HOW FAR THESE GIANTS HAVE FALLEN
United-Arsenal used to be war. Flying pizzas and touchline feuds... but this was so lame
AFTER they had enjoyed their cuddle on the touchline before kick- of f , Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson would have been best advised to retire to Jose Mourinho’s office for wine and memories. They could have put a DVD on and recalled what it used to be like.
Keane v Vieira, Van Nistelrooy v Keown, Vieira v absolutely everybody. That would have got the blood up. TV gold.
At the very least, two titans of our game would have been spared this exhibition of nothingness, this painful indication of sharply declining standards.
We knew this wouldn’t be like the old days. It hasn’t been for ages. These teams have changed. English football has changed, for better and for worse. Equally, we didn’t quite realise it was going to be as anaemic as this.
This wasn’t even United v Arsenal lite. It was just a match between one team who have forgotten their identity and another not quite good enough to spot a free Sunday dinner.
Arsenal almost got away without losing and Wenger would have taken that. It is a long time since Arsenal have been competitive in this fixture. The game was more than 90 minutes old when Marouane Fellaini’s header ensured Wenger would go home from Old Trafford with a bitter taste in his mouth once again.
Nobody wanted to see Wenger embarrassed on his final visit and he wasn’t. His team weren’t very good but sadly he has grown used to that.
The Arsenal manager rested eight players ahead of Thursday’s Europa League semi-final second leg at Atletico Madrid, so it was always possible his team could have taken a hiding. For the first 45 minutes, Arsenal almost begged for one. They were really poor, with insufficient appetite and energy, not enough street smarts and nous.
But United could score only one goal during the first half and that arrived after 16 minutes from Paul Pogba. Subsequently, Mourinho’s team were not good enough to put Arsenal away until the game was in its death throes and that said much about them, too.
Yes, United won and are now assured Champions League football next season. They could win the FA Cup, too, and that would represent a good campaign. But they won’t beat Chelsea at Wembley if they play like this.
Improvement has come under Mourinho and finishing second in the Premier League to Manchester City is no disgrace. But this is a United team that still lack key ingredients of what the great Ferguson teams had and afternoons like this are a reminder of what were once much higher standards.
A one-goal lead should have been two or three by half-time. Really good United sides, even pretty good ones, would have taken hold of Arsenal in the first half and squeezed until there was nothing left. It could have been one of the longest afternoons of the careers of young Arsenal players Reiss Nelson and Konstantinos Mavropanos, the latter making his debut here. As it was, United let the game drift. They didn’t end the contest early, so were vulnerable to the Arsenal improvement that came after half-time.
It is all relative, of course. Arsenal did improve but they were still short of minimum standards. Pogba’s goal, side-footed in after Alexis Sanchez’s header had been diverted on to a post by Hector Bellerin, came after Granit Xhaka made a mistake in midfield.
The equaliser was similar from that point of view. United players fell over each other in the centre of the field and that allowed Arsenal to break and release Henrikh Mkhitaryan, who finished low with his right foot through the legs of Victor Lindelof from the edge of the area.
The Armenian didn’t celebrate with much glee, which was odd. He spent most of his time at United not being trusted by Mourinho and when he did play nobody really took to him.
So, nobody would have blamed him had he celebrated until his blood vessels burst. As it was, his reaction to his goal was this game in microcosm — lame.
In theory, Arsenal could have pushed on to win, but nobody who knows anything about them really expected that.
At the Emirates at Christmas they played United off the park and managed to lose 3-1, so why would it be any different here?
United, predictably, carried the greater threat late on, even if they hardly kicked the door down.
With half an hour left, Mourinho had thrown Fellaini on and the method of attack was clear. Long, wide and high. It’s never a bad tactic against tiring bodies and after the Belgian had hit a post late on, he reached a cross from Ashley Young and headed past David Ospina into the corner.
Some gloss for United and another away defeat for Wenger. That is six in a row in the Premier League. If Arsenal avoid one in Madrid on Thursday, it will be a miracle.
MANCHESTER UNITED (4-3-3): De Gea 6; Valencia 6, Smalling 6, Lindelof 6.5, Young 6.5; Herrera 6.5 (Fellaini, 64, 6.5), Matic 6.5, Pogba 6.5; Lingard 5.5 (Martial, 64, 6.5), Lukaku 6.5 (Rashford, 50, 5.5), Sanchez 6. Subs not used: Rojo, Mata, McTominay,
Pereira. Scorers: Pogba 16, Fellaini 90+1. Booked: None. Manager: Jose Mourinho 6.5. ARSENAL( 4-2-3-1): Ospina 6.5; Bellerin 6.5, Chambers 6.5, MAVROPANOS 7.5, Kolasinac 6 (Monreal, 64, 6); Xhaka 6, Maitland-Niles 6.5; Nelson 6.5 (Welbeck, 63, 5.5), Iwobi 6.5, Mkhitaryan 7 (Willock, 76, 6); Aubameyang 6. Subs not used: Holding, Cech, Nketiah, Osei-Tutu. Scorer: Mkhitaryan 51. Booked: Xhaka. Manager: Arsene Wenger 6.5. Attendance: 75,035
FLANKED by his two most bitter adversaries in football, Arsene Wenger could have been forgiven for questioning what exactly was in the box.
We were moments from kickoff and the outgoing Arsenal manager had been plucked from his place in the dugout by Jose Mourinho to meet Sir Alex Ferguson on the touchline.
Ferguson greeted Wenger with a kind embrace and invited a reluctant Mourinho to join them as he gave the Frenchman his leaving gift and warm applause broke out from all four corners of Old Trafford.
It was an engraved silver vase in a presentation case, but Wenger must have been tempted to double check.
After all, no other managers have been quite as critical, even cruel, about Wenger over his 22 years in English football as Ferguson and Mourinho. Here, on his 28th and final visit to Old Trafford as Arsenal manager, they were queuing up to pay their respects. It’s funny how people change towards you when you’re on the way out.
Ferguson experienced the adulation and acclaim of his peers when he departed the stage here five years ago with another Premier League title under his belt.
Wenger, on the other hand, leaves on a rather different note, eased out by his employers in a move that has hardly caused uproar among supporters.
Ferguson, for one, believes the moment is right for his old adversary to bid farewell.
‘I think he knows himself that it’s time,’ he said.
‘He did 22 years: it’ll not be done again. It’s not easy in the modern world to manage a club for that length of time and it takes an exceptional person to do that.’
In the build-up up to the game, e, Mourinho had ad said he regretted ed some of his more re vitriolic attacks ks on Wenger and nd Ferguson, too, o, was at pains to put their enmity ty into perspective. e.
It was always ys said about the e Scot that the e more he feared a rival manager, r, the more he e would target t him.
No- one was s targeted more e than Wenger as s United and d Arsenal locked d horns in the greatest atest rivalry of the Premier League era.
‘In my time we had a few arguments but I did always really respect the man because he did a fantastic job at his club,’ added Ferguson.
‘We have dinner every year now at the coaching meetings in Switzerland and we go to the same little restaurant. We enjoy the company. You get older and you forget all the battles in the sense of what they meant at the time.
‘United against Arsenal was great for the game. It made the Premier League. We had to beat them. Had to. There were some almighty battles because here were two teams and two managers battling for one award — the Premier League.’
Not these days. Victory here confirmed United’s place in next season’s Champions League but Wenger will have to emulate Mourinho and win the Europa League to restore his club to Europe’s top table. Arsenal could still be overtaken for sixth place by Burnley. Hopefully for him, that vase won’t be the last prize he gets his hands on in the coming weeks.
As that familiar figure headed down the Old Trafford tunnel for probably the last time, still looking impeccable in his club suit and tie, it was not the way that Wenger would have wanted to go out.
Then again, not everybody gets to write their own script like Ferguson. ‘That respect will all come out now,’ said United’s manager of 26 years, speaking from experience.
‘He goes down in the history books for their club.
‘His contribution to the Premier League has been huge. You can’t ignore the job he’s done — it’s been absolutely fantastic.’