There had been a fairly clear narrative all last week (mostly on Sky Sports) where it was obvious to me that Sky via its reporting and punditry were hoping, nay desperate, for a positive Manchester United result at the Emirates this weekend, coming hot on the heels of the United demolition of Manchester City a week ago.
The fact that Arsenal, for the first time in living memory, had a fully fit squad of 23 senior players available and had just defeated Inter Milan, last seasons CL finalists and the leaders of Serie A to boot, 1-3 in Milan, seemed oblivious to the chaps at Osterley, Isleworth!
Then we had Pep Guardiola coming out with the dubious claim that Arsenal were the best team in England, or was it the world and anyway, who cares? But yes, you can see all the usual suspects lining up and setting us up to fail again. Oh wouldn’t they just love to see us fail again?
Anyway Arteta made a couple of interesting selections following on from the San Siro performance where Inter had looked very very dangerous on the counter-attack, a tactic well versed in United philosophy. Therefore Jesus kept his starting berth, technical security is the term and Viktor sat on the bench, a selection which had worked well in Italy.
Hincapie returned at left-back with the job of keeping United’s wide attackers in check with Timber keeping his right-back spot. Our bench was full of talent and game changers, finishers, pace and aggression, exactly what you need against a tiring defence. That was the plan and it seemed a logical plan – but this is football.
The opening exchanges quickly became Arsenal dominating possession with Hincapie initially looking sharp and staying tight on the dangerous Amad whilst Saka looked energised and it seemed that it was going to be one of his better days as Shaw struggled to contain our star winger. There were a few promising phases from Arsenal early on but they fizzled out and slowly United began to regain the pose they’d showed last weekend.
A Rice free kick was driven into the United box and Zubimendi got a good contact but his header was straight at the goalkeeper and he saved it comfortably. Arsenal were creating all the chances but that clinical San Siro finish was missing. Up until then United has failed to register an effort on goal or even a touch the ball in the Gunners penalty area. In fact at times United were dropping into a back five to frustrate us, that is until the 29th minute. Hincapie hit a cross field pass straight to Saka who after teasing Dorku and Casemiro slipped a short pass inside to Odegaard who in turn clipped an innocuous pass towards Timber who had drifted into the centre forward spot. His shot came off of Martinez and deflected into the back of the net and that we thought was business as usual. Not so…
Moments later United flooded forward and through the heart of the Arsenal midfield where the ball ended up at the feet of Bruno but he shot wide. Arsenal needed to stay calm and not get drawn into a chaotic contest but on 34 minutes Bruno was in again and only a strong challenge by Big Gabby stopped the United man even if it didn’t stop him trying to referee the game!
Three minutes later Zubimendi whilst being pressed and instead of whacking it forward gave a simple pass away to Mbuemo who skipped into the Arsenal box to equalise and off came the wheels. Arsenal’s controlled passing disintegrated into a series of poor clearances and nervous giveaways as United grew in confidence. Usually dependable players like Saliba, Zubi, Rice and Big Gabby looked decidedly shaky, the stadium lost it’s confidence and on 46 minutes a poor Big Gabby clearance was almost lobbed back into the Arsenal goal by Mbuemo.
H/T 1-1. Put the kettle on…
Ok, settle down now, Arteta will sort it out once he’s got the boys back into the dressing room but no, Carrick’s half-time talk had United dominating and even strutting across the Emirates pitch, bringing back horrible memories of the dying days of Arsene.
Arsenal were struggling to put together any passing movements and then on 51 minutes Dorgu got in between Zubimendi and Rice and fired high into the Arsenal net. This wasn’t supposed to happen!
Brief hope of a handball against Dorgu was waved away by the Manchester born VAR man Mr Tierney who apparently supports Wigan – of course he does! In europe it’s handball, but not in the Premier League. United later got away with another ‘handball’ but if it’s not your day then it’s not your day.
With the score at 1-2 Arteta tried to liven up his lethargic Gunners and on 58 minutes he made a quadruple change. On came White, Merino, Eze and Gyokeres for Hincapie, Zubimendi, Odegaard and Jesus, Martin and Gabby had been pretty dire. But nothing really changed, United continued to control the pace of the game whilst Arsenal continued to exude lethargy. On 76 minutes Arteta played his last card and sent on Madueke for the disappointing Trossard and to be fair Noni definitely injected some attacking verve but his final ball is frankly hopeless.
On 83 minutes Bakayo Saka got in a blistering low shot towards the near post but Lammens in the United goal pushed it around the post for a corner. Lammens had actually dealt better with Arsenal’s dead ball threat than any other goalkeeper I’d seen this season so I’d imagine that the United coaches had obviously worked hard on that.
From that corner Arsenal finally created the mayhem they had strived for and as Saka’s cross arrowed it’s way into the United box it was like a scrum, the ball bobbled between red shirts trying to force it over the line and black shirts trying to clear it but eventually cool headed Merino stabbed it home, cue celebrations.
The Emirates was rocking again and a winner could have only been moments away and it duly came, only it came to the black shirts from Salford. As Arsenal piled forward looking for a win, the ball was cleared to eventually Cunha who turned inside Big Gabby and fired home from 25 yards. It was like bursting a balloon as any hope just evaporated and United played out the remaining minutes without too much fuss.
Afterwards I went on Arseblog News and after reading some comments you’d have thought that the Samaritans should have been called in. I guess that’s what 22 years without a league title does to some people particularly those who’ve yet to see us win a championship.
Fortunately I’ve seen Arsenal win six titles and none of them were cakewalks, there are ups and there were downs even if you eventually ended up being Invincible. We are still four points in front with 15 games left and I would have certainly signed up for that last August.
We still march on…
By Kev.
Good morning Kev, a hard post-match piece to write I’m sure but you did it well, thanks.
Not looking for excuses but, we are playing three times a week, United once every seven days. Fatigue must be a factor and not all of the squad are fully fit in my opinion.
A bad day at the office.
Morning Gooners, yes and thanks Cicero, I definitely think you’re on to something, United looked sharp and energised especially when it dawned on them that we couldn’t raise our level, their confidence soared and we struggled. I thought that five days between Milan and yesterday would be enough but unfortunately not. Leeds away will be tough and Arteta needs to rotate out most of yesterday’s starters in the midweek game.
Oyyy come on. It was decided beforehand. Pep and Mikel got together and they agreed to lose the games against Utd so they would stick with Carrick for next season as well in the hope that the wheels come off and he gets them relegated and make it difficult for them to find a new coach.
As Kev said in his down to earth match analysis…..4 points at the top with 15 games to play. I would also have taken that in August.
Then again what is frustrating is that 4 points should have been quite much more. This season alone we have lost about 8 points due to carelessness. Games we should have taken more points from but we didn’t because we made the other team seem better than they actually were.
Utd are worse than us. Yet we allowed them to look much better.
This is a game Arsenal has to learn from and very quickly. The game loss for me was down to silly unnecessary mistakes, e.g. Zubmendi’s dreadful unnecessary back pass! Yes we all make mistakes but when you are playing for the top prize you should be switched on at all times. Other factors, nervousness, not thinking all the time, kicking the ball aimlessly, not marking your opponent to the best of your ability and allowing Man U to get the better of them.
Time to move on and put this match down to experiences to be learnt and get back to winning ways.
Every team still has hard and unpredictable games ahead of them as well as the Champs League and the FA Cup. Not all plain sailing.
Let’s show everyone that Arsenal have not lost it!
Is that your deep dive, Cicero?
Brush up on your research and check the comments mate, because I did congratulate Arteta and the team for the performance against Inter Milan.
Stick to sitting on the fence as far as your Arsenal opinion goes.
Thanks Dev, you just have to keep your head whilst other lose theirs. I am just too long in the tooth to join in the general invective, the flip-flopping is exhausting.
Thanks for the match report Kev, you do a great job in difficult circumstances.
I think there’s still a schism in the Arsenal fan-base that is a hangover from the toxic Wenger days, and the reason it still lingers is because we haven’t got over the line.
Some people love Arteta, some just don’t want him, but if he wins big the whole narrative and attitude shift massively and the doubters like me will need to eat humble pie and have a complete mental re-set.
If he doesn’t he deserves to be questioned.
SAH, my apologies I missed your comment altogether. Such a shame because they are normally so amusing, if just a tad repetitive.
Morning Rico and all.
The problem with fans not complaining give a false impression to the owners – players and managers that the fans are happy with the performance of the manager and the players.
At least I have an opinion, Cicero, and they would be less repetitive if others debate, but people hide away like they’re scared to discuss issues around the club and the gulf in performances between the PL and CL, including you.
I’ve seen you have an odd moan about Madueke and Eze, but no deep discussion, you mostly toe the party line and accept being the nearly men.