IT’S BOLD TRAFFORD
Mourinho’s men finally show some heart to give United fans hope as Arsenal pay price for losing the lead twice
IF he has asked for it once, he has asked for it a dozen times.
Jose Mourinho wants to see evidence of heart, of spirit, of unyielding commitment.
He did not see a victory and, technically, Arsenal were superior and wasted several late chances to claim a win, but at least he saw those qualities he had demanded.
In front of the watching Tyson Fury, Manchester United rose from the canvas twice for a very hard-earned point.
“There isn’t space for people that are not ready to give it their all,” the Reds boss wrote in his pointed programme notes before relegating Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku to a bench the £52million Fred could not earn a seat on.
The seven changes from the team that drew at Southampton brought to 46 the number of players used by Mourinho so far in this Premier League campaign.
This time around, he found a starting eleven that showed the intensity and desire he considered in short supply in the last league home game against Crystal Palace.
The persistent pressing that has been a given for most top teams but not United was certainly a feature here.
And while Mourinho has appeared to have trust issues with all of them at some stage, the trio of Jesse Lingard, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford has the look of being his team’s most vibrant attacking combination.
Yet there is clearly a shortfall in confidence throughout whatever side Mourinho conjures up.
And after being penned back in the opening stages, individual passing errors allowed Arsenal to gradually take a more positive role in the contest.
One of those whose passing was awry was David de
Gea and a couple of misplaced efforts lit the way to a rare costly, and ghastly, error.
Shkodran Mustafi shrugged off Chris Smalling to get to a Lucas Torreira corner and De Gea could only help the bouncing header – which was hooked away by Ander Herrera – into the remit of the Goal Decision System.
It said yes, which meant United’s cleansheets count in the league still stands at two.
At least going behind – whether it be by one or by a couple – tends to
provoke a reaction and it arrived courtesy of a Martial equaliser assisted by a couple of marginal decisions.
First, the contact from Matteo Guendouzi that sent Martial into a swallow-dive appeared to be minimal.
Then, Herrera might have been a fraction offside when Marcos Rojo’s free-kick was shovelled to his left by Bernd Leno.
The assistant referee decided otherwise and Herrera scampered on to the loose ball and hooked it back for Martial to finish from close range.
Arsenal, it seems, just do not fancy leading at half-time in a Premier League game.
And after Alexandre Lacazette had somehow managed to poke the ball past De Gea, with Rojo getting the final touch, they did not fancy leading for a minute.
Straight from the restart, Sead Kolasinac thought he was shepherding a long punt back to Leno but Lingard stole in and completed a comfortable finish for United’s second equaliser
It gave Old Trafford an instant lift but Arsenal were not cowed and had Henrikh Mkhitaryan not clipped over from close range and had De Gea not partially redeemed himself by toeing away Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s point-blank prod, the night would have been worse for Mourinho and United.