Result: Manchester United 1-1 Arsenal
Competition: Premier League
Date: 30 September 2019
Venue: Old Trafford
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s second-half strike, awarded after VAR overruled an initial offside decision, saw Arsenal recover a point at Old Trafford after Scott McTominay had given Manchester United the lead just before the break.
The 1-1 draw is enough to take the Gunners back into the top four, however, the passive nature of the performance, particularly in the opening 45 minutes, will have many questioning Unai Emery’s tactics.
First half
Unai Emery made two changes from the team that started against Aston Villa. Calum Chambers, who excelled in the Carabao Cup, retained his place at right-back ahead of Ainsley Maitland-Niles and Lucas Torreira replaced Mesut Ozil; the German, not for the first time this season, wasn’t included in the squad. On the left wing, Bukayo Saka became the youngest Arsenal player to feature against United in the Premier League era. Rob Holding made the bench, Kieran Tierney and Hector Bellerin, did not.
It became obvious from the off that United wanted to target Chambers’ flank with the pace of Daniel James. The former Swansea won a corner with his first dash and with his next was felled off the ball by our right-back. Kevin Friend had no hesitation flashing a yellow.
Torreira pressed high ahead of Xhka and Guendouzi. We were happy sitting deep and compact, ceding possession to the home side. The football was scruffy and stayed so for much of the opening 25 minutes.
Our first sustained period of pressure came on 21 minutes as Luiz and Chambers exchanged crosses from either flank, failing on each occasion to find a yellow shirt in the middle. The virus spread, as Pepe overhit a free-kick in a decent position straight out for a De Gea goal kick.
A run by Andreas Pereira did have the Arsenal defence backpeddling but the Brazilian’s shot was matched by a smart save by Leno down to his left. At the other end, Saka squeezed a pass to Pepe who fluffed his lines and hit high and wide.
Rashford and Pereira both went in the book for late challenges, the latter setting up a free-kick 35 yards from goal. Given the soaking wet conditions it was a prime chance to test De Gea, instead, Xhaka overhit a clipped ball in Chambers’ direction. The United fans just laughed.
The final five minutes saw the game open up. First, Pogba sprung an attack that saw Rashford freed on goal. Sokratis got back to take the sting off the England international’s shot.
We hit back on the counter, De Gea making a great double stop to deny Saka and Guendouzi. From the corner, we again failed to find an Arsenal man and this time United showed a cutting edge.
It initially looked like the danger had passed when James run down the right ended with an overhit cross, but Rashford kept the ball alive, fed a pass to the edge of the area where McTominay took one touch and lashed into the top corner past a flat-footed Leno. The clock ticked into stoppage time as the Red Devils celebrated. (1-0)
Emery, who’d spent most of the half grimacing at the poor decision-making of his players, did not look impressed.
Second half
The game continued to lack quality after the break but with both sides pushing forward at least it wasn’t drab.
Aubameyang picked out Torreira who mishit an effort into the ground and Kolasinac got lucky when the ball hit his arm in the area. VAR checked the incident while play continued and decided it wasn’t worth a penalty.
VAR was to play an even bigger role five minutes later.
When Tuanzebi gave the ball away on the edge of his own box, Saka pounced quickly playing a first time pass to Aubameyang who promptly dinked a shot over De Gea. It was a beautiful finish but his celebrations were cut short by an offside flag. Surely he was onside? VAR took a look. He was! By about three yards. Friend went to his ear, pointed to the sky. Goal given. The away fans roared. Then hailed Auba, then the new technology. (1-1)
We had the momentum. Guendouzi gave Chambers the ball inside the right channel, he found Saka but the teenager couldn’t keep his shot down.
United wrestled back control. Pogba’s curler went just wide and McTominay should have scored but headed over from point-blank range as he rose unmarked from a corner. Leno produced an acrobatic stop to parry Maguire’s piledriver for a corner.
Ceballos, Nelson and Willock all came on as the half progressed but we couldn’t find any fluency. The Spaniard did curl a shot wide with three minutes remaining, but much like most of the action that preceded it, it was a lame attempt.
In stoppage time, Leno made a fine one-handed save to deny Rashford who lined up a free-kick from the same area that Auba grabbed our winner last week. There was still time for Nelson and Greenwood to scruff efforts but neither side had the composure to snatch a winner.
Turns out we play better with a creative midfielder. Last chance saloon for Emery, let’s hope our players and badge continue to bail him out.
Well, we don’t play better. We are just far more open. Thank god for Auba. Again.
Forget old rivalries. I have never seen an Arsenal team so poor in the attacking third. No ideas, no creativity, no plan.
We played a midtable team away from home and scraped out a draw. Auba’s interview after the game seems to suggest that he too is getting tired of the timid tactics (“we are capable of great things, but …”). Not sure why everyone is content with this brand of football …
The one touch football we used to play, under Wenger vs this muddled performance, under Emery. Both approach, we were/are leak goals.
I hope the board is taking notice, our level is slipping despite the money spent and quality in the squad (including the academy players).
I’ve not said it before but I think Emery has to go soon.
I’m sure he is satisfied with the draw rather than kicking himself for not having a real go at this mid-table ManU team!
I feel like we are getting to a stage now when Pepe’s performances start to get scrutinised.
I’m totally behind him and not writing him off in any way but let’s call a spade a spade, he’s been poor so far.
I actually disagree with your analysis of Pepe. He was very poor yesterday but his all around play has been good in other games, he’s created chances and completing dribbles. The only thing lacking has been goals.
I really think he’ll come good. Probably under a different manager.
It comes right from the top. You don’t have to be an expert to see they don’t know what they’re doing out there. Either the instruction, the training or the lineup is wrong, my guess is all 3. Once again we had the long ball up to Auba and some var to thank for a point. It’s just not fucking good enough. Nbc said that emery has the same points from his first 44 games as Wenger had in his last 44. That’s progress for you.
I’ll say it. Wenger would do a better job with this group of players.
Wenger Back!
wenger is happy to get rid…and no longer be responsible for this club…. it must have been a heavy responsibility and burden carrying this chaos through the turbulent years. I think he leaned back, lit a cigar, and said – case closed. now someone else take this thankless headache.
I don’t feel sad anymore as I know we are sh*t. Nothing to add more on Emery, I hope he leaves soon.
Regarding players, I understand Pepe needs time but till now I have not seen anything which excites me very much.
Only positive was Saka and Leno. I don’t know how long we will suffer. Emery has not learnt anything from his mistakes.
I know we can say anything in hindsight but seeing current performance, Arteta would have been better, at least we were aware of his experience (lack of).
not at all. Ceballos added nothing except making us lose the midfield.
We need better midfielders.
We do have one in the shape of Willock. He looked so good when he came on and is exactly the kind of player for these kind of difficult fixtures – direct, fast, fearless and tough.
Torreira the furthest forward in a midfield three *sigh*
We’ve got a few decent ones already. Emery just chose to use the ones without chemistry at all. Xhaka and Guendouzi has not worked since the start of the season. Why not mix it up.
Xhaka and Guendouzi were mostly fine, especially Guen.
You are 50% very wrong.
No as Xhaka didn’t have a bad game at all but is always made the scapegoat
Guendouzi was easily man of the match. He was everywhere, doing everything. I.m really starting to believe in him
no wonder we had no functioning midfield and drew the match barely,
We need Willock
I remember the first few matches of Henry and Bergkamp which were not very exciting so please give Pepe and Ceballos a little more time before writing them off
Make Gendouzi Captain. Auba played excellent no hiding away from him tonight. Tried really hard excellent cheeky finish. Imagine no VAR ?
Guen was switched on defensively today.
I don’t feel sad anymore as I know we are . Nothing to add more on Emery, I hope he leaves soon.
Regarding players, I understand Pepe needs time but till now I have not seen anything which excites me very much.
Only positive was Saka and Leno. I don’t know how long we will suffer. Emery has not learnt anything from his mistakes.
I know we can say anything in hindsight but seeing current performance, Arteta would have been better, at least we were aware of his experience (lack of).
There are so many things wrong about the way Emery is setting up this team at the moment. — Why in eff’s sake is he playing Torreira further forward to accommodate Xhaka as a DM? — Why does the team only seem to ramp up the pressure when we are in a losing position? Do you guys see that we are no longer even creating bucket loads of chances as we used to? Lampard came to Chelsea and already they have a clear, definitive style of play. Even against Liverpool they stuck to that style and the fans loved what… Read more »
Didn’t think I’d say it but I’d take a Lampard esque appointment. Get out the duds (one of which we bought!) and focus on youth and playing an exciting and gutsy brand of football.
try ljungberg
Love Fred so dearly but just a little lacking in experience for me. Would be amazing if you could loan managers out to get them some head coach action in the championship.
I’d hope part of bringing Fred into the first team setup would be.
First: Try to help Emory get the best out of the young players.
Second: give him experience with the first team so he can take over seamlessly if needed.
Arteta.
So many agree with such a stupid suggestion. He’s had no managerial experience and surely let’s wait until we can put out our strongest team before wishing the demise of Emery. Lacazette, Bellerin, Holding and Tierney to return. Pepe surely after a few more matches will find the form for which we bought him.
It reflects the manager’s level, reactive, not assertive to take the game to the opponents.
Protagonists Fc
Starting to become the most iconic ironic statement of all time.
“What’s baffling is that in the first few months of Emery’s reign we played some exhilarating, high-risk football. So how did it all change?”
it was still some wengerball back then
Yeah that famous ’emeryball’ Ramsey goal at fulham. Was right at the start of the season and right off wenger’s training pitch.
Now that you mention it, I totally agree with you. Second game of the season we tore the Chelsea defence into shreds and only some bad finishing that day in the first half saw us lose that game.
Its criminal to keep Joe on the bench he’s our best MF at the moment. BTW, It looked like we ramped up the pressure but it was actually United that made the mistake of defending deep and playing on the counter. When United were pressing higher up, we were as clueless as we have been all season in the PL.
Make that 24 games since we last won away from home against a big 6 side. An absolutely disgraceful record. With his meticulous planning and strategy and the players he’s been given, you’d have thought Emery would significantly improve us on this front. Especially against declining teams like today’s United side, the worst I’ve ever seen in the Premier League era. But, the fact is he hasn’t. In fact if anything, he has turn us into a mid table team which lacks creativity upfront, control in midfield and looks shaky in defence. God knows where we’d be if it were… Read more »
Stopped attacking as soon as we levelled it. Should have and could have won it. Emery out.
Fucking coward shat himself as per, no wonder the team looks like kittens out there. Get rid of him
A loss would have been a terrible result. A draw away to a United, yes a shit United but still, isn’t that bad of a result. Liverpool drew at Old Trafford and they are better than us so just relax lads
Yeah maybe. But it’s another game where we looked poorly set up, little or no cutting edge and lethargic from the start. Alright results aren’t awful but fuck me performances are.
Yes, but Liverpool excelled in almost all of their other matches. We donn’t.
Why is Emery doing everything to invite the sack?
A decent coach would wipe the floor with this United team tonight.
We had better players but a loser on the sideline.
I can tolerate a bad manager. But a coward? I cannot.
What the fuck is the matter with everyone?? Why are our fans such a bunch of cunts? Or is it just the keyboard fans? You lot need to take a leaf out of the away fans book. It’s as embarrassing as that offside decision.
Bunch of cunts? You’ll find Arsenal fans are positively delightful when compared to most other fans of other clubs, you idiot. Chelsea fans DROVE Sarri out of the club as they didn’t think he was right for them, and he was infinitely more successful than Emery last season
Fans of TOP clubs call out bullshit when they see it, they don’t blindly back managers who are only temporary
Excuse me, sir, but that is a load of bollocks. You wrote, “Fans of TOP clubs call out bullshit when they see it ….” WTF are you on about? You knuckleheads were presumable also the geniuses who wanted Wenger out. The team is still missing its starting full backs, arguably our most mobile centerback, and the most important forward we have – Laca. Emery doing with what he has. Is it perfect? No. But we grind out an ugly draw on a terrible rainy night at the old toilet, and all you fuckers do is whing and complain. My goodness.… Read more »
“ the most important forward we have – Laca.”
I love Laca, but our other striker, who scored tonight with a lovely finish, has 17 in 17 if the US commentators are to be believed.
Hear hear Homer. I’m sick and tired of our toxic knee jerk so called supporters.
Infinitely more successful? He got one point more than we did, with a much better squad. Okay, he also beat us in the final.
But “infinitely”? Nope. He got hounded out because he wasn’t “a Chelsea man”. I guess we’ve graduated to “coward”.
Classy bunch, we are.
Yes, infinitely more successful, considering the media were after Sarri from day one (yet didn’t say a WORD about Emery), considering Sarri had basically no strikers at all whilst we had Auba and Laca, considering when it COUNTED Sarri stepped up whilst Emery fucking bottled it by throwing the league (as he did so often at Sevilla) for the bloody Europa only to get embarrassed in the final
Oh I see. You want to be more like Chelsea…
Pff…Aubameyang saviour. Again. At least Leno heard me “do not play it from the back unnecessarily”..Next inline is Emery…please do not start 3DMs…it is boring and toothless. Xhaka captaincy is beyond me. How ducking a goal bound strike is leadership, nobody can understand.. Draw but winnable.
That was drab.
Auba again saves Emery, while Xhaka just exists. I can’t see what he adds.
Hope to see Tierney, Bellerin and Holding in action soon. As well hopefully Pepe gets used to the league soon, he seems a bit spent already.
Tony Adams woulda taken that shot square in the face in order to stop it.
So he should. In the nuts even.
So typical anti Xhaka nonsense. He tried to head the ball away and although unsuccessful he certainly didn’t duck out of it. Why do people always have to see the worst of Xhaka?
Ducking? You mean from that Sokratis deflected shot? I get you hate Xhaka but you can find better examples ofnot so good stuff he did today, this one is just ridiculous…
It wasnt three DMs – it was Torreira furthest forward. Which is equally daft so as you were.
We didn’t play with 3 DM’s. Guendouzzi played CM with Toreirra. So we played a V in midfield. Yes we didn’t create much but not because of the “3DM’s”
I think he means the players, not the formation.
Ah yes possibly, my mistake.
We shouldn’t be too surprised by that. At PSG he usually played Motta, Matuidi and Veratti who are three pretty defensive guys. And with a RW, LW and ST in front of them. To be honest, it didn’t go great for him there. Not sure why he still is flogging this dead horse.
We should have Tuchel right now instead. And I feel we would if not for that sven issue.
Its what Liverpool do but we dont have our fullbacks back yet.
Xhaka had a very good game, somehow dodged a yellow for a superb piece of bastardry on Lingard. He did NOT duck the shot, it was deflected past him.
You’re part of the problem.
Having an opinion isn’t part of the problem. Such a megalomaniacal thing to say. Emery should be held accountable
Terrible match by two very terrible teams, how the mighty have fallen
Actually I enjoyed the second half. Agreed the first was poor. I thought we showed some good stuff in the second half and could have won it. Saka was excellent – as was Guendouzi. The disappointment was Pepe was peripheral and Sokratis and Xhaka still don’t convince.
But next match sees Holding Bellerin and Tierney back – surely. And we are fourth. So things are looking up.
Yes a terrible game, but what’s so frustrating is we have the personnel to do so much better. Yet another negative midfield with Torreira roaming all over, clueless attaching void of all cohesion or strategy, abysmal free kick routines.. I mean cummon what the fuck are they doing day in day out on the training pitch. We made that shower of a united team get away with it once again.
We’ve played all of our midfielders bar Ozil. So you think Ceb made us any better? because he didn’t.
The team lacked organization in counters not creativity. The 3 in midfield are our best option currently.
What a waste of my time that was. At least we didn’t lose.
Once Saks gets a bit more experience and fitness he’s going to be great.
Emery, sort out the balance of this team!!!!!
*Saka (bloody autocorrect)
May not have been the dream scenario but on the basis of how we played today, I’ll take a point at Old Trafford, especially having come back from behind.
Yet again
That was just awful honestly – United are a very poor side & so are we at this point. I don’t see us getting rid of Emery just given there aren’t really a lot of other good available options right now – but we just don’t seem to be making any real progress under him either. Another cheap goal given away & us spending the rest of the game trying to play catch up.
yes that’s the worse part… ” I don’t see us getting rid of Emery”
I’m somehow starting to believe that Ljungberg will get us playing a whole lot better than the current crap we are playing. He might not necessarily solve the defensive issues, but if he has us swarming all over teams non-stop in attack all game, I would gladly take that over this dross Emery is serving up right now.
This season is fast turning into another write off!
At least if we attacked like we used to we might blow a few more teams away and be better to watch
This is just turgid shite
Exactly my point!
Freddie is a better option, even an empty chair is a better option.
A inanimate carbon rod is even better .
Whose to say Freddie would have us swarming all over a team and attacking. Managers don’t always get their teams to play as they did.
Our captain has only gone and done it again.
No one is surprised by this result.
Come on… there were much worse players on that pitch… Sokratis actually almost gave away a penalty and got lucky again… and Pepe…
By that you mean a yellow on halfway
Could have gotten himself sent off with stupid foul in build up to their goal, unFriendly ref may have given him a yellow anyway and no way he survives second half then.
We didn’t lose but my word that was bad. It was a game of kickball for 80 minutes.
Wish we’d shown more ambition
There is something very wrong with this team
2 hours of my life I will never get back
Can we just watch caraboa cup games? They’re about 10x more interesting right now.
Agreed
That’s generally how time works.
Brilliant. Anyone who complains about two hours they’ll never get back can watch replays only if we win.
I don’t watch replays of us when we lose, or when we draw in a turgid fashion. I leave that to the manager and the team to hopefully learn from their mistakes.
….they’ve had quite a few games to watch again over the last 14 months. I’m still waiting for the bit where they learn from their mistakes.
Good idea
Two hours? We’re on the Arsenal coach that left Emirates stadium eleven hours ago, we haven’t even got half a mile from the ground yet.
I genuinely hate Emery. I think he’s one of the worst managers Arsenal have ever had when everything is taken into account. He’s a tumour at this club. Like I saw someone tweet, “Arsenal are a beta team under Emery. He’s a bland Sevilla manager that fell up the stairs. Can’t speak English, has awful ideas, will never move the club forward. He has to go. Emery making top 4 will be as bad for Arsenal as Wenger beating Hull in 2014.” He is spineless. Everyone who followed PSG/European football when Emery was announced knew we had absolutely fucked it.… Read more »
Make love not hate.
#EmeryOut
Bit strong
As for Xhaka.. I commented earlier on a post that if he plays, Arsenal will not win. We all knew we weren’t going to do anything serious when the team was revealed, let’s be honest. Not only does Emery not have a fucking scooby about this league, he’s also a woeful man-manager with favourites that he will never drop, whilst those deserving to play will look on from the sidelines Sooner Arsenal accept Emery was a horrendous mistake (as we all knew in May 2018), the better. Enough wasting time with him, ruthless clubs know when they fucked up and… Read more »
His treatment of Ozil lacks class; he’s a coward, let alone a bad man-manager.
no we only knew it in may 2019, not 2018…
A beautiful rant. If I’d have said the same, my ‘fuck’ count would have set records.
I am fucking fed up of seeing the same tripe each week. West Ham passed on this idiot, why can certain fans not see why?!
Couldn’t agree more. How does such a coward get to be manager at Arsenal
Well Gazidis got him!
You need genuine mental health assistance and very quickly
Ah yes! Of course, we’re not allowed to think this was bad. Okay mate, it was a great performance and Emery is punching his weight.
Above his weight*
After this crap I almost certainly do.
I do agree that we need a new manager but after following the club from 1975 he is a long way from being the worst manager we have ever had. He is not just up to the prem league, lot’s of foreign managers struggle in it.
No. He has spent over £200m and has a good squad, in my opinion. We have a fearsome attack on paper yet Emery has made us utterly toothless.
We have very good midfielders yet thanks to Emery’s lack of a functioning system and his love of Xhaka, we roll over for every team.
It is ALL on Emery. No other Arsenal manager has spent as much as he has and taken the club backwards from an already awful couple of years
I’ve been sick of the Emery-out crowd for some time now, but frankly I can’t come up with one decent argument against what you just said.
Go home, sober up.
You’ll feel better. And also hopefully stop posting this sort of drivel.
Cheers.
#emeryout one goal scored due to their mistake. No attacking boring and desperate play. Get lost.
What a performance by gendouzi. This match made me realise Pepe does not care no motivation partly down to the manager. Sokratis and Luiz played well. Xhaka beeen Xhaka duck out of the way for the goal. That’s OUR CAPTAIN. Emery has worse decision making then a young Theo Walcott.
Pepe our record signing. He just couldn’t be bothered.
Poor man’s Gervinho.
Shhhh. You can’t say that here.
Pepe has a lot of talent but he body language says to me he doesn’t really have the motivation to take the game by the scruff of the neck. If he had say like Simeone in charge the players would be working so hard for him whereas Emery not so much. Auba worked his socks off today.
If Auba worked his socks off but Pepe didn’t, doesn’t that suggest that Auba’s long experience tells him that if you want to excel as a player you have to give your all every game even if the coach is always cautious?
Pepe doesn’t yet have that experience as he is still young. He would be far better off copying Auba’s attitude and playing the game the way he is used to playing it.
Emery hampers our players. He won’t let most of them show the qualities we bought them for.
Poor Pepe is having one-to-one video training sessions with Unai Emery. That is probably slowly making him lose the will to live.
Uninspiring. Saka really should’ve won it though. Nelson towards the end as well after good work from Willock.
I’d like to join in the doom and gloom as well but then again we’re back to 4th, and we’ve covered quite a few tough games already.
well let’s see if we will do any better again the “easy” games
I hope today’s game didn’t make your tough game’s column? This is the most tepid United team in living memory.
Wait till you play Leicester in a few weeks.
Chances falling to players who aren’t Auba/Laca but at least chances.
We’re 4th because everybody apart from the teams above us have been just as shit, or worse….in United’s case, who we still couldn’t beat
The game was at the same level as Fifa 96 for SEGA…
I want to watch games that are more “Kick Off II The Final Whistle” for the Amiga.
Generally, I prefer the remastered editions.
Get this manager out of my club. Thats a weak united team and he still plays defensive. The sides battling in the relegation zone play with more purpose and chemistry than this team.This is bad, zero creativity, that goal was against run of play. Torreira is soon going to loose out all his defensive traits. Such a talented squad managed by useless manager.
he better not focus on his defensive traits. the (non existent) defensive coach won’t do him any good
good point, shame Pepe is still very rusty
Plays like a man with no confidence
Or no interest, passion, commitment, energy ..
honestly didn’t break out of a jog…regardless of people having bad games his ground covered must have been very very low.
I know it’s to early but campbell looked more of a player than pepe. He is to dependent on his left foot and his crossing is also not good. Hopefully pepe wont be our lamela
or gervinho
I said it here weeks ago, that he’s the new Gervinho. At least then, his dribbling stood out.
Emery will suck the life out of Pepe, he already has him watching videos he said after training. He sucked the life out of PSG and now he is doing to us.
Thank God for VAR. That was the lowest quality United v Arsenal match I can remember. And I’m 57.
Goodness me those are two absolutely bang average teams. Also, Pepe lad, your free pass isn’t going to last forever. We kind of need you to, y’know, start looking interested now
Seems like Aubamayang is the only one in our squad who is capable of scoring
Yes, that is a worry. Pepe was very poor tonight. He has to step up and soon.
What’s Emery been saying to him that holds him back?
I bet it’s not “Just play your natural game, man, you can be a great winger.”
No! There are goals in Saka.
And Laca when he gets back(a).
With that defence need to be satisfied with a point away from home. Let’s hope Bellein, Holding and Tierney are deemed fit enough for first team action in Premiership A.S.A.P.!
That’s a very generic statement considering we were playing the worst United team we have ever faced.
If a competent manager get the best from his players more often than not, what is Emery?
consistent.
consistently bad
Another pathetic, ugly grind of a game orchestrated by Emery against a side that’s won 4 times in the last 15. Outshot by 10 shots this time against the worst united side in a decade. So absolutely sick of this. Absolutely no courage or positive thinking
It looked an awful lot like we would have been content with a draw. It was a damning lack of ambition by the manager. The lack of communication between the players was shameful (eg. Xhaka’s woeful free kick in from of the goal to Chambers, and the lack of support for Sale in the lead-up to the free kick just outside our box)
I hope that Pepe has a better game next time… Ceballos wasn’t great either… That free kick at the end was awful.
Xhaka loves to blast shots at goal. Wenger could never stop him doing it. Now he tries “clever” stuff that is apparently beyond his capabilities.
Free kick in front of goal? It’s raining today. Shoot, you silly sod. Just ignore all that thinking shit Emery puts in your head. Do what you always used to do. SHOOT!!!!
Chambers had a solid night, done well to compose himself despite the yellow
Things I’ve read on here:
Pepe: Absolute superstar
Ceballos: Absolute baller
I know it’s still early days for both, which is why I think we should defer judgement – bad or good – until later on. I say this because an absolute baller would not cross the last ball of the match in such a terrible way. The least said about Pepe today, the better…
Oh dear…. so frustranted right now? don’t know where to start
That 45th minute and Xhaka double move summarize it all: huge foul on lindgard in the middle of the park and then a magnificent duck dive to let the ball enter the net…. thanks Mr Captain
Yet again our Captain gives away clumsy freekicks and gets himself booked at a crucial time… I would have praised the few incisive long passes he made, but for the suicide pull on Lingard (which he got away with) and his pathetic DUCK under the shot… head it away you bloody coward!!!
Watch the replay – he genuinely ducks under the ball!
Captain Courageous.
He was scared of the ball.
Watch the replay again it was deflected by Socratis’s leg. Even I thought initially he misread that shot but not after seeing the deflection.
Its getting really annoying when people single out players and now for things thats not their fault. Yes, Xhaka is NOT Arsenal quality. Everyone knows that. But neither is half the team and specially this coward manager. Where the hell is Arsenal’s fluid possesion based play??
There was just 10 mins of start of second half when we saw that one touch football. We got the goal and then back to shit football.
There is an angle from behind the goal – and almost directly behind Xhaka. As the ball approaches him he DUCKS… DUCKS – no two ways about it…. he is in line with the ball, despite any deflection – he simply ‘shrinks’ into himself at the critical moment.
Cowardice or poor judgement – either way, just not good enough for any player, let alone our ‘Captain’
It probably was just a natural human reaction to something flying at his head to be fair – that being said it should’ve been coached out of him a long time ago.
Well that was not good enough again. Timid and pathetic ‘just don’t lose’ tactics from worlds greatest tactician. Please sack him now, be ruthless. #EmeryOut
At some point we need start talking about Pepe… gendouzi tho, reminds me of a young cesc
No
And Emery leaves him on and subs Torreira, who was worth 3 Xhakas on the night…
On that evidence, both teams are lucky to be in the Europa League, let alone challenging for top 4. If we’re going to THIS United team playing 3 DMs and looking for a draw then we simply don’t deserve CL football. Some positives though, Saka and how much better we looked with Ceballos on.
Leno as well, solid game
Did Arsenal look that much better? Ceballos did a couple of good things today but aside from Burnley he has been quite average.
We looked better. Maybe much better was overstating it but it was only with him on the pitch that I thought we could actually win the game.
Emery is clearly more scared of losing than he is keen to set the team up to win. That’s the only reason he would consistently play 3 DMs when he doesn’t have his preferred back line.
At some point we need start talking about Pepe..gendouzi though, reminds me of a young cesc
I don’t feel sad anymore as I know we are sh*t. Nothing to add more on Emery, I hope he leaves soon.
Regarding players, I understand Pepe needs time but till now I have not seen anything which excites me very much.
Only positive was Saka and Leno. I don’t know how long we will suffer. Emery has not learnt anything from his mistakes.
I know we can say anything in hindsight but seeing current performance, Arteta would have been better, at least we were aware of his experience (lack of).
Scandalous.
Anything less than 3 points was always a loss against this very poor United side.
Is it just me but I can’t see why we spent so much money on Pepe.
People thumbed me down here months ago when I said I didn’t see anything special about him after watching the nations cup.
But to be fair, I am still BELIEVING he will come good soon.
i also believe he will. but not under UE
Agreed. UE’s style of play doesn’t suit Pepe. I had the same feeling when Alexis went to MU under Mourinho, that he would cramp his style. Pepe could flourish in the type of system we used to play. Also agree with some of the above comments about Pepe’s body language. We signed him knowing that his work rate is questionable so perhaps the thinking was that with a strong back line [which I think we all agree is coming soon] we wouldn’t need him tracking back. Of course, people compare what we are trying to do to what Liverpool does… Read more »
Saka was great. Love how he used his body to keep the defender off the ball.
Have to say that Pepe is disappointing, he did not have a good game.
Love our young guns but I don’t really understand why Nelson is being brought on and not Martinelli.
Because Emery didn’t want someone who would try to win the game on the pitch.
what does xhaka bring? he ducks for the goal. wth
douzi shows more leadership skills on the pitch.
For every xhaka purchased, a saka needs to be made.
what does a xhakaless trio (douzi, willock, torreira, ceba) has less than any trio with xhaka?
if emery is ousting ozil out for no motivation/fight back/tracking back on pitch, then how long will it be for pepe?
I expect more from Pepe.
2 terrible teams coached horribly playing dull lifeless football.
+1 GD after 7 games..still looking to get my arsenal back. Is +2 after 14 games going to cut it? I don’t think so. No Özil on the bench was an awful awful decision. We should have gone to control midfield – Torreira should have stayed on.
Thank God Auba ignored the whistle
Agree about Ozil. We played with an extra midfielder anyway and it might as well have been Ozil.
And there was no whistle. I streamed the US broadcast and they said that they had analyzed the tape and found that Kevin Friend had not blown.
I am looking forward to our new defence playing soon. This was a decent result considering?
To be clear when we have 3 better players at the back the whole team will get better?
Dreadful game but a decent result.
The big plus today was the way we defended: we looked fairly solid, albeit against a pretty toothless United attack. But going forward we were abject with no creativity and a horrible final ball.
A point at Old Trafford is never one to sniff at but both teams look very average. I don’t see any real progress from last season.
takes you 7 games to see that?
No, he’s just had his fingers burned by being too negative too soon in the past and had a few seasons of being everybody’s favourite moany guy. This is the new, cautious, more thoughtful, wise Fatgooner, and I like him now 🙂
We could have won that game with a better team selection. Why so defensive when Man U were there for the taking ? Really poor, another bad goal conceded, glad we got one back but what would we do without Auba ? Better hope he does not get an inury
Hope to see pepe get accustomed to the premier league there was a whiff of gervinho about him this evening
Dear Editor,
what is the criteria for “Comment awaiting moderation”?
Random use of words such as “and”, “the”, “a”, and “Arsenal”
Maybe our team isn’t as great as the Like City or Liverpools but currently we are underperforming and Auba keep bailing us out. Remove his goals Arsenal would be in relegation zone with just 2 points, against Bunley and Aston Villa, I for one can’t get used to this type of predictability. So I say just let us cut our loss and start over we can still salvage this season, or else we will be in the same state as last season. Emery isn’t a coach to take us forward ever game so far this season is an evidence to… Read more »
Watching Emery breathe a sigh of relief and smiling at the end shows the mindset of this manager. Even bottom sides would play better. This guy is not a coach, he hardly looks like one.