Arsenal take a 1-1 draw away from Old Trafford, but some fans will certainly have felt like they could have taken more, myself included.
The team line-ups left a lot to be imagined with the likes of Saka starting for Arsenal, while Tuanzebe, Andreas Pereira and Scott McTominay in the opponents side meaning there was plenty of youth from the academy’s in such a big game, with the everpresent Marcus Rashford also representing his side’s homegrown talents.
The first half was more about wastefulness from both sides in reality, although Matteo Guendouzi and Andreas Pereira were doing well in midfield to break up each sides play, and just as the game looked to be destined to reach the break tied, a goal comes from nowhere. Scott ‘McTerminator’ is the surprise name to break the deadlock. The midfielder has opened up to launch a shot towards goal, only for the ball to clip off Sokratis and past Leno, with the German having had a steady yet comfortable half prior to that.
Having had bright spells and seemingly the better team on paper, this was not the half-time teamtalk we had been expecting.
No changes at the interval, but things did look brighter after the break. Our team was causing much more problems for the United back-four, and the previously named Andreas has seemingly disappeared off the pitch, and before long, we equalise!
Of course it wouldn’t be Old Trafford without the refereeing decisions to go against us, but thanks to VAR Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang has his goal given back to him, with the replay showing that the £80 Million Harry Maguire was clearly keeping him on. Game on!
Almost straight from the kick-off and we are at United again, and I can barely believe my eyes as the ball goes over the bar. Chambers and Guendouzi combine perfectly to take Tuanzebe out of the game and leave Calum out wide all alone and he finds Saka just outside the nine-yard box, only for a slight deflection to send the ball just over the woodwork.
The game started to slow down again shortly after, and with 15 minutes to go some more young blood is thrown into try and win the game, namely Mason Greenword for United and Willock for Arsenal(who replaces Saka who has shown plenty today). Suppose I should mention that the £60M Fred also came on for United but you know…
Normally coming away from Old Trafford with a point would be a good result, but as the match was beginning to wind down I started to think that this was a big opportunity to break our hoo-doo of away games against the rest of the top six. This was a great opportunity to beat United, and would have seriously left us with a clear advantage over the Red Devils, but there is always time for one last twist…
90th minute of the match and United have a free-kick RIGHT on the edge of our box. It is the exact spot you want a last minute free-kick to be taken from, and we are on the receiving end, and Leno saves at his near post!
Then at the other end we have our chance, only for Willock to fail to get a clean contact on the ball as we watch it dribble over to the goalkeeper, but wait… We now have a last-minute free kick down alongside the box… Surely not… And no… Ceballos fails to beat the first man.. Game done. Fair result in fairness, but we had more than our fair share of chances to have won that game.
Were Arsenal the better side? Is that draw a disappointment?
A draw is fair. Honestly, Pepe had no flavour today. Plz, someone else should be made captain.
I agree.
Why Emery chose Xhaka is beyond me!
Actually starting him instead of Ceballos, one of our best players was bad decision
Fair Result
Maybe different result had Ceballos started
You cant be sure of winning with him starting, he has switch off this season as well.
You already agreed , it was a fair result, lets leave it at that and not question why this player start and that player do not. Result is all that matters, the coach knows why, i would have love to see Ceballos start as well or, Xhaka get subt for him instead of Torreira ,however, result showed his decision wasnt bad, so i agree with the man
How much i love having Auba? Always wanted Le prof to sign since st etienne days, le prof signed laca but me still said “I WANT AUBA”. Auba finally signed and people were still saying he only scores “TAP INs”, me laughs happily. Enjoying AUBAAAAAAAAAAAAA.
Invisible, couldn’t agree more, but a little worrying is that he still hasn’t signed a new contract.
He is in his last two seasons and, according to the club, if ANY player refuses to sign in these circumstances, they will be sold.
I just hope we don’t have another Ramsey debacle looming at the club.
Ken, it may have to do with Unai. If Unai’s contract is extended, then in all probabilities it will be Adieus Auba. The other way around if it is Adieus Unai. And I feel Lucas and Laca will move too. Ceballos will be gone back. Next season, back to square, defense will be sorted with Rob, Tierney, Salliba, mid and attack will be short of options. Pepe has turned out to be a world class flop to add to MO10. That is the arrogance of the board, when Wilf was available for a similar amount and was interested to sign, we went in for Pepe. It would have been OK had the fee been below 30Million, not at 72Million.
Loose Cannon, there could be something in your comments regarding UE, it does seem strange that the club have gone very quite regarding new contracts.
The bond between Auba and Lacs would also give weight to your thoughts about their future and Lucas must be tearing his hair out being played out of his natural position and not playing 90 minutes as well.
Also agree on the defence, we have seen enough to know that, with the addition of Saliba and barring serious injuries, that department seems secure.
I feel that UE needs to take Pepe out of the firing line for a few games, he obviously hasn’t adapted to the premier league yet, but let’s not forget how long it took for Pires and Bergkamp to adjust…UE needs to nurture him a little.
Agree about zaha, but the valuation Palace put on him was as ridiculous as the £72,000,000 we paid for Pepe (at the moment anyway).
Come the summer, Palace will have to be more realistic, because (I think?) he will only have one year left on his contract.
Won’t be drawn on MO though, I think the club is acting in the worst possible way to the man…just come out and tell the fanbase what they plan to do and then we can all move on – here’s a thought…could that have anything to do with the contracts stalling?
Maybe different result if Emery didn’t start with 3 DM’s in midfield again. Why we didn’t attack that limp utd team is a mystery.
What happened to the aggressive, attacking, pressing style of play Emery promised when he came on board?
No guts no glory, perfectly sums up Emery’s Arsenal team.
Yeah….. I’d rather win 4-3 than 1-0… 😂😂… more like I’d rather sit back and bore fans to death, than field our best players.
I mean, how was this crappy manure team able to dominate possession against us… it just beats me…. and some people are still able to come up with excuses for him… smh. I doubt his contact will be renewed anyway
Disappointing…..
Are you sure that disapointing is proper word? Pathetic, hopless coaching as usual, disapointing means we were expecting something. We just can’t with Emery, but be hurt as he does it for over a year now, can’t pick team nor players to be replaced. No balance nor tactic! A “disaster” he will soon be label as “master of”. Retarded!
Xhaka ducked for Man Utd’s goal.
Come on man.. it was instinctive and reactionary…nobody could consciously take a screamer to the face even if they wanted to. I saw Mertesacker duck a goal vs Liverpool a couple of seasons back.
Without sentiments and excuses, it was a pissful poor performance, we deserved nothing.
Both team deserved to go their separate ways with zero points.
Arsenal’s much more worse, considering the number of players we had available, a poor United team and we went ahead to be defensive in the first half, so we started three DMs yet, that couldn’t stop the inevitable, United had more space in the middle than we did. You have to wonder, why the hell are we playing these three guys then?
Torreira can’t do Ramsey’s job, Torreiera can’t be creative upfront, Emery needs to wake up from his slumber and push the guy back to his position.
Pepe looked so lazy not just wasteful, yet we’ve called Ozil names for not running on the pitch also. It’s his first season I know, but he needs to sit on the bench next, let Saka replace him, and play Martinelli on the LW.
I’m saying this from watching Saka play for the U23, Saka can play and do play anywhere upfront.
LW or RW, name it.
Let Martinelli get a shot at it too, let Pepe sit out a bit.
I expect him to come good but for now he needs to sit.
As for leaving out a certain player at home so he can play fortnite, I really don’t know what to call that.
At least it’s a breather, people don’t get to fault him for every of our piss poor performance, but some would find faults and till today blame him and call him out even when he doesn’t get the chance to play.
Did we deserve three points ? No we didn’t!
Could we have gotten it and take it? Clearly it was there for the taking, but we let it slip.
I’m sorry, this squad ain’t as poor as people try to make it look, we just need our manager to start being fair and honest when selecting players, we just need him to grow some balls and for once stop being scared of piss poor teams.
For those of you with numerous lame äss excuses, tell me, After City and Liverpool. Right now which club has the best team? Answer yourself honestly and then you can see why other fans are frustrated we keep playing like this every week
Well said Eddie!
Eddie, i understand you dont really rate Emery, lets leave it at that, you dont need to find fault at everything he does, to me, it was a fair game, u will agree with me that Solkjea needed that match to save his job, more reason it was a difficult game, both team had injured first teamers no excuse, we played ok, for me. Lets see what UE can do, i still feel we will achieve ucl this season
No team did enough to win the game.
We wanted to be compact and defend solidly. Arsenal needed to show a solid defensive performance at a place where we haven’t won in a long while. It was also important to give that shape so we are not so open. With this understanding we can attack with confidence then attack and leave ourselves open.
I think some people think being able to have a defensive structure…even against a weak United team is just silly. But you can take away trophies from fans, but you cant take away what Old Trafford means to the fans. They where a huge benefit to their players today. For us, that long term defensive structure – whether it be against united or against Norwich we must be consistent on this side for a league not just some games.
Tierney bellerin Holding is a matter if time.
Regarding forward play, Torerria and Gendouzi did ok. Gendouzi tried to change the pace up, Torerria kept close to Podga which is a mindset we wouldn’t of thought of previously. Our top 3 players have some real talent but only Laca and Auba currently look to click when playing together.
When we talk about our team needing to grow – the defence to improve… we must also consider our forward players to integrate still. Nelson Willock Saka Pepe Ceballos where all not fighting for a 1st team spot last season.
Alot of development, growth, improvements still to happen.
Be part of the process as fans.
Well said..
Our defence will look totally different from the start of the season..as long as we avoid injuries
Totally frustrating tonight then I have to take a reality check and understand there were a lot of inexperience players out there
A player from another country still trying to adapt to the pace and his new teammates (I think I would taken him off after 10 mins of the start of the 2nd half..he struggled all night)
Should have beaten the man’s but then again could have lost
Fair result at the end
Of all the words used by fans on the game, frustration is the one that best describes tonight. Well said.
New players needing time is also a key point.
Let’s keep working away. It’s a shame the goal we conceded was from transition play. But this squad will get better with more of these players now back.
We went and drew a match we should have won and to see some of us (in other posts) feeling happy that we came away with a point from OT, is a bit lame. This ManU is probably the weakest team they had in years and we, on the contrary, one of the strongest in years. Emery has to answer for this.
I’m quite used to see some say this was an interesting game and that Xhaka played well: if this isn’t jaw dropping, then I don’t know what is. Xhaka was terrible and the game was average between two teams with no fixed gameplan. It was more scrappy than fluid, and the goals were going to come against the run of play, and so it did.
I bemoan our team having lost the Arsenal way of playing attractive football and we are drawing games that we should easily win. With the current line-up even losing to ManC and Liverpool should shock us fans, but we end up drawing 3 games of which one is to the bottom team.
The starting lineup was a shocker, bit the substitutions bizarre – Imagine taking off Saka and replacing him with Willock, while ideally it should have been Pepe. Xhaka should have been replaced with Ceballos (considering he didn’t start in Xhaka’s place) and Torreira playing DM. Reiss wasn’t impressive as a sub for Pepe.
Why not start tierney bellerin chambers holding? Why emery still luv kolasinac luiz papa i don’t get it.. Damn.. We supposed to win this game with correct line up… Again, disappointed line up at back and xhaka should save the goal if he head the ball but he avoid the ball and let it in.. Stupid..
I have no clue what Emery is up to
Some of us here think UE isnt good enough/not the man to take us forward, some are yet to get over Ozil absence in the team, well i want to say u guys direct attack/negative comments are getting out of hand.
Its good to be objective, criticism is allowed but it should be done on games not bringing past emotions.
I like most have been disapointed this season esp Watford and Liverpool games, i even said i wasnt going to forgive Emery for the Watford game but i will never pull down the coach tactics and formations like most ppl are currently doing because i know the coach is more knowledgeable than me and most of us, i suggest you guys do the same.
Immediatly lineup was posted here , everyone came up with one fault or the other, castigating the team and coach before the ball was kicked, that was too much.
Am looking forward to how my arsenal will perform this season, i hope we all give the coach opportunity to honour his contract. As for today match, am satisfied, it was a fair result
Maybe I watched a different match, but the Arsenal I watched tonight was a solid Arsenal, we’ve not win there in 12 years and all of a sudden some think we will go there and destroy them, I enjoyed the match but if you think the match was boring then I don’t know what to say, Young tried to bully Saka but the boy had a strong mind, the coach tactics and formation was spot on, if only Pepe had a good game we would have beaten them.
if we nicked a draw when man u is at their better. then it will be worth celebrating. that will be like nicking a draw at liverpool with this their current team. why we werent beaten like liverpool did us was down to man u in an abysmal state. its a shame we couldnt beat em… watch what the likes of leicester, liverpool and man city will do there.
Hahahahahagah dude stop smoking what Emery gives you. You say tactics formation was spot on and then go on to say If Pepe had a good game we would have won. On that note Auba had a great game and still we drew.
A child of six would have put out a better lineup. Unfortunately Emery couldn’t find one in time and so, after his panic attack had subsided, he had to choose the formation himself.
Just after the kick off the child of six was found. After checking the teamsheet he asked ‘Which numpty threw this lot together?’. Seeing Emery cowering in the corner of the dressing room he said ‘Can’t I leave you alone for one bleedin’ minute!?’
YOU ARE SLOW, YOU ARE VERY SLOW.
Iam hoping for your own good its not the perspective you adopt in life. Reactive approach, life will slip by you. Be proactive, spot the danger before it ruins everything.
And about the way Arsenal is playing right now shouldn’t be brought in the equation. Coz that will have a fading effect on the love you have for your Coach Emery. Its umpteenth time letting you know it’s not just the results and tactics and formations and the right players. It is also about the identity of Arsenal Football.
We got very lucky to not lose, saved by AubaSaka… Same BS coaching, different game. We get lucky to not lose or win as Villa!
Our starting 11 is wrong as players coming off! Emery just can’t get it right no matter players available!
Common sense will have Niles as RB to cop speed of James, Mustafi Holding as CBs worked well and Mustafi can support Niles. Infront or CBs with Mctommay & Drogba, se needed Chambers body and defensive skills and not have ran off by James as a RB! Gendouzi next to him with Willlock. Nelson & Saka on flanks, Auba as number 9.
Leno
Niles – Mustafi – Holding Kolas
Chambers
Gendouzi Willock
Nelson Saka
Auba
Nelson Gendouzi Chambers to support Niles, Willock Saka Chambers to support Kolas, that is how team get balance.
Going forward Willock Gendouzi would support attacks, Chambers to make numbers as Niles going forward to oblige James to defend.
Tomckay would not score with that double triangle nor James as a threat with Niles, Nelson combining…
Make changes with torreira for Saka, Martinelli for Nelson, Ceballos for Willock!
Emery left Ozil home to not even start Ceballos… Useless coach with no sense, players are as we are; fed up.
Am sure you are better than him atthis, why not apply for the job when his contract expires at the end of the season.
U wanted us start AMN ahead of an in-form Chambers? Welldone with your formation, thank God you are not the coach Because this formation of yours is enough to give us a serious spank at OT
Very happy with a great result.
Emery is doing fantastic with a very weak squad.
Up to 4th place.
Above United Spurs and Chelsea.
Sell Ozil Mkhitarian and Mustafi in Jan. Buy a top class CB and DM.
On to Standard Liege + Bournemouth.
Happy days Gooners 🙂
I have to give it to those who are giving hope in believing that Emery is Gonna take Arsenal FC anywhere. A coach that freezes when he see all other teams and hid under tinkering to adapt to opponent tactics at the deterrence of his own teams.This Man Utd game shows that he knows nothing about taken advantage of other teams when it’s obvious they are there to be taken. Whatever reason he plays 3 DMs can’t be explained by any body who watched this match, it’s more like wanting not to lose rather than take advantage of an over weak manutd team,well will wait till end of the season but am sure come what may even if he achieved the top four agenda,we will all look back at games like dis and ask ourselves if we could have push harder for top two.
Well said Seroti – I share your bewilderment about those who believe that Emery knows what he’s doing. He clearly doesn’t as he proves every time he fills in a teamsheet.
Admin – well done. No problems with the site now.
Yes!
Before this game, like every other game, I said to myself: depends on which Arsenal side turns up. Should we have won the game? No! Could we have won the game? Yes! With the rubbish we dished up we can be gteatful for the lonely point.
With the team Emery started the game and also considering the changes and subs later, Arsenal doesn’t deserve more than one point.
Champions are afraid of not winning convincingly. Title contenders are afraid of not winning, also-rans are afraid of losing.
What are we now?
Emery may not be a bad coach, but he is only good enough for teams aspiring to be best of the rest. Sometimes you have to admit that, though SEAT is not a bad car, it is not the same as JAGUAR. Emery’s also-ran mentality is his biggest weakness. Can he improve himself in time before it is too late for us?