Gunners can’t get to boiling point any more

SADNESS. That’s the emotion I felt watching this unfold. Arsenal were taking part but they weren’t competing. At no stage did they look like they could win this fixture. Let’s be honest, this is not a great Manchester United team. I’ve played against great United teams. But it seems that Arsene Wenger’s team cannot get to boiling point any more. I liked Ainsley Maitland-Niles, both in the maturity of his performance and the way he spoke afterwards. He is one for the future and Arsene has been bold to give him an opportunity in a central area. But too many of his team-mates failed to show the character you need to win at United. Granit Xhaka has made numerous mistakes and was poor again. There was a time when an Arsenal player could make one or maybe two errors and then he would be replaced. Maybe it was more ruthless in those days. Xhaka has played 35 Premier League games, more than anyone else at the club this season. Arsene Wenger once would have taken a team to Old Trafford with the attitude: we are going into the lion’s den to win. He set those standards. He was the mover and shaker. Yesterday, there was a lot of respect at Old Trafford, some lovely touches from the club, Sir Alex Ferguson and the supporters. Arsene received the tribute with the dignity you might expect, but how has it come to this? He’s no longer their biggest rival, the manager who has taken trophies they thought were theirs. That’s how. The necessary ingredients he instilled into the teams I played for are not there in this group of players. He made eight changes — yes, eight — because there is another game this week that is of huge importance. But this run of having zero wins and no points on the road in 2018 is not what Arsenal should be about and it hardly creates hope for Thursday night in Madrid. Arsenal seem as if they have lost their punch. And this game was further evidence of that.