Giroud saves shot-shy Gunners at the death – but Wenger’s wait to beat Mourinho goes on
As he got up to leave the Old Trafford press room it seemed as if Jose Mourinho felt he had not been asked the one question he wanted to hear, so he answered it himself. “So, finally,” he said, “I have lost to Arsène. Finally.”
It was his way of joking that this felt like a defeat and also reminding his old foe Arsène Wenger that for all the gloom that enveloped United after Arsenal’s equaliser the old record still stands: It is 16 games and counting, with just the Community Shield falling in Wenger’s favour. The Arsenal manager has still not beaten Mourinho in a competitive game, although it should be said that it felt a little peripheral to the major concerns.
It was another imperfect afternoon for Mourinho as the manager of Manchester United and while he tried as best he could to emphasise the positive elements, this really was a game that his team had to win. They finished the match seven points behind the then-leaders Liverpool who had played a game less at that point.
Mourinho staunchly maintains that his side are “the unlucky team in the Premier League” and what is more, he says, the board, owners and fans know that. It looks like an attempt to achieve some unity and there was no blame this time, not even for referee Andre Marriner, whose first-half decision to deny Antonio Valencia a penalty enraged the United manager on the touchline.
There was a time in the second half when it felt like United had finally found their rhythm, Juan Mata’s goal had given them the lead and Arsenal’s heart seemed to have gone, as Mourinho has seen it do so often. This was never a game of high quality football but low quality is fine by Mourinho as long as it is his strategy and his team which prevails.
They were reined back in by Arsenal’s only attempt on target all afternoon. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, an 83rd-minute substitute, had burst down the right, Olivier Giroud, another off the bench, had come rumbling in to head home at the back post and suddenly all Mourinho’s best-laid plans had been undone.
Asked to explain how his team did not win the game, Mourinho declined with a bemused shrug of his shoulders. “I don’t,” he said. “I can only explain the work my team did. Amazing control of a team that is very good. A team that normally produces very good attacking football and was completely controlled. We didn’t see amazing [Arsenal] players [because they were] so completely under control.”
This was the glitch in the matrix which Mourinho had feared – his young attacker Marcus Rashford momentarily losing concentration and allowing Oxlade-Chamberlain to get in behind. Then in the centre, the unlikely central defensive pairing of Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo, who had done their best, were simply not in position to dominate their own penalty area.
After Mourinho’s recriminations over Luke Shaw and Chris Smalling following the previous win against Swansea City, there was a notable toning down of any potential criticism, even in the case of Rashford’s error to let in Oxlade-Chamberlain. “It’s normal. He’s a young kid … it can happen,” he said. “Chamberlain is a good player, fast and fresh.”
Giroud had been on the pitch but 15 minutes, a last throw of the dice by Wenger who had watched Mesut Özil and Alexis Sánchez underperform for much of the afternoon and admitted later that for the first 20 minutes of the second half his team did not play. It used to be that a team at Old Trafford had to be at their very best to get anything out of United.
Mourinho said that ideally he would have brought on Marouane Fellaini for the final 15 minutes but did not have that option open to him. He talked a lot about the chances that went begging against both Burnley and Arsenal, and how with four more points United would be in the top four.
“We all know inside the club that we are the unlucky team in the Premier League … we have lot of work to do and we have lots of kids who are mistakeprone. It [is something that] belongs to the youth,” said Mourinho.
As for Wenger, he looked pleased with the outcome given how poor his team had been after the break until the latter stages. Before half-time they had made much of the running with United sitting deep, content to let the game happen to them, although for all that the home team still created the better chances.
“Offensively we have played better,” Wenger said. “We did not have our usual style to go forward. We were not sharp or fluent enough. In the second half we came out in the first 20 minutes we didn’t play and deservedly United led 1-0. They dropped off and gave us the ball again. In the end I think we scored a great goal.”
It was an excellent goal indeed from Giroud who now has more goals off the bench – 10 – than any Arsenal player in Premier League history. His manager said the usual things about the Frenchman being considered still one of his regulars but he has started just once away, to Ludogorets in the Champions League.
United’s goal came from the right: Paul Pogba to Ander Herrera, whose fine cutback was struck first time by Mata with his left foot. They had another chance for Rojo before Arsenal equalised and, as Mourinho later suggested, it must have felt like a defeat.