important we make sure to restrict them through the centre. Possession is even at 50/50, but Man Utd have won 75% of all aerial duels so far.

Key battles so far have been Vermaelen v Valencia on the left flank, and Chamberlain v Evra on the right. Tight marking, we’ll probably see a couple of cards for the flank players at some stage.

Phil Jones has pulled a muscle or done his hamstring, carried off on a stretcher. Looks painful. Rafael is getting ready to replace him.

Vermaelen seems to be man-marking Valencia, indicating that Wenger has identified him as a potential key threat to our approach.

Vermaelen has been quiet so far, with only 4 touches of the ball. Whether it’s deliberate (taking it easy) or not we’ll have to see, but he is taking up attacking positions, so obviously not too scared of aggravating any potential injury problems.

Chamberlain has decided to be the bane of Evra’s existence, which can only be a good thing. Evra needs to be pressured hard.

As suspected, Walcott and Chamberlain are gliding in and out of each other’s positions, switching flanks when opportunities open up.

Arsenal are looking sluggish in the first 5 minutes, but that’s quite common nowadays. Man Utd are using their standard 4-2-4 formation when attacking.

Early signs suggest that Wenger keeps to his most recent strategy of a 2-1 midfield, Ramsey in the #10 role as usual.

Kick-off. Walcott is taking up position on the right.

Players are exiting the tunnel, I believe I saw Evra smile, which is a miracle in its own.

As both Arteta and Wilshere are unavailable, Wenger might revert back to the system he used at the start of the season. In that system, Song was a lone anchor man in a 1-2 midfield setup. However, in recent months the system has been tweaked to be more similar to the system played last season – featuring a traditional #10 role occupied by Ramsey.

We’ll have to wait until the game starts to learn about the positioning of Walcott and Chamberlain. They will surely switch flanks, but Chamberlain is more comfortable on the right.

As I posted n Twitter, the difference in cost between the starting line-ups is staggering, with Man Utd’s starting XI costing more than twice the Arsenal starting XI. The total cost of Arsenal’s starting XI is £58.7m, compared to Man Utd’s £131m.

The inclusion of Lindegaard is a small lifeline for what should be a very hard game for the Gunners. But this is the season where anything can happen, so it’s hard to predict the outcome. Walcott and Chamberlain will test Evra and Smalling and push them back, and our central midfield should be able to cope with Carrick and Giggs.