THANK GOD FOR JOSE
City would have title in the bag already if it was not for United
THINK what you like about Jose Mourinho and Manchester United but be grateful for one thing: if it wasn’t for them, we would no longer have a Premier League title race.
The Christmas lights are only just going up but already the field is down to two. Liverpool have fallen away because they can’t defend, Chelsea and Tottenham because they didn’t invest properly in the summer and as for Arsenal, well, they were never really credible contenders in the first place.
So we are left with Manchester City, the best team in England by some distance, and United, that team of proper football men who just will not go away.
In the foyer of the Emirates on Saturday evening, Mourinho stood talking to friends with a grin as wide as the Thames. His face was flushed with the glow of another important victory and if you think he might feel slightly embarrassed by the manner in which it came then you don’t understand him.
Winning at Arsenal — even this limp version — always represents a very good day for Mourinho. To him, it doesn’t matter if the opposition have two shots on goal or 33, as they did here.
If you win at the Emirates it tells you something about your team and this triumph was built on the clinical, stubborn, wilful qualities he has brought to United.
Is there another side to this United team? Yes. They scored three beautifully taken goals and have now bagged more than Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool.
Ultimately, though, United won this game simply because they refused to lose it. The weight of possession and chances told us that this should have been Arsenal’s day. But United triumphed because they did the important things right and Arsenal did not.
United’s players have bought into the Mourinho creed, their mental approach now mirrors his. That will take them a long way even when the squad is not deep enough to take them all the way.
United are a team of men fully understanding of what it takes to win a game like this.
Saturday’s match was all about the start. Arsenal’s defending was so bad that it encouraged humiliation — and that was what it got.
Three players — Laurent Koscielny, Sead Kolasinac and Nacho Monreal — were at fault for United’s first goal and one — Shkodran Mustafi — for the second. Both times United executed beautifully for Antonio Valencia and Jesse Lingard to score.
What followed marked the difference between the teams. While Arsenal couldn’t defend adequately in surrendering the initiative, United did everything humanly possible to ensure they kept it. And without the remarkable David de Gea, United wouldn’t have seen the game out.
After Arsenal scored a lovely goal at the start of the second half they gave it back again 15 minutes later, Paul Pogba bullying and embarrassing Koscielny to create Lingard’s second on the counter.
Arsenal should have had at least one penalty late on, while the double save De Gea made from scorer Alexandre Lacazette and then Alexis Sanchez at 2-1 was the highlight of a thrilling game.
United must beat City at Old Trafford on Sunday to make a real fist of things and they will have to do so without Pogba. The Frenchman said he didn’t mean to stand on Hector Bellerin’s leg, being
caught out by how he kneeled down to try to block his run.
Pogba is out of the biggest game of the Premier League season and without him, United’s chances of blowing a hole in City’s campaign are significantly reduced.
United will start the Manchester derby as second favourites but we do know one thing: they will not die wondering.
In the foyer of the Emirates, Jose Mourinho stood talking to friends with a grin as wide as the Thames