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PS: Jamie Jackson’s report on the pre-match protests.
Here’s David Hytner’s report from Old Trafford. Thanks for joining us.
Mikel Arteta spoke to Sky: “We had some unbelievable situations but we didn’t get the last shot or the last pass. We didn’t capitalise, we rushed the game, we started to lose duels and we could have ended up losing it…The execution has to be in to the right player and the right player to shoot. How we conceded [chances] in certain moments was not acceptable. They have so much quality and they pick the right player and normally that would end in a goal.
“We opened the gate to lose the game. there was no chance to lose the game and we opened it ourselves. I will defend my players all the time but in those moments we have to do better.”
Ruben Amorim spoke to the BBC: ““It helps when you score a goal and don’t suffer [conceding first], you can feel the energy in the stadium. In this moment, we try to win games, be compact. We were so near in the second half to score a goal. We were really competitive and I think that is important. We pushed forward and not back. We had some situations to win the game. Arsenal put a lot of men inside the box to win and I think Alejandro Garnacho did a complete game and that helped us a lot.”
Goalscorer Declan Rice spoke to Sky Sports: “In the first half, we had some beautiful bits of play but didn’t have that cutting edge. In the second half, we were very naive and almost gave the game to Man United. To get back in the game and to score and keep pushing. It’s probably a fair point in the end.
“We scored seven midweek and that’s not luck. PSV hadn’t lost at home for two years. Man United did well and sat in the low block well. it can take 90 minutes to break that down. There wasn’t much in the game.
“Like the manager said, we’ll keep going until the end of the season. Liverpool have been amazing all year. We’re Arsenal. We’ve been hit hard by injuries. We’ll keep going and we’ll be alright.”
Ramesh in Forest Gate: “Declan Rice shushing the crowd and celebrating his goal rather than picking up the ball and heading straight back to the half-way line sums up why Arsenal aren’t winning the league. Regardless of the injuries, there’s not enough experienced leaders (and Rice is meant to be one of them) or winners with the mentality required to get over the line.”
Dan Christmas is back: “The worst thing about the current ‘handball law’ is that if an attacker had done that and put the ball in, it would’ve been handball. Actually, the worst thing is being called an Arsenal fan…”
Adam Roberts: “I don’t know about Dan Christmas but when I was young the idea that these ‘handballs’ could be penalties would be met with ‘Behave’.”
The table: sorry reading for Arsenal. Two points from nine possible has cost them. United, in 14th, are just a point short of the magical 35-point total. They’ve got 10 games to make it 40.
Andy Flintoff: “It’s disappointing for fans of 80s Sheffield synth-pop that Ayden Heaven wasn’t given the squad number 17. Surely they could have persuaded Garnacho to move to free it up?”
Insert Penthouse and pavement gag here.
To set aside any reffing complaints, did Arsenal actually play well enough to beat a United team that’s the worst in decades? Not in this view. They were impotent first half and then oddly nervous in the second. The equaliser should have signalled a rousing push for the win. In fact, it was United who might have stolen it. The easiest – and best way – to win is to claim victory for yourself, not via the back door of VAR and the like.
Dan Christmas, an Arsenal fan presumably calls “referee!”: “I know Heaven headed it on to himself by accident, but surely there’s got to be something given when the ball virtually settles on both arms. Definitely one of those situations that makes me wonder if they should just give every handball as handball, forget deliberate or natural silhouette etc. That’s how we all played it in the playground/field/any bit of open ground, isn’t it?”
That means Liverpool need 16 points from nine games. Arsenal are dejected. It took David Raya’s save to stop them suffering a worst day. United played well in the second half. Perhaps all is not lost for Ruben Amorim. Declan Rice scored a fine equaliser. It won’t be enough to stop Arsenal being the bridesmaid for the third season running,
90+4 min: Raya ran back to scoop the ball away as Colyer chased the rebound. The game closes out with Arsenal unable to make much of a free-kick despite some obvious anxiety among the United defenders. That’s all, signals referee Taylor.
90+3 min: Oh my! So close. Fernandes runs on to the ball. Laid on a plate and Raya pulls off a quite amazing save! The ball spins clear. It looked a certain goal!
Arsenal’s David Raya makes a fine double save. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters
90+2 min: Arsenal go close….Martinelli….from Onana’s parry. Offside saves the Arsenal man’s blushes.
90+1 min: Raya’s goal-kick is poor too. If getting it launched is coming back into fashion, the keepers must do their bit.
90 min: Lindelof on a long run, sets up Garnacho, who uses Colyer as a dummy and then shoots. It flies over. Four minutes will be added on.
89 min: Garnacho’s weaving run is wasted by Fernandes’ poor pass. Heaven makes another tackle. Fernandes has hurt himself in the act of trying to make up for his mistake.
88 min: Heaven, against his old club, has put it about, just as much as Lewis-Skelly. The fearlessness of youth.
87 min: Chance for United. Colyer sets up Hojlund but in comes Gabriel to rob his moment of truth. He bangs the ground (drums?).
85 min: There’s a winner to be found here. Arsenal look by far the more likely.
83 min: United have pushed up, and Merino loses the ball in front of his own goal. It comes to Hojlund. Is this his moment? No, Declan Rice pulls off a tackle. No penalty. Arsenal soon counter, Tierney fizzing wide. End to end.
Arsenal’s Declan Rice challenges Manchester United’s Rasmus Hojlund. Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters
81 min: Onana called into action again, Martinelli’s shot. There’s a series of corners. Lewis-Skelly is in the middle of it all. Then a call for a VAR pen for pushing. Waved away.
79 min: United last lost at Old Trafford when winning at half-time in May 1984. These records do keep falling. Was that the Ipswich game? Yes, it was. Jason Dozzell and all that? Winner scored by Alan Sunderland, a portentous name in United history.
78 min: Mazraoui and Fernandes exchange passes but the skipper can’t get enough purchase on his shot.
77 min: Garnacho’s cross, De Ligt’s header is too weak to beat Raya. The game opening up?
76 min: United changes: Eriksen off for Colyer, Zirkzee off for Hojlund. Tierney is on, too. Partey is the man departing.
75 min: Rice celebrates, but alone. His teammates want to resume the game and go for the win. A break is taken where Ramadan-observing players are given chance to sate themselves. The sun has just dropped.
Rice, from the edge of the box, smashes it.
Rice fires in an equaliser. Photograph: David Price/Arsenal FC/Getty Images
Rice celebrates scoring his team’s first goal. Photograph: Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC/Getty Images
73 min: VAR check – no handball from Heaven. The youngser next pulls off a fine tackle to rob Martinelli.
72 min: United in a full defensive five now, with three shielding that. Raheem Sterling, linked with United last August, sits and watches. Kieran Tierney is coming on instead.
70 min: Long delay, more farting around, and Garnacho as draft excluder. It hits the wall. The United wall jumped forward. Casemiro’s bonce nods the ball clear.
69 min: Arsenal have a free-kick in the position where Fernandes scored from. Did Lewis-Skelly dive? Yes, but free-kick given. Mazraoui measures the distance to be 10 yards.
67 min: Onana takes a goal kick and shanks it way out of play. It’s a lost art the keeper who can thwack the ball to the halfway line from a goal kick. Steve Ogrizovic must be raging in his Coventry mansion at the loss of his art. Dave Beasant said to be angry, too.
65 min: Another corner, conceded by Lindelof. This one is taken short, and eventually, Trossard scuffs the ball wide.
63 min: Arsenal try to find their way through, Casemiro chasing down shadows on the edge of his box. Garnacho gets his first go at Lewis-Skelly, who is strong, too strong, and and commits a foul.
61 min: Arsenal corner. Onana comes way out. Panic stations, averted when Gabriel cleans out Mazraoui. Arsenal have become more…physical.
59 min: Two Arsenal changes. Lewis-Skelly and Martinelli on, Calafiori, toasted, goes off, as does the quiet Nwaneri. Zirkzee then almost pulls off a flicked finish.
58 min: Did Merino deliberately stand on Garnacho? It looked that way. VAR doesn’t bother looking at it.
57 min: Some hurried United defending as Arsenal attempt to pass through them. Raya is at the halfway line. Everyone is back for United. It’s a long time to defend so deep.
56 min: United are getting more confident in attack. Arteta is getting ready to make changes. Big roars from the home fans as De Ligt crunches Merino.
54 min: Close! Zirkzee shrugs off Saliba, Dalot plays it to Mazraoui, whose volley is well saved by Raya. That could be a crucial moment.
52 min: Zirkzee clears the latest corner, Calafiori attacking the ball as he did so.
50 min: A flurry of Arsenal chances. Odegaard from distance, and Onana is ruled to have palmed over. Then Rice gets a swing at a volley, a decent chance. Arsenal resume their corners at the United end.
49 min: Will United fans regale Ayden Heaven to either of these songs?
Or the Roses’ Breaking Into Heaven?
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47 min:
The free-kick’s wall was 11.2m, according to Sky’s boffins. Meanwhile, Mazraoui goes on a burst and Arsenal have to clear. United are targeting that right-hand side. Garnacho goes on a dribble. He’s having Calafiori on toast, which sounds like a rather nice dish, an entree, perhaps.
46 min: And there’s been a change. Leny Yoro was too sick to continue and Ayden Heaven is on.
Crispin gets in touch from LA: “Disagree that Raya had no chance. He set the wall badly, invited the right footer to curl it into the empty space and then was nowhere close to saving it when Bruno hit the obvious spot. It wasn’t even right in the corner.”
So, perhaps he gave himself no chance.
Joe Pearson: “About Nicolas Jover’s waning efficacy: the rest of the league has had 28 matches (and more) of tape to watch. Just sayin’”
I saw Austin McPhee draw a blank yesterday at Brentford, too. Is it the end for set-piece experts? Gone the way of chimney sweeps?
Chris Finnegan: “You’ve nailed it with this Arsenal strip. After my star-crossed wedding we had three tables in the pub: my mates on ‘Highbury’, hers on ‘Highfield Road’, and us in the middle, dubbed ‘Wembley, 16 May 1987’. “‘Gary Mabbutt’s Left Knee’ had been mooted but ultimately deemed ‘open to deliberate misinterpretation’. “
Pete Smith: “Regarding the farting around at corners, if a goalie holding the ball for 8 seconds results in a corner, then will excessive farting around at corners result in a goal kick? Or does the world continue to be massively biased against defenders?”
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