PREMIER LEAGUE
Wenger still can’t end hoodoo against Mourinho.. but this will feel like a win
ARSENE WENGER still can’t beat Jose Mourinho – but this felt like a win for the Arsenal boss.
Substitute Olivier Giroud rescued a point for the Gunners with an 89th-minute header as Arsenal snatched something from the game they didn’t deserve.
Outfought, outthought and outplayed from start to finish, Manchester United keeper David De Gea hardly had a touch of the ball until he was forced to fetch it from the back of his net when Giroud cancelled out Juan Mata’s thumping opener.
Wenger’s record against Mourinho now stands at five defeats and seven draws in 12 meetings.
And it is a decade since he masterminded a Premier JESSE LINGARD is in a contract stand-off with Manchester United. Despite reportedly being on the brink of agreeing a five-year deal doubling his pay to £60,000 per week, it remains unsigned. Although there is no suggestion the midfielder, who turns 24 next month, wants to leave it is believed a sticking point is that the average wage at Old Trafford is considerably more than is being offered to Lingard, who recently broke into the England squad. League victory on United turf.
He admitted afterwards that at one point during the second half, when United went ahead and threatened to steamroller their way to victory, he started to question the mental fortitude of his players.
But goals change matches and Giroud’s late intervention ensured this was the day when Arsene did a Jose – squeezing something from a performance that was often dour and sometimes dire.
No wonder the Frenchman left Old Trafford with a smile on his face while Mourinho was left to bemoan his rotten luck.
Wenger said: “When you are losing a game and you score a goal in the final two minutes it is a good feeling.”
“It was a much better point for us than it was for them because when you score so late you are happy.
“We suffered for the first 20 minutes of the second half and United deserved to be in front.
“During“D rin the game,me I wonderedondered As a spectacle,spectacle the game wasn’tasn’t whether the players had a fit to lace Wayne Rooney’s mental block about playing drinks. But even with the errant United here. England skipper on the bench
“Last year we would have lost and Zlatan Ibrahimovic susthis game. This time we haven’t, pended, the Reds dominated. so that is a big improvement.” Juan Mata and Anthony
United were hardly sparkling. Martial were both denied by Petr Cech in a first-half,first half which hich saw Mourinho perform another touchline rant when referee Andre Marriner ruled that Nacho Monreal’s clumsy challenge to halt Antonio Valencia didn’t warrant a penalty. Mourinho said: “I don’t want ant to talk abo aboutt it it,”” before voicing his opinion.
“I have my view because I have seen the replay, but I don’t want to say whether it was or wasn’t.
“But Andre told us in the dressing room before the game