Hindustan Times (Lucknow)

At Arsenal, less bumbling, lot less grumbling IN TRANSITION

Gunners’ old fragility remains but their reaction to difficult situations is much better under coach Emery

- New York Times sportm@hindustant­imes.com ▪

MANCHESTER:In those frantic final minutes, as all sense of order broke down, as the noise crackled and the tension grew, Arsenal’s players did what they always used to do, what they always seemed cursed to do, what they were always derided for doing.

After all those months of detailed, intelligen­t, intricate coaching from Unai Emery, all those hours in front of the video screen analysing themselves and their opponents, all those days spent on the field making the finest of adjustment­s to their body positions, they reverted to type.

The moment that encapsulat­ed it best came not long after Manchester United’s second goal, its second equaliser in this 2-2 draw, though that was telling in itself. That second goal had come only a minute after Arsenal had re-establishe­d its lead, after Jesse Lingard had found himself in front of Bernd Leno, the Arsenal goalkeeper, with the ball at his feet, almost by accident.

He had wandered there — ambled, even- straight from kickoff. His movement belied no great sense of strategy, no cunning purpose. He took three paces backward after restarting the game, into Arsenal’s half. He jogged a little, turned, and then watched asRo mel uLuka ku and Shkod ran Mustafi jostled for the ball.

More in hope than expectatio­n, he took a couple of steps forward. Sead Kolasinac, for reasons best known to himself, tried to play a pass back to Leno. It made it only as far as Lingard, who needed a beat to realise quite what had happened, to process the nonsensica­l sequence of events that led him here, to the point where he was about to score a goal.

At no point did any Arsenal player consider tracking his run. Nor did anyone try to challenge him, until Leno had no choice. It was all very Arsenal.

More telling still, though, was what happened a few moments after Lingard’s goal. Arsenal poured forward, desperate to atone for the errors that allowed United to draw level. The move broke down. Suddenly, Lingard had the ball in the middle of Arsenal’s half, with three teammates around him. Arsenal’s defense had evaporated, its full-backs

marooned upfield, their responsibi­lities forgotten in the excitement. United blew the chance, but it was all very Arsenal.

This is what always used to happen, of course: the lapses in concentrat­ion, the drifting into complacenc­y, the lack of discipline, the shortage of tactical common sense. These were the shortcomin­gs that pockmarked the last years of Arsene Wenger’s reign as manager, when his team was always one defeat away from a crisis and rarely more than a set piece away from a defeat.

They were the gifts that would be greedily gobbled up by opponents, the moments that would draw a roar of discontent from fans, the incidents that would come to dominate the post-match inquests and the radio phone-ins and, increasing­ly, the hyperbolic, performati­ve fan channels on YouTube.

They were the proof that Wenger had lost it, that his time was up, that he had to go.

They have happened quite frequently recently during this moderately unlikely unbeaten run.

Some things do not change, or at least they do not change that quickly.

What is different, though, is the reaction. The bile no longer bubbles up so rapidly. Arsenal’s travelling supporters no longer carry with them a sense of imminent mutiny.

Not every game seems like a referendum on the future. Not every setback leaves the players on their haunches, staring off into the middle distance, wondering where it all went wrong. It is almost as if everyone involved, for the first time in a long time, feels able to enjoy it all, good and bad alike.

And so, as this game — once the Premier League’s marquee game — descended into a glorious chaos, a contest defined not by either team’s strengths but by their glaring flaws, a reminder that soccer, that sport, is essentiall­y arbitrary and that the temptation to draw sweeping conclusion­s at all times is to be resisted, Arsenal’s fans did not chide their team for their mistakes.

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