Morning all.
We know it’s been a long time since we’ve won a league game at Old Trafford and last night we missed a golden opportunity to change that yet all things considered, a draw was a decent result.
Yet again the referee awarded our opponents a free kick when no contact had been made. Leno saved the resulting free kick well. Herrera, who was offside when the kick was taken, then teed up Martial to draw the scores level. That was after Mustafi had put us 1-0 up. Two defensive howlers followed, one by each side and 2-2 was the final score. Lacazette scored ours although at the moment, it’s been awarded an OG. Pff!
Our final ball into the box from both sides of the pitch were poor but there were times when Kolasinac looked up only to see no one free in the box. Iwobi, for all his improvement, needs to learn when to run at a defence, when to shoot and when to pass because last night he was making the wrong choices. He did on Sunday too. Whilst it’s great to see us taking more shots at goal instead of trying to walk the ball into the net, there’s no point whatsoever crashing that shot into an opposition player who’s stood just a yard or two in front.
What a horrid game though against a team managed by a horrid man. From Rashford’s foul on Rob Holding which looks like it caused some serious damage, to Fellani pulling at Guendouzi’s hair to stop him in his tracks, Utd were playing dirty. We dished out our own fair share too, that can’t be denied, but theirs were premeditated I’m sure. Rojo, a nasty player who should never have escaped a red card but Andre Marriner was probably just following orders from above, just like Riley was in 2004/05.
As I’ve said before, VAR can’t come soon enough which thankfully, should be next season.
Lingard was booked for a foul on Torreira, then Hector Bellerin for one on Matteo Darmian, Nemanaja Matic for pulling back Aubameyang at which point I didn’t think there was much chance of the game ending with all twenty two players on the pitch. In all fairness, it probably shouldn’t have. Torriera got away with a naughty one on Matic and then just seconds later, Ramsey joined in but his attempted tackle ended his game. He limped through to the break but didn’t reappear.
Mourinho brought on the ‘big’ guys before the end. Lukaku, Fellaini and Pogba. Not that it did them any good. All Fellaini succeeded in doing was to stop Guendouzi any which way he could with his final move in one ‘tackle’ being to pull our midfielders hair. No booking though, no, Marriner let that one go too.
We kept pushing for the winner and nobody could say we didn’t deserve one. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang saw a close range effort saved and Mkhitaryan spurned a golden opportunity but blasted over. Lacazette tried a cheeky one when de Gea was stood with the ball in one hand, resting on his palm. A quick nod with his head to free the ball and in. Marriner didn’t like that. A curling shot from Aubameyang was well saved by de Gea, Torriera too saw one saved before Mkhitaryan scored what would have been a stunning winner had he not been offside.
The clock was running down added time when Lichtsteiner showed all his experience. Utd were on the attack when the Swiss international went to ground clutching his head leaving Marriner no choice but to stop the game, stop Utd.
And that was that. Undefeated run maintained but at a cost.
Unai Emery:
The worst for us today was the news with Rob Holding. We are going to wait for what the doctor tells us but it is maybe a big injury. We are going to wait, it is his knee. The other is Aaron Ramsey, but it is a small injury with him
Thank goodness that fixture is over. It was a horrible game I thought but with a bit of luck, it’ll be the last time we play them again under Mourinho as surely it’s only a matter of time before he’s sacked.
For Arsenal, another game seriously swayed by the officials but even so, there’s a lot of positives imo. Our heads didn’t go down after conceding either goal, in fact it was totally the opposite. We weren’t bullied regardless of how much Utd tried to kick us. We stood up to Mourinho’s ghastly tactics and as said earlier, dished out some physical stuff of our own.
The media, and even fans might be tempted to suggest that we still have defensive problems and I’m not for one minute trying to suggest we couldn’t be better but the only real error we made last night led to their second goal. Yes it was a heavy touch from Kolasinac but otherwise, I thought he had a really good game. Their first came through Martial cheating followed by an offside which wasn’t given. Mind you, there was still time and opportunities to clear the ball which Emery won’t have missed.
Arsenal teams in the past would have surrendered there and then, given in to the rough challenges and fallen apart at the seams. That’s not us anymore, we stood up and fought right until the final whistle. We didn’t get all three points last night but as we continue our progress under Unai Emery, on other nights away from home, we will.
Fingers crossed for Rob Holding who’ll no doubt be having an MRI Scan today. Just hope it’s nothing more than a bruise although sadly I doubt it will be.
Tea and toast, that’s what I’m off to get.
A foolish ref officiated our game, simple.. the foul on holding was outrageous, the stupid tackle on laca for the second goal was a straight red… Felaini deserves a ban for pulling on guendozi’s hair… All in all the spoilt brat is a clueless coach
Mexy, I guess that’s all mourinho has left in his footballing locker now. Clearly Riley and co wanted Utd to end our good run but they didn’t anticipate us standing up for ourselves.
Yes, there’s always improvements for us to make, but Utd are a dirty, classless club…
Good post perfectly sums up last night, my thoughts before the game were old trafford equals defeat but I was harbouring a little hope that it might be different under emery and different it was for once we turned up at OT and showed fighting character.
also scoring more than one goal in a league fixture up there something we have only done once in about 30yrs so that’s a positive.
before the spurs game I would have gladly took 4pts from 6 outta them two games I’m also glad the unbeaten run didn’t end at Utd as you could just imagine the media headlines.
Thanks Kel.
I too would have taken a draw before kickoff. Irks a bit now though having had so many chances to win the game but to be honest, we’re fortunate that only Holding got injured. I really hope the FA take another look at that game, especially the stuff on Guendouzi and Holding.
They always said that the most dangerous moment in a game was immediately after you have scored. To switch off lose concentration and let one in 13 seconds after scoring is disappointing . Something to work on , My old captain used to shout ” Get back and face up ” However we were still celebrating as they scored.
It was a scrappy game interrupted by too many stoppages , Arsenal were affected by the overhang of the Spurs match as things were not as smooth in movement and passing and United played on this with a rotational fouling policy that Marriner allowed quite happily.
We could have , should have won it,…… but didn’t. We cannot get in front of ourselves , only a few days ago we were talking about giving Emery time to sort things so we can’t suddenly be disappointed about coming away from Old Trafford with a point 5th on goal difference with an 8 point gap to 6th.
well the fa should be taking retrospective action on fellani, 3 game ban for him just as huth got for pulling fellani’s hair.
The scumbag just couldn’t handle the young gunner Guendouzi so resorted to hair pulling the loser.
Agree Potter, although slightly disappointed, certainly about conceding our second in the fashion we did, I thought we stood up to their dirty tactics well.
Once Emery makes this team his own, I can only see us being stronger.
Definitely re Fellani, a ghastly footballer.. cheat too.
Morning all.
Disappointing result, for me at least. I really believed we would go to manure and win. My soccer 6 prediction was 1-3 to the good guys! However, it is a very long time since I last contemplated a win away ‘up north’ and not wondering how many goals we would ship. In truth, a draw wasn’t a bad result but the anticipation of another brilliant display of fast flowing football and winning score was, I thought, a realistic posssibility. How times have changed and in such a short time.
The game itself I thought was very scrappy. Not much quick passing football. It was all a bit pedestrian. Despite the fact that manure have one or two exceptional players at no point did they really shine. They played “a little wiz ze ‘andbrake on.” We, by the same token were not so incisive or dominant as we were on Sunday against the scum. We were good but just not good enough.
As for the poison dwarf, his grip on the United job is probably tenuous and possibly short lived now. But, he only signed an extended contract at the beginning of the season. To be rid of him any time soon would cost as much as our next unknown moderately good player! 15m or so? I can’t see manure throwing that kind of money down the toilet, well not yet. After all he has a ready made excuse, too many injuries!! Not to mention his isssues with any number of his under performing players!
Anyhow, on to the next game, Huddersfield. Another arsenal win? I do hope so……..let the ‘run’ continue.
Very dull and overcast here. Rather miserable.
Good morning Rico and all others.
I must admit to a slight feeling of disappointment about the result. After years of dreading our trips to Old Toilet, I had convinced myself that, finally, we were in with very good chance of taking all three points this time.
That was not to be. The blame can’t be laid solely at the door of the referee, however poor he was, we missed several good chances to put the game to bed, Mkhitaryan’s miss from about three foot being the most glaring, allied to our profligacy in front of goal were the defensive errors and lack of concentration leading to, not one but, two equalisers.
On reflection though coming away with one point is far more satisfying for us than it was for Mourinho and his pack of rabid dogs.
Morning Rico and all. Although a draw at OT is usually a very decent result I feel frustrated with this one. It was hardly a surprise that Mourinho resorted to rough-house tactics and that the referee played a big part in the result but we should have remained a little more composed. Quite how Rashford got away with that horrible assault on Holding and Rojo never saw red remains a mystery. Fellaini’s contributions were an elbow to the back of the head and a hair-pull that I hope is punished retrospectively.
Still, the unbeaten run goes on and hopefully Emery has a transfer or two in mind for January.
The game couldn’t get going or flow Wavy because when we pushed forward, invariably Utd fouled us. Plus we had some tired legs too I think.
Morning Cicero & Adam.
I see Klopp is talking about the rough treatment his players received last night too against Burnley after Gomez was badly injured.
That will take the limelight away fom any Arsenal grievance , This morning I woke up to Parlour and Adrian Clarke talking about Fellaini but of course Alan Brazil just laughed it off.
Typical of Brazil..
The referees in England are terrible.
The second goal was from Lacazette. They see themselves perfectly and can see, see and see again.
The only justification for being an og is to cover up the referee’s mistake of not sent off Rojo by a straaight red (the correct one) or double yellow.
Fellainni should also have been sent off not only for what he did to Ghendouzi, but also for the succession of fouls and the intentional nudge he gave to Liechteiner near the end.
There have been more cases but it seems that in England nobody can speak against referees.
Already in Wolves-Chelsea, the game turned when they did not mark a penalty and expulsion of a player of the wolves in the beginning of the 2nd part. The difference was abysmal and confirmed by statistics. From this unmarked penalty, the players of the Wolwes felt comfortable to do whatever they wanted that were never be penalized and the result turned (and the emotions and the game) . Just like with Arsenal for many years.
There are in my opinion, clubs protected in their games and with influence in the games of other fields.
End for reflection.
Maybe Guendouzi should take a leaf out of Fellaini’s book and get his hair cut short. 😉