LINGARD RIDES TO RESCUE
Mourinho off hook as United hit back to draw fiery clash
THE excellence might have been missing but, in all other ways, this was just like old times. At times brilliant, at times brutal, but always compelling, a high-scoring draw turned out a fair result between old enemies. Just don’t tell Tyson Fury.
Arsenal had the lead twice and held it for a combined total of five minutes. On both occasions, Manchester United equalised from their first counter-punch, and in the second half almost straight from kick-off, 13 seconds later.
That was the most ridiculous passage of play: an Arsenal goal run into the net by a United defender, a United equaliser as good as teed up by an Arsenal man. Total football, it most certainly wasn’t. Total chaos, maybe.
The scores were level at 1-1 when, in the 68th minute, Marcos Rojo tried some clever footwork in his own half. Clever footwork is not Rojo’s forte and calamity ensued.
He gave the ball straight to Henrik Mkhitaryan as Arsenal broke. Mkhitaryan combined with another of Unai Emery’s substitutes, Alexandre Lacazette, and as he pulled the trigger to shoot, in charged Rojo, desperate to make amends, but succeeding only in helping Lacazette’s shot take a ricocheted path past David de Gea.
Arsenal looked to have claimed another one late, but from the kick-off the ball was played upfield to Romelu Lukaku. He turned Shkodran Mustafi, who looked to be struggling with injury, Emery having used all three substitutes, before Sead Kolasinac came in to mop up.
The mop-up became a mess-up, however, as he ran the ball straight into the path of Jesse Lingard, poaching as usual, and pushing the ball past Bernd Leno. On the bench, Emery looked like a man ready to corkscrew himself into the turf. No wonder. His team had this game won: twice.
And nearly again — Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang forcing two fine saves from De Gea in the 70th and 75th minutes, the second at full stretch, redeeming his mistake for the visitors’ opener. It was the right result, but hardly of much use to either team. Arsenal stay out of the Champions League spots on goal difference, United perhaps out of Europe entirely, the same way. That, however, is not like old times at all.
This was the first match between these sides since August 1986 not to involve either Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger, but old habits — or old grudges — die hard.
So, in the space of five minutes after United had equalised, referee Andre Marriner booked five players, and Arsenal defender Rob Holding disappeared on a stretcher.
Briefly, it was just like old times. Not the quality of the football, which left something to be desired, but the needle.
It took a while to get going, but once it did, the action escalated quickly. An Arsenal opener after 26 minutes, a United equaliser four minutes later, then from minutes 37 to 42, those five bookings and what should have been a sixth had Marriner not missed a very naughty one on Ander Herrera from Lucas Torreira. Trust a Uruguayan to be the best at it, and go undetected.
Anyway, start with the goals. It took Arsenal 20 minutes to have a dig at the target but Hector Bellerin’s shot was miscued and screwed well wide.
Ultimately, they broke the deadlock through the unlikeliest of avenues: a mistake by De Gea. Torreira curled in a lovely corner from the left, aimed for Mustafi, who lost his footing on the greasy surface but recovered to meet the ball just the same.
If anything, his slip propelled him with even greater purpose, but his aim was off and the ball was buried into the turf in front of him. It reared up and the whole sequence appeared to take De Gea by surprise.
He parried the ball but not with his usual strength and it squirmed over the line. Herrera tried to clear but the technology did not lie. Marriner signalled the goal. These days, there can be no complaints.
VAR might have had something to say about United’s equaliser, mind. Not just Herrera’s position for the assist, but the initial foul.
Anthony Martial looked to have dived to buy the foul against Matteo Guendouzi, but Marriner bought it and awarded a free-kick outside the area.
Rojo took it and Leno parried to his left, but weakly. He did not push the ball away from goal with anywhere near the firmness needed. Herrera was first to the ball — probably because he was offside — and clipped it back for
Martial to finish. He has been in his best United form of late, but it was an unsatisfactory conclusion, given that the move probably started with his dive.
And so there was niggle. Rashford went in hard, but just about fair, on Holding, who played no further part in the game — and then the yellow cards brought back memories of the days when this was the best, but often also the ugliest, match of the season.
Mustafi took out Rashford just the right side of the penalty-area boundary to avoid calamity and, when the free-kick was blocked, Rojo dived in two-footed attempting to stop Guendouzi clearing.
Of all the yellows, his was the one that could easily have turned red, but Marriner was feeling generous. Lingard was booked for a foul on Torreira, then Bellerin for one on Matteo Darmian.
Maintaining a rate that felt like the disciplinary equivalent of speed-dating, Nemanja Matic was then cautioned for pulling back Aubameyang.
This frenetic episode had a further casualty, however, when Aaron Ramsey did not appear after half-time, having received treatment following a tussle with Matic — probably the one that caused the Torreira foul to go unnoticed.
In this case, however, it was Ramsey snapping at his opponent’s heels that caused the damage; Arsenal two players down with 45 minutes remaining. Mkhitaryan took his place, against his former club. MANCHESTER UNITED: De Gea, Bailly, Smalling, Rojo (Fellaini 72), Dalot, Herrera, Matic, Darmian, Lingard (Pogba 75), Martial (Lukaku 63), Rashford. ARSENAL: Leno, Mustafi, Papastathopoulos, Holding (Lichsteiner 36), Bellerin, Torreira, Guendouzi, Kolasinac, Ramsey (Mkhitaryan 45), Iwobi (Lacazette 65), Aubameyang. Referee: Andre Marriner Attendance: 74,507.