ARE UNITED SCARED TO WIN TITLE? JUST WHY ARE YOU CELEBRATING LIKE THAT, DAVID?!
Keane calls out Solskjaer’s players after anaemic draw
ONCE, earlier this season, they wandered the no-man’s land of the Premier League’s squeezed middle like a pair of condemned men. Even though reprieves have been granted to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Mikel Arteta and they have embraced new ambitions, their teams played out this goalless draw as if neither could quite bear to plunge the other back into despair.
And so Solskjaer’s Manchester United wasted the chance to keep the pressure on Manchester City at the top of the table and fell further behind their rampaging neighbours so that there is now a three-point gap between them.
And Arsenal saw their opportunity to draw level with Spurs and advance on the Champions League places fall away. It was an anaemic match and so in some ways, for both sides, it must have felt like old times.
United’s former title- winning skipper Roy Keane saw something more damning in the team’s failure to force a victory.
Keane seemed to suggest that having fixed their eyes on the prize, United were now becoming scared to claim it.
‘ I’m scratching my head with United, the worry watching them today was they almost lacked the belief they could win the game,’ said Keane.
‘This is Manchester United. The game was there for the taking, imagine playing for Manchester United and lacking the belief of going to win the game.
‘ The performance lacked the intensity, you can make excuses but there was a real lack of quality and conviction and desire to get the result and Arsenal deserved the point. Ole says i t was a good performance but I don’t agree.’
Arsenal, sparked into life by a 3-1 victory over Chelsea at The Emirates on Boxing Day that probably saved Arteta’s job, had won five of their last six League games before yesterday and came desperately close to maintaining their momentum when a second-half free-kick from Alexandre Lacazette cannoned off the underside of the United crossbar.
But United, who were trying to rebound from their shock home defeat by Sheffield United on Wednesday, had their share of chances, too.
Neither side deserved to win but United may feel marginally more disconsolate. The past four days have seen their heady dreams of a challenge for the title take a sobering reality check.
Arsenal supporters were dealt a blow before kick-off when the team sheets revealed that not only was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang still absent because of his mother’s illness but also that neither Bukayo Saka, Arsenal’s outstanding performer in recent games, nor Kieran Tierney had been deemed fi t enough to play.
Before their defeat to Sheffield United, Solskjaer’s team had been unbeaten in the League since the first day of November but at The Emirates, the first 20 minutes of earnest endeavour — spliced with fouls either committed on or by Bruno Fernandes — passed without either side forging a chance or establishing any kind of superiority.
Still, it was the visitors who nearly drew first blood. Luke Shaw, reborn and revitalised, swung in a corner from the left that was only cleared as far as Fred on the edge of the box. Fred controlled and then dinked a delicate chip towards the corner of the net. It took a flying, fingertip save from Bernd Leno to keep it out.
A fine defensive intervention from Gabriel Martinelli stopped a clever pass from Paul Pogba reaching Marcus Rashford as he tried to steal in on goal and suddenly the game began to open up.
Nicolas Pepe curled a shot just wide, Aaron Wan-Bissaka should have done better with a header he directed wide from the edge of the six-yard box and a shot from Fernandes that seemed destined for the far corner flew just the wrong side of the post.
As half-time approached, United turned up the pressure. Shaw drilled a cross into the box and it found Rashford unmarked at the far post. Rashford could not quite get the ball out of his feet in time to get a shot away and when he laid it back to Fernandes on the edge of the box, he was brought down by Thomas Partey.
It was prime dead-ball territory and when the free- kick left the right boot of Fernandes, it seemed destined for the top corner. But as it was about to clear the wall, David Luiz leapt highest and the ball flicked off the top of his head and over the bar. Luiz knew he had averted a goal. He ran forward towards Fernandes, clenching his fist, as if he had just scored.
Arsenal should have taken the lead three minutes after the interval when a cross from Hector Bellerin was allowed to reach half-time substitute Willian, on for Marinelli. But the Brazilian has been in miserable form and his shot lacked both power and conviction, WanBissaka throwing himself at it to make the block.
If Arsenal had started the second half more strongly, though, it was United who nearly went ahead after an hour.
A neat interchange of passes between Anthony Martial, on as a replacement for Scott McTominay, and Shaw resulted in the left-back lashing a cross-shot into the sixyard box. It seemed for a split-second as if it would give Edinson Cavani a tap-in but Cedric Soares got there just in front of him. Arsenal hit back. Lacazette was fouled by Harry Maguire on the edge of the United box and the France striker curled his free-kick over the wall only to see it crash off the underside of the crossbar with David de Gea beaten. A minute later, De Gea did come to the aid of his side, keeping out a shot from Emile Smith Rowe.
Ten minutes from time, Arsenal came close again. Fernandes lost t he ball and Arsenal counterattacked at speed. The ball found Pepe on the right and he cut inside and ran at Maguire. When he hit his shot through Maguire’s legs, the Arsenal bench began to celebrate but instead of bulging the net, the ball went inches wide.
Martin Odegaard, the Norway star once hailed as a wonderkid — the Norwegian Messi — and now at The Emirates on loan from Real Madrid as a half-forgotten prodigy, made a late cameo appearance but it was too late for him to make a difference.
United should have grabbed all three points two minutes from the end when Wan-Bissaka’s cross was met on the volley by Cavani six yards out but he could only direct his effort agonisingly wide of the near post.
PARTY TIME: You would have thought David Luiz had won the league (right) — though getting his head to a stunning Bruno Fernandes free-kick (left) felt just as good. ‘He is one of the best players in the league in free-kicks, he’s amazing,’ said Luiz. ‘He spoke to me after because he tried to surprise everyone but I was happy because I was ready and stopped a goal.’