Arsenal came away from yesterday’s game at Man United with a point, despite lacking the usual freeflowing attacking football that we are used to seeing. In fact the Gunners did not have a shot on target until Olivier Giroud’s late late equaliser from Oxlade-Chamberlain’s superb cross.
Most Gooners were at a loss to understand why Wenger dropped Iwobi and Xhaka in favour of Ramsey (Doh!) and Elneny, but this is how he explained the changes. “I knew it would be a bit more of a physical battle so I chose players who have experience and fight,” Wenger told Arsenal.com.
“That’s why my selection was because of that. At the end of the day, everyone gave their maximum and there is a special spirit in the squad. That’s why we came back, because the players who came on made the difference. That’s remarkable.
By any standard Arsenal were poor, but of course Arsene Wenger as always tries to put a positive spin on coming away with a point, and he thinks we earned it well. “Considering the first half, yes [it was a fair result]. We had a lot of possession but in the second half when we came out of the dressing room, we dropped. We offered less going forward, but when we were 1-0 down we found the resources again.
“We want to be about style and steel but today we were more about steel than style. There’s a remarkable resilience in the squad and that’s why we came back to 1-1. We didn’t have the usual fluency in our game. Was that because Manchester United blocked us well? I think it was because we were also not at our best going forward.”
That may be the understatement of the year Arsene, but we can take some solace that we are still unbeaten in 18 games, and in any other year a draw at Old Trafford would be considered a good result. But oh, the performance was embarrassing!
Admin