Saha: Trio Bring Creativity

Ex-Red Louis Saha says a burgeoning understanding between Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney and Juan Mata is integral to dynamic United attacks, at Arsenal and beyond...

Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney and Juan Mata are world-class players and if they combine as their natural talent dictates they will, we will get creativity and goals, and that's been the one downside of the last few months. We need more chances and more creativity up front and Mata is a player to introduce that.

As a striker, you enjoy playing in front of footballers like Mata. Someone of that calibre gives you confidence that when you time your run he is going to give you the ball nine times out of 10. You have the belief that you will hurt defences and disrupt their confidence because with one pass, one great bit of play, you can change a match. Those two aspects – the playmaker who is able to make a pass and the forward who can get through the lines of defence – is really important to us and the way we have to break teams down.

Mata could bring the best out of Rooney, too. It's a natural part of Wayne's game to drop deep to get the ball – he's an intelligent footballer like that. But Mata takes up those deeper positions, even when drifting in from the flank, so hopefully Rooney can put all his focus on staying high up the field and combining with van Persie, where they really affect the game.

That combination up front is crucial to the team and when they combine well it puts pressure on the opposition in key areas. If you've got that, defenders and midfielders are concentrating on those two players and it allows the playmaker time and space to break the lines of defence with great passes and creativity. Mata possesses the quality to do that and so the combination between those three players can make a big difference for United. The way those three interact on the field, the way they move and combine, will draw the opposition centre-backs out of position, so someone can break through and make a good run at the right time.

That can be the case at the Emirates in an important game for United and Arsenal, a tricky team because they have a combination of players in attacking positions who have great movement and are hard to mark. They have similar players across the field in attacking areas and they're not confined to one role, so it's a very fluid system with only Olivier Giroud – playing as a traditional no.9 – with more of a fixed position. He's not unpredictable in that sense, but Arsenal's other forwards are always on the move and someone like Jack Wilshere can bring it all together and is unafraid to take the ball in any situation. Defensively, United have to be alert to that mobility in the Arsenal attack.

Arsenal have quality players and a big defeat like they suffered against Liverpool is a kick in the back of the head. That result makes them more dangerous because it's a wake-up call. They were very poor in the first half, going in 4-0 down at half-time. But in the second half they got the ball a bit more and controlled the tempo. It still wasn't good enough but they will be aware of their mistakes and will be determined to make sure they don't do the same things again against a United team who need points and a big result.

Of course, there's always focus on van Persie in this fixture. Players often do well against their old clubs and Robin has three goals in three games against Arsenal. As a player you have a stronger motivation against your old team and an awareness of what their weaknesses might be. Robin didn't celebrate his first goal against them, and that's out of respect, but since then he has looked pretty happy about scoring past them. Hopefully he keeps that run going on Wednesday.