Ole’s title ti
RECORD-BREAKERS F GUNNERS HOLD FIRM
SOL MAN: Ole Gunnar Solskjaer watches on at Emirates
MANCHESTER UNITED set a new club record of 18 successive away games in the league without defeat.
But they also dropped points for a second time in the space of four days to hand the advantage in the title race firmly to their noisy neighbours.
United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had been desperately hoping to see his side bounce back from their shock defeat by bottom club Sheffield United on Wednesday.
But despite some very good chances at either end in an entertaining game, neither they nor Arsenal were able to find the breakthrough at the Emirates.
Solskjaer said: “That’s a great achievement by these players. They’re working hard, they travel, we’re in hotels, the mood is very good and we prepare well, and it shows how far we have come.
“Eighteen games is a long, long run and long may it continue.
“But we’d like to get some more wins, of course.” United, whose last defeat in the top flight was at Anfield last January, and whose previous best run was the 17 away games recorded by the treble winners, had the highest number of chances with the best falling to Edinson Cavani. The Uruguayan saw Bernd Leno and Cedric Soares do enough to deny him from close range midway through the second half and then fired a scissor-kick wide late on when he could have won the game.
At the other end, Alex Lacazette hit the bar with a fine free-kick but, ultimately, neither side could find that final, clinical touch where it counted.
Solskjaer had made five changes to his side from the defeat by the Blades, while Arsenal new boy Martin Odegaard, signed on loan from Real Madrid, had to make do with a place on the bench before coming on late on.
And the United boss was rewarded with a different performance altogether in the first half as the visitors controlled possession.
Despite seeing the lion’s share of the ball, there were few clear-cut chances with a clever, dinked, curling effort from the edge of the box from Fred, well saved by Leno, the best of them. But credit,
too, to Gunners wide boys Nicolas Pepe and Gabriel Martinelli, for their defensive work, the latter in particular doing well to throw in his head as Marcus Rashford prepared to pull the trigger on a dropping ball.
Arsenal, by and large, were happy to sit back, invite United on and try to catch them on the counter. And twice they burst forward – Emile Smith Rowe once again at the heart of a lot of their good attacking play – but Lacazette’s long-range effort was straight at David De Gea.
As the half wore on, Bruno Fernandes went close with a curling effort after the impressive Paul Pogba released him that did not quite bend back enough.
Arteta introduced Willian at the break and Arsenal – whose 27 successive games without a defeat away from home is a Premier League record – started the second half brightly with the Brazilian immediately into the action. He couldn’t quite sort out his feet in time to get an early chance away with Aaron Wan-Bissaka doing well.
And he then provided a cross for Pepe but Harry Maguire did well to block the Frenchman’s effort.
There was plenty of huff and puff from both sides but creating a clear opening was difficult until a neat passage of play saw Luke Shaw, Fred and Anthony Martial exchange passes and carve open the Arsenal defence.
The game was bursting into life and when Arsenal won a free-kick on the edge of the box Lacazette stood over it.
The Frenchman took a couple of steps and made a sweet connection but the effort rattled back off the bar and was hacked to safety.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta said: “It was a fair result. Both managers probably think they should have won it. The fact we have three of our best players out probably has an impact but I’m really happy with the players who played.
“We made some changes. We had a better structure to attack and stopped giving the ball back to the opponent.”