WENGER STAYS IN THE CHASE
His first win over Mourinho decides battle of outsiders
NOT a mutinous flypast in sight on this, Arsene Wenger’s first competitive win over Jose Mourinho at the 15th time of asking.
Manchester United loyalists may claim they had their shadow XI out, but it still contained enough quality to get a result. Juan Mata, Wayne Rooney, Anthony Martial, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Ander Herrera, Michael Carrick, David de Gea — and Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard after the second went in, by which time it was too late.
Inescapably, though, the best team won. United had good chances in the first half, but Arsenal dominated the second, even if the goal that broke the deadlock came from a fortuitous deflection.
The second was quality — Danny Welbeck’s third goal in consecutive games against his former club. Do you think he might bear the tiniest grudge?
Leaving aside the personal battles — Wenger versus Mourinho, Welbeck versus the departed Louis van Gaal — this was a big win for Arsenal for another reason, restoring their outside hopes of earning a place in the Champions League, if Liverpool continue to falter.
True, they still need to win all their games in hand, and even then would be a point short of what is needed — but Liverpool are losing momentum at the wrong time and Arsenal’s remaining fixtures are relatively benign. Southampton and Stoke away. Sunderland and Everton at home. Build on this, exert a little pressure and who knows? Hope springs eternal.
Mourinho has been talking down United’s hopes of reaching the Champions League by domestic standing and, however self-serving that stance may be, this result seems to endorse it. They should still be in the mix, even after this, but if he perseveres in prioritising the Europa League matches, they won’t be.
Perhaps he should be commendedmended for his pragmatism. Defeating feating Celta Vigo carrying a 1-0 leadd from the away leg and then overcomcoming a promising but youngung Ajax team in the final is probbably the smarter percentage ge game. It just seems a pityy that with Manchester City y and Arsenal to play in their run-in and a real chance to affect the league placings,s, United have performedd within themselves.
They settled for a draw at City and would clearly have been happy with one here,e, too, judging by the numbers theyhey put behind the ball.
Mourinho will say United also produced the best early chances but it was hardly the hammer-andtongs encounter of old. And if the manager makes plain his priorities are elsewhere, that is always going to filter down to his players.
The personnel he introduced suggested the aim was a furious fightback once Arsenal went two up, but there was little evidence of the United of old.
Maybe next season, having got his team organised and imposed his standards on the group, Mourinho will add the cherry topper of attacking, risk-taking football. For now, he is treading water, forward planning and waiting for that meeting with Ajax in Stockholm on May 24 to achieve what is United’s bottom line.
Arsenal have no get- out- of-
jail card, so must throw everything at their league campaign and hope a rival stumbles. Even so, they took a while to get going here and who knows if they would have broken through at all had Herrera been prepared to take a smack in the face.
The goal came from nothing, really. Granit Xhaka collected the ball from a throw in United’s half and was allowed too much space. He got within range of goal and hit one, the ball striking a flinching Herrera on his arched back and looping up and over a despairing De Gea.
Had Herrera stood tall, he might have received a bloody nose, but Arsenal would probably not have gone ahead and might have become disheartened by United’s resistance. Instead, as often happens, one brought two, and the game was won in a matter of minutes. Herrera was substituted soon after, although whether Mourinho was delivering a tactical message or one about meeting physical challenges, only he knows. His best teams threw themselves into blocking the ball as if attempting to smother live grenades.
Still, there was nothing lucky about the second goal, which came from Arsenal’s next meaningful attack. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain — who is enjoying a new lease of life in the wing-back role — lost the ball, won it back and hit a quite superb cross from the right.
Chris Smalling misjudged it utterly, leaving Welbeck in space to head powerfully past De Gea.
That was Oxlade-Chamberlain’s seventh assist of the campaign — as many as he has achieved in his previous five seasons. It was also Welbeck’s third consecutive goal in a game against United and he has only scored 17 for Arsenal.
No, he hasn’t been prolific and has also been terribly unlucky with injuries. Yet here was another reminder of his potency and what United cast aside.
So the best team won, even if it was not the finest of games. United’s most significant chance came early, after six minutes — Rooney picking out Mkhitaryan, whose pass found Martial, Petr Cech saving well at the near post.
The best of the rest was not of their own creation, Rob Holding hitting a woeful back-pass that fell to Rooney lurking in the penalty area, Cech called to the rescue once again. Rooney, as usual, took the brunt of the blame for United’s defeat on social media, but he was the only one of their players who ever looked like scoring. In the 65th minute, he forced a fine save from Cech with a free kick.
For Arsenal, Aaron Ramsey and Oxlade-Chamberlain tested De Gea with shots, while Phil Jones
was called on to make important blocks from Alexis Sanchez and Welbeck in dangerous positions.
There is still no guarantee Arsenal will muscle their way into the Champions League, while United appear to have decided on an alternate route. If both remain outside the top four, it will be a first in the Premier League era.
Indeed, it was 1978-79 the last time both Arsenal and United failed to appear in this country’s leading quartet of clubs.
Arsenal finished seventh, United ninth in a league won by Liverpool, with Nottingham Forest the European champions.
A win was still worth two points, Viv Anderson was the first black player to play for England and Graham Taylor was yet to manage in the top division.
It feels like ancient history and no amount of mitigating circumstances would hide the disappointment in revisiting it.