VAR to the rescue
Aubameyang equaliser earns Arsenal a point after video referee overturns offside decision
Manchester United and Arsenal used to play out epic contests in which neither side deserved to lose. This time they played out a draw in which neither side deserved to win.
There was, as there has been so often between these sides, controversy, although this had nothing to do with flying pizza or flying boots. Despite a flurry of yellow cards it was, of course, around the video assistant referee, although the decision to allow Pierre-emerick Aubameyang’s goal was undeniably correct, despite the protestations of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, the United manager, who later backtracked.
He looked a frustrated man, with United now labouring in 10th place having collected their worst points tally after seven games, of just nine points, at this stage of a top-flight season since 1989, when a banner appeared calling for the sacking of Sir Alex Ferguson.
Solskjaer had more reason to complain about the VAR when there was no intervention after what appeared to be a handball by Sead Kolasinac, when the defender leant into a Jesse Lingard cross inside the penalty area.
Wolverhampton Wanderers only won their first league game of the season at the weekend and are just two points behind United. Conversely, Arsenal are only three points ahead of them, but have gone up to fourth place, after a contest that felt like a battle for claiming that position – and no better – for two old rivals who had a duopoly at the top not so long ago.
It felt a world away from the modern-day duelling of Manchester City and Liverpool. Roy Keane, in the TV pundit’s chair, summed it up. “There was a real lack of quality from both sides,” he said, which was not a brutal assessment and was evidently true.
It was a sodden – and rotten – encounter until it fired into life with a superb strike from Scott Mctominay, his first goal at Old Trafford, just before half-time. But even that ended up being imperfect, as replays showed Granit Xhaka, Arsenal’s newly chosen captain, ducking out of the way of Mctominay’s drive from the edge of the penalty area, leaving goalkeeper Bernd Leno unsighted. Xhaka hardly looked like Captain Courageous.
Unai Emery had already grimaced at another act by Xhaka, when he executed possibly the worst free-kick of the season as he inexplicably hooked the ball out wide to a startled Calum Chambers, who crossed high and out of play.
The Arsenal manager would have been alarmed at how quickly United broke from a corner to score their goal. It came as Daniel James ran onto an Andreas Pereira cross and Marcus Rashford did well to retrieve his cross for Mctominay to strike.
What will also concern Arsenal was a poor performance from their record signing Nicolas Pepe, who struggled throughout. It was summed up when the forward carelessly shot, first time, over the bar after being teed up by 18-year-old academy product Bukayo Saka, who eclipsed him and gave Ashley Young a torrid time.
It was not until the 29th minute, the longest wait in the Premier League this season, that a shot was produced, with Leno doing well to deny Pereira before, at the other end, David de Gea excelled in denying Saka and then recovering to beat away Matteo Guendouzi’s follow-up with his legs.
It was clear from the way that Arsenal were set up – with Xhaka, Guendouzi and Lucas Torreira in their midfield – that they had come to battle it out … and see what Aubameyang could produce. He delivered again to become the first Arsenal player since Dennis Bergkamp (in 1997-98) to score as many as seven goals in the first seven league games of the season. With Aubameyang, Arsenal always have hope. It was an exceptional finish.
Axel Tuanzebe, who had played well as a makeshift left-back, blundered with a misplaced pass infield intended for Victor Lindelof, but which fell to Saka, whose first-time pass picked out Aubamayeng. The striker took a touch and calmly clipped his shot over De Gea.
The assistant referee Scott Ledger had flagged for offside, and initially referee Kevin Friend ruled it out, before the VAR clearly showed that Harry Maguire had played Aubameyang onside.
“He’s blown the whistle,” Solskjaer appealed to fourth official Chris Kavanagh, claiming Friend had blown before the ball hit the net. But he had not and the decision was the right one. De Gea may have made more of an effort to save it.
It seemed Arsenal would capitalise on United’s self-imposed setback when Saka shot goalwards, only for the ball to ricochet over off a lungeing Lindelof, but it was the home side who went closest to winning it when Mctominay met a Young corner. Unmarked, six yards out, the midfielder headed over, before Maguire and Rashford, from a 90th-minute free-kick, forced alert saves from Leno.
Damningly, it meant United have not managed more than a single goal in their past seven matches. “We are at the start of building something,” Solskjaer said, admitting it is a “steep learning curve”. In truth, it is proving a slow process.