Arsenal v Man United Review -Arsenal get sucker punched by Defensive mistakes

Wenger said before the game that Alexandre Lacazette would not be fit for this game, but he was named in the Arsenal starting line-up, so we definitely had our best XI on the pitch. But we couldn’t have got off to a worst start as Man United were 1-0 up in just four minutes through Valencia. I will never understand how he got it through Cech’s legs from there.

But it got worse just 5 minutes later when Mustafi dithered on the ball with no danger, but lost the ball and suddenly Jesse Lindegaard slipped behind the defence and we were 2-0 down! Mustafi went off injured immediately so perhaps that was why he made such a huge mistake? Wenger made a radical change when he replaced the German defender with Alex Iwobi, who is not well known for being a centre-back! So a mistake by Koscielny led to the first goal and the second was down to Mustafi. What happened to our solid defence??

Arsenal had a few chances in the first 15 minutes but few and far between. Our best wasa a freekick on the edge of the box but Sanchez hit it straight at the wall. at 20 minutes Lacazette somehow got in front of his defender but couldn’t get enough on it and it rolled away past the post. Ramsey got a shot off just after but it was too weak to beat De Gea.

The Gunners were getting forward more now, and Ramsey got another shot from a corner but Lacazette got in the way and was offside anyway. Sanchez himself was taken down by Rojo on the half hour but Ozil tried but failed to put pace on it….

Three minutes later we should have got one back but Laca, Iwobi and Xhaka somehow couldn’t get it in, but United immediately broke back and Xhaka managed a last minute stop. End to end stuff. Really entertaining for neutrals but we need to find a way through. Then Ozil got lined up again, but his shot was weak again!

With four mins to the break Ramsey was in the box and nailed on to score but Matic saved United at the last second. Arsenal were all over them and both Bellerin and Kolasinac hit long ones to test De Gea. Nearly half time and Arsenal had had 17 attempts on goal! Another free kick and Arsenal should have finally got it in but De Gea pulled off an amazing stop. 45 minutes of amazing play and no way Arsenal should have still been two goals down….

The second half started like the first, but it was Arsenal that scored after 3 minutes when Ramsey and Laca both beat the offside trap and we were baxk in it at last! But 5 minutes later Lindegaard was through one-on-one but it hit Cech and lofted to the goal but came off the post. Straight away Iwobi was shooting at the other end and suddenly it was all Arsenal again. Crazy stuff!

The Lacazette had another brilliant saved by De Gea and Sanchez couldn’t follow it up. De Gea is keeping United in front with half an hour to go.

Amazingly the first yellow card came out at that point as Rojo takes down Alexis yet again. Ozil’s resulting freekick came to nothing though.

Somehow three minutes Pogba walked past Koscielny n the Arsenal box and put the ball on a plate for Martial from one yard out. 3-1 to United and Arsenal were now desperate for another goal. Alexis made De Gea work again and we had another corner. United defending like mad to not let Arsenal back in the game, and Herrera came on to shore up the United defence.

It’s Wenger’s subbing time too and Welbeck prepares to face his old club again and he replaces Xhaka.

With 15 minutes to go, Paul Pogba went studs in to Hector Bellerin’s knee and was given a straight red. Arsenal have a new chance to get back in. So Wenger throws yet another striker on as Giroud comes on for Kolasinac. Everything but the kitchen sink!

With 8 minutes to go Welbeck’s shot gets deflected and tests De Gea but Arsenal are having trouble getting close to the goal and desperation is setting in. Welbeck should defintely had a penalty but the ref gave nothing. Sanchez and Herrera both get booked but we are limping towards the end. It is unbelievable the chances that Arsenal created but only ended with one goal. Arsenal just couldn’t get through and our Top Four chances have hit a big hiccup…

Great game though…..

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92 Comments

  1. If Arsenal players cannot recover with two day rest, they cannot compete in the Champions League. Manchester United players have longer rest time, but this should not be an excuse for Arsenal players’ lacklustre performance.

    Koscielny and Cech have shown their age, Arsenal should find their replacement next season. Wenger is also too old and too comfortable with his position, he does not bark at his players when they do silly mistakes like the first two Manchester United goals, as if there is no pressure at all to win the game.

    Wenger’s system was a revolution to English football twenty years ago, but it is obsolete now. New manager with new ideas would definitely be needed in the next season to set a better foundation.

    1. I’m want Wenger gone, but I hope you not suggesting this loss is his fault?
      These are professional players not school boys and should not make such errors.

      What boils my blood is we dominated them, but we must bounce back. The title is gone , but we must fight for 2nd and our pride.

      1. The misplaced/ sloppy passes and defending in the first ten minutes were Wenger’s and the players’ fault. These mistakes happened a lot when Arsenal still used 4-2-3-1 formation and they have never been addressed.

        Arsenal were famous of their creative and accurate passes in the past. I wonder what has changed in Wenger’s training programme nowadays, which made Arsenal got punished with silly mistakes like that for many years.

        1. I think this’s game defensive mistakes are not down to Wenger! It is absolutely the players fault. How difficult can it be to send the ball long into Man U’s half we under attack? Are they not mature players? And couldn’t Peter Chec make the save? We played well today and deserved something if the penalty was given. De gea save man united and that is the difference!

          1. Wenger’s decides what players come to the club, he coaches them and it is his job to motivate. He did not make the mistakes himself but he has to share responsibility. If this only happened in one game nobody would comment but this happens far more often in our team than the other contenders. Our players bottle it in the important games too often. And it has happened for years.

          1. I wonder! These are professional players earning good money. And kos is a better player than what he played today!

        1. I would be interested if Wenger leaves at the end of this season and it would be the best season in the last ten years. Europa League will only get tougher and Arsenal are having problem in getting the next season’s Champions League ticket.

      2. Title is gone? Sorry, where we ever in the title race? I know as a fan you have to hope but seriously do you think we will ever win a title again under wenger? Anyways, the team played well in attack and rubbish in defence. We need better defensive awareness and organisation against good teams, it doesn’t show when we play bottom teams though but against top sides we always get punished no matter how good we are going forward but i just don’t think its something wenger will ever master. Top four is still very possible so lets go for it full on!

      3. The difference between the two teams was the goalkeeper. All three balls that went past the Arsenal defence resulted in goals. On the other hand only one of the million balls that went past the united defence resulted in a goal. The rest were saved by the DeGea. We need a good goalkeeper

      4. So disappointed with the result. Hate manure and moureen, so this hurts more than any other losses this season. It will take me some time to get over this……
        I`m in for a bad week 🙁

    2. This is none of Wenger’s fault…we shot ourselves in the foot.
      Wenger got his thing right, Mourinho as usual just parked his bus and De Gea is the man of the match.
      He saved them, Our mistakes in the first half cost us.
      other than that, I’m proud of the performances of the boys

      1. Lost by two goal difference at home and Arsenal’s goal was conceded by two easy shots, I think there is nothing to be proud of. Happy time wasting on Arsenal till the rest of this season, guys.

        1. Until Wenger coaches his defenders to boot the ball into opposition half when they are under pressure his team will always have bad day like this one. How many times have we conceded goals like those. It is purely his fault for such mistake to keeping happening. Where were the other players when many countered us for their third goal. We should compare that to their attitude when we attack them. This is nothing to be proud of irrespective of how we played. We played well though.

      2. Parked the bus!!! … Yes when they went down to 10 but before that it was an unbelievably open game … Hate mourinho but in the end he had players to control the midfield with raw power and capitalized on appalling defensive errors … Latter nothing to do with wenger former is everything yo do with wenger …

    3. I also want Wenger out BUT today he was spot on , picking the best available team , right formation and subs too were well made. To be honest , despite the frustration at being beaten by two bad mistakes from Kos and one awful one from Mustafi, the other players all played a blinder and United were fortunate, in the first seventy mintes esp. They owed their undeserved win to their fantastic keeper and for once I have no gripe whatever with our team or manager, those two defenders apart. They were the ones who lost us the game, no one else on our team. Sometimes in football you do not get what you deserve; TODAY WAS ONE OF THOSE TIMES. What still rankles though is how can this team fight so hard , so brilliantly and so unluckily and yet play so feebly at lowly Stoke and at Watford. THESE TWO GAMES ARE THE REAL FRUSTRATION. What I witnessed from us today, mistakes apart, was heartwarming and I was proud of our team and of our courage and heart. I actually feel sorry for Arsene Wenger today and that is exceedingly rare, in my case.

    1. Arsenal were pathetic. The misplaced passes is the problem that should have been addressed years ago.

      If they cannot pass well, they will never be able to improve their level. It is ironic, because Arsenal were renowned of their pretty passing game in 2000s.

      1. What a travesty of a comment! I thought Arsenal were brave, lionhearted , brillkiant and unlucky. Our two most experience defenders made bad errors and that is why we lost. Your spiteful comment is too ridiculous to be taken seriously and if you really mean it, which I doubt, you have serious sight and brain problems.

  2. Such a disappointment to give away two early goals but I honestly think our attacking players had a good game. They showed a lot of heart, played for the badge. The difference was that they had a world class goalkeeper…

    1. Spot on, mate. I was mad at the defensive lapses because they cost us the game. The attacking part of the team was excellent. De Gea is a force to be reckoned would between the sticks.

  3. Our defense was sh!t today. Our attackers played extremely well but our defense was like here Valencia, here Lingard. Why didn’t Mustafi played the ball to Xhaka or hit it up field? We were sh!t tonight. Now we see what difference having a good gk does. De Gea for Man United and Ter Stegen for Barca. Sad weekend thanks to Arsenal’s defense.

    1. Wenger is too soft to his players. Stupid mistakes like that will not be allowed under Guardiola’s and Mourinho’s management.

      Mourinho benched Lindelof and sold players like Salah and Cuadrado at Chelsea. Guardiola benched Bravo, banished Hart and benched Nolito.

      If Wenger keeps being lenient to his players, misplaced and sloppy passes will always happen.

  4. Welp.. Motm is obviously de gea. All 3 goals were shockingly bad defensively, Should of at least had 1 penalty. We clearly need a replacment for xhaka. He adds nothing to our game at all. Dissapointing….

    1. Two pens actually. Spot on about Xhaka. I can’t see what he brings to the team, even though better today. This 9 year inability to buy a top quality , mobile, speedy CDM has cost us so much over so many years. One top player in that positon would totally transform us. My real beef with Wenger is not today – I thought us unlucky beyond belief, with 31 shots against United which is fabulous – but with his refusal /inability(which amounts to the same WEAKNESS either way) to get us a proper CDM.

  5. Monreal’s decision making while tackling is poor. He was partly responsible for 1 of City’s goals & today as well. There are many more where he has been responsible. The way Monreal defends is called “SUICIDAL DEFENDING”. You can get away from slower oppponents with that kind of defending but not against faster opponents.
    Many will disagree but those who have ” learnt ” football will have already noticed it.
    2ndly people will say how is he responsible for Mustafi’s blunder. Well he actually was. Coz when u r playing as a 3rd choice CB you have to be closer to your other CBs. where was Monreal? He was busy making himself available in the Wingback position. That is insane. Kolasinac should have been there & Monreal closer to Mustafi.
    Bottom line we lost becoz of SUICIDAL DEFENDING.
    THIS HAS BEEN OUR CHRONIC PROBLEM .

    1. We all said this about Monreal last season and then he performed like never before. Think he, kosielny and cech shouldn’t have been fooled like that with there experience.

  6. The ironic thing, we went into this game with the mindset that our defence would not be the problem, which was understandable, we hadn’t conceded a goal in a while. We literally cursed ourselves!

    1. Last game we were also sloppy in passingt the ball. Diffrence against Mounited is you get punished for it.

  7. We had defensive errors, but I thought we played well and deserved a penalty and something from the game. De gea was a good keeper and that was the difference today

  8. I missed the first 20 mins, so i cannot comment on that, but I saw the rest, and that’s the kind of defeat I want to see. We were dominant, pressing, trying everything to score, and everyone putting in a real shift. We usually lose these big games with a whimper, but I feel we lost it being the better side. De Gea kept Utd alive.

    My only issues were: Xhaka needs to be dropped now. Koscielny shouldn’t have let Pobga turn, but why wasn’t Xhaka marking Lingard? He just left him for a tap, which then effectively killed the game. I was actually pleased Wenger today, but baffled as to why he didn’t change the tactics when Giroud came on. We just kept trying to pass it through the eye of a needle, whilst Utd had everyone back bar Lukaku. We should have just stuck Koscielny up there as well, and just keep hitting long balls, and crosses.

    Annoyed we lost, but proud in defeat. The Mourinho hoodoo continues!

    1. Koscielny has passed his prime. Saw how he could not handle Pogba and the other Manchester United players.

      A new central defender is needed to replace Mertesacker and Koscielny next season.

          1. Hmm he is a good player but tactics aren’t his stronger points so he won’t make it at Arsenal. Spuds conceded goals when he played and it was his fould more then ones (fan of spud told me though so probably non info)

  9. Kos and mustafi and Cech were just trash.. but almost everybody else were outstanding.. and wenger.. perfect tactics, superb display by the team if not for schoolboy errors… and this is why video proof is long overdue!! 2 penalties??? if we play this same game 10 times we would probably win 7-8 times against united… thats whats making me angry…

  10. Man U three, three goals. Arsenal give De Gea the record for most saves in a game by a keeper.
    Another record we could of done without

  11. Can’t fault Wenger can’t fault the effort…. But Kos and Mustafi(feigning injury was weak) shot us in the foot early on

  12. I wrote against ozil here when you guys claimed it was his masterpiece that won the 5-0, I said his passes were the obvious ones and the sideways passes……….again I hate to be right, you people worship names here, you don’t analyze performances on the pitch……
    “Yea, I’d say another one, watch our games again with your mind open, and see that sanchez this season and ozil are our average attacking players, they give the obvious pass and sanchez just delays too much hereby stopping most counters, Sanchez’s final ball is very poor, ozil doesn’t show up against better opponents cos he’s bang average, our most creative players for now are Ramsey and kolasinac, and we play very well when they turn up which they mostly do, it is sanchez and Alexis that tunes up to them whenever they like. And lacazette, well, if he gets the service, he’s clinical.
    Bellerin’s final ball is poor these days and he should get competition, mustafi is getting plaudits now, but he’s average at best, monreal is an average player, but he’s giving he’s all which makes him look very good, koscielny is great and cech is getting on form. Xhaka needs competition from Wilshere or coquelin depending on opponents attacking strength, coquelin for stronger sides………..
    Yea, and welbeck, he’s not scoring cause he’s clumsy……………….
    Watch our games again, analyze well and say this guy is always right”

  13. Pathetic – and I don’t mean our defence because the attack should have scored way more than 1

    1. exactly.. if just the play is nice (the credit for that goes to wenger) and the finishing isnt there.. its just useless and the finishing is the responsibility of every individual… sanchez? thats a joke just hit it high! xhaka? hit the target! Laca? except the goal, tooooo much dillydally’ing just bury it, shoot it high into the corner (we all know he’s capable of that) for all his faults giroud would have probably finished 2 of the laca chances because giroud doesnt dillydally like laca/sanchez

  14. and for the attacking play.. it was superb but well.. if you dont bury the chances you will of course come to regret it… sanchez, lacazette, xhaka all three of them made easy chances difficult by not hitting it placed or high

  15. Unlucky day apart from initial defense mistake we played well and i enjoyed the fighting spirit of team till the end.On another day some chance may have been goals.i feel our defense need a change and we should build for the coming season.

  16. this one is really difficult to swallow, its more like how did we not win? rather than how did we lose?

  17. Personally I can’t blame the team today,they showed fight and were positive all through…

    Mustafi really let me down today
    And Kos had a little offday

    Wenger can’t be faulted imo, he did all he could, the mistakes were so bad…

    Overall it was interesting game, if we continue this way, we will make the top 4…

  18. Koscienly and Mustafi ,I can not believe what had gone wrong with these two defenders .We are playing better and I wish we keep this pace

  19. This was one of the many vintage Arsenal faces. Shocking schoolboy defending and after falling behind appearing to make a good effort during the comeback fight. The thing is you are not top team material if you make these defensive errors and fall behind 2-0 with the game over after 15 minutes.

    How often have we seen this?

    1. exactly, it was a rerun, and it has little to do with bad luck or coincidence, when it has happened so often.

    2. We have seen the defensive errors and misplaced passes too many times. Players come and go, but Arsenal are managed by the same manager for more than twenty years.

  20. What you should be asking yourselves is why are koncielny and Mustafi rock solid for their national teams with zero mistakes. The answer is discipline and that comes from the manager and a proper leader on the pitch. Both are non existent since 2004 at Arsenal.

  21. Can’t believe some of the comments . We played some fabulous football at times and only for some great goalkeeping by de gea we would have got a positive result . People criticising Cech should look at some awful defending and distribution in front of him . Wenger biggest fault in the transfer market since he has been at Arsenal has been his failure ( apart from Sol ) to sign quality centre halves and a holding midfielder.

    1. Paul, Your totally correct comment about our decade long lack of top quality CB’s , Kos apart(but not today ) is the key reason we do not fulfill our obvious quality. Also Wengers wilful refusal or just plain inability to get us a quality holding midfielder. We have Xhaka, Coquelin and Elneny, all distinctly poor to average and nowhere near the standard we urgently need.

  22. I don’t blame the players. They tried their best. You can’t expect the average players to play like world class players.
    I don’t blame Wenger for his tactics and lineup for this match but I blame Wenger for not strengthening us this summer. Xhaka is not good enough. We have no strong defensive midfielder or creative central midfielder behind Ozil. Defensively we are the worst we’ve been for a long time. Mustafi is not as good as Koscielny and Koscielny is decreasing with age. Wenger should have signed a top defensive midfielder (like Mourinho did with Matic) and a top centre back. I hope the remaining In Wenger We Trust fans realize what the main problem is and more importantly the Board do the right thing in the summer because we can’t continue like this.

    United, City, Liverpool are better than us.
    They will finish above us. We will fight Chelsea and Spurs for 4th. And we aren’t favorites for 4th place.

    We MUST play our best players in Europa League now (starting from next round). It’s our only hope for Champions League. We need to be in CL to get top players.

    Very sad evening but it’s not the end of the world. There will be another sunrise. Let’s focus on our next match now

  23. The problem is Sanchez. He misses too many chances but if that is all he does then it won’t really be a problem, he goes a step further to ruin 8/10 of the attack he’s involved in and that’s terrible, he lost the ball in the build up to their 3rd goal and he’s been losing balls in positions where we get punished alot. I remember some people here wanted to kill Giroud and Ozil here for the same errors in previous seasons but can’t see you do same to Sanchez. The earlier he leaves the better for us. Btw Iwobi was great today

  24. We got fooled by Mourinho’s tactics again and the mistakes didn’t help. I feel devestaded we couldn’t at least draw. Having said that, the attacking performance we displayed was awesome and if it wasn’t for de Gea we would have won 4-3. If Ozil and Sanchez could rise to there level it could have been an easy game. Lot of if’s but also a lot of fight and positives, which we ALL longed for..

    1. Sorry but I can’t praise the attackers who have 33 chances on goal but can only find the net once. Yes I know De Gea played very well but our attackers should have beaten him 3 or 4 times. Wenger needs to get them practicing their shooting more.

  25. Imagine if we had Pogba… Xhaka is so useless, Cech is so slow, take a look at De gea! … Our attack should have done more… I told you guys we was gonna bottle it…

  26. I don’t know what others think, am so proud of the players today. Three things cost us the march
    1……defensive error
    2…….the incredible performance of De gae
    3…….the usual bias officiating, two geneu penalties turned down. But Man city keep getting there’s week in week out for diving

  27. How can anyone blame Wenger for this loss is beyond me. Mustafi had a major brain fart and was clearly at fault for the second goal. And Koscielny… my oh my… rookie mistake for ManU’s first, and then he just got bullied off the ball by Pogba which led to their third. Nightmare of the game by our defenders. Other than that, give the MOTM award to De Gea, and the ref (sarcasm). On any other given day, it could’ve been a couple of penalties, and 5-6 goals. Can’t blame our midfield nor our attack. The boys played with passion, desire, heart, and left everything on the pitch. Gutted by the loss but actually proud of performance.

  28. 70% possession, the boys played for the shirt no doubt, 2 early mishaps, but they did not give up. sometimes it dont go your way. We were the much better team today, and no one player was giving less than 101%

  29. This match was lost by our defense. I’m sorry to say this but Koscielny is finished. Mustafi has very great potential but that was just shocking. I’m very proud of the performance after going down but I’m frustrated because we shouldn’t have gone down that easily to begin with. This is one match I won’t blame Wenger at all. These players are professionals & they should be accountable for what they do on the pitch. We need to get a Koscielny replacement & Mustafi needs a knock on the head. Damn if only we could get De gea, he is indeed the best keeper in the world. Oh and last but not least, Xhaka has got to be the worst player I have seen in an Arsenal shirt recently. Whoever likened him to Alonso must be high on a very strong substance. That 3rd goal by Lingard made me feel like knocking his teeth out. We can never win the league if we don’t sort out our defence.

  30. Deja vu anyone..
    In Arsenal we trust???? Maybe against Huddersfield but not against anyone decent. Well, we may have the odd win once in a while against a good team but more often than not the narrative will be as it is today..

  31. I feel like warm water…neither hot or cold.
    Great outstanding attacking football But like in any industry, errors get punished.
    Just like Pogba’s error will cost them next week!
    You can’t dissect personal errors. It’s just errors, mistakes, bad decisions. Likewise refs make them – welbeck penalty?

    At 2-1 should arsenal of composed themselves to defend better? Maybe yes but the momentum of the game was like boxers forgetting their defence and attacking blow for blow when the moment in the ring asks for nothing else. Sometimes you have to trade blow for blow…especially when you are behind.

    But the positives I’m left with is we are a far better outfit against Man U then we have been previously. Equally these days we are taking on Chelsea.
    Some fans will say that’s silly…we are AFC we should be the best… but the reality is we fell behind these and other clubs (finiancially) meaning we need to grow as a club again.

    I think we are, even with Silent Stans foot on the breaks.
    But I hope we see AOL next year and I think we should feel the positive outcome of that if we do.

    Victims of the early season drama of transfer window mayhem and player unrest may come back to bite us as points dropped seem to put pressure on any lost now.
    But for now, nothing is won or lost in the league. 7pts between 5th and 2nd. Next week that could be 4pts.

  32. De gea is a good goalkeeper but doesn’t mean Sanchez should not buried lacazate rebound,arsenal don’t have the mentality when when they are called upon to performed at the top level, whether good goal keeping or not is a shame on us,unlikely mistakes from our dependable defenders which show that arsenal don’t have the mentality, if we have kolo toure, keown,Sol Campbell there would be no such mistakes, the seven point clear below man u is big shame for arsenal to lost that massive point… I don’t like Wenger but have to defend him today he got the formation right he was not konsieny or mustafi,i don’t expect Czech to make any difference from those mistakes,where was de gea against Huddersfield?I don’t celebrate failure or take excuses Arsenal lack the mentality to win not good goal barca Won many trophies with victor valdes

  33. Well mates….am gutted by result as we all are….sloppy play indeed….
    But our right hand side looks rugged……belerrin is jx poor….when was de last time anyone saw de guy cross……its jx shocking…..I’ve said it time n time again cech is jx poor..gone are the days when 35 year olds were better keepers….OMG…..jx look at de Bilbao keeper 20years……we need better players….xhaka…well I rest my case….

  34. Sloppy defending cost us todae. The game showed us the deference between a world class keeper and average one. Serious Cech should have saved at least two of the goals. Really poor from him.

  35. I was dissappointed with the result. I usually post negative commnets here, but I saw lots of positives from us. They were hungry and up for it. I felt something was going to happen, I could sense we could turn this around until they scored the third. I enjoyed the intensity and openness of the game.

    I admire Lacazette and his hunger. Even though he scored just one out of tons of his shots yesterday, this can happen to any great player. Ozil suddenly looks transformed to a different player. He FIGHTS! Also, I was impressed with Wenger, which is very rare. He was brave enough to throw all his attacking players despite the fact that it didn’t work as expected. But, at least, that showed his desire.

    My only regret is the form of Sanchez; he was far from his best in the match of such importance. It’s just a pity.

    We made two avoidable deffensive errors and it cost us. But, I must admit they were good and efficient enough not to miss and take full advantage of those mistakes. However, that does not mean they are the better side.

    As long as we keep fighting like this, with sone of two new signings in January, fans, and hopefully the result, will follow.

  36. Musfafi n koshn cost us d game, Ozil improved, Sanchez dropped, our attack today is wasteful, defence leaking goals, not Wenger fault at all. Iwobi nice game. But I think OG needs to play long time in this game, arsenal played 12 corner he could converted one or two. Laca hardly shine against defensive team, Well, I accept today is anoda bad day

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