Arsenal: Cech, Holding, Koscielny, Monreal, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Xhaka, Ramsey, Gibbs, Alexis, Ozil, Welbeck
Subs: Ospina, Gabriel, Bellerin, Coquelin, Iwobi, Walcott, Giroud
—
Arsenal kept their skim hopes of making the top four alive with a 2-0 win over Manchester United at the Emirates this afternoon.
Arsene Wenger made a couple of changes from the team that lost last weekend with Rob Holding coming in for Gabriel, and Danny Welbeck replacing Olivier Giroud up front.
It was the visitors who had the first sight of goal, Wayne Rooney heading over under pressure from Holding, and Anthony Martial forced Cech into a save at his near post after being sent through by the England international.
Aaron Ramsey got on the end of a Sanchez pass to force a fine 9th minute save from David de Gea, and the game settled into a pattern with United sitting deep and Arsenal having lots of the ball.
Rooney headed off-target again, nodding wide after a short corner, and there was half a half a chance for Welbeck from an Arsenal corner, but he found himself crowded out quickly.
Ramsey came alive a couple of times, found by Alexis and the Welshman pulled the ball back for Welbeck whose shot was deflected wide. He then almost got on the end of a great Alexis cross, before Oxlade-Chamberlain stung the palms of de Gea with a rasping shot from outside the box.
United should have been ahead in the 31st minute though when a mistake from Holding saw him present the ball to Rooney inside our box, but Cech stood up well and make a great save from close range to save the youngster’s blushes.
It was about the last action of significance at either end in the first period. United’s bus was parked, Arsenal couldn’t find a way through and the game remained scoreless at the break.
There were no chances from either manager as the second half got underway, and the first 10 minutes were incredibly dull with both sides doing as much nothing as possible.
That seemed to irk Granit Xhaka who decided there’d been enough nothing so did something. He picked the ball up from a throw, took it on, decided to have a pop and it deflected off Herrera’s back and looped up and into the top corner. 1-0 in the 55th minute.
Two minutes later, the lead was doubled through Danny Welbeck. Holding kept the ball alive down the right, fed it to Oxlade-Chamberlain, he crossed it into the middle, and Welbeck thumped in a header off the underside of the crossbar. 2-0.
That prompted United into a couple of changes with Lindgard coming on for MickeyTarzan, and Marcus Rashford introduced for Herrera. Cech saved a Rooney free kick, and but for a timely intervention from Carrick, Ramsey would have been through on goal.
Rooney had an effort on goal but it flew high and wide, before Arsenal were forced into a change when Xhaka picked up a calf problem and was replaced by Francis Coquelin in the 76th minute.
Rooney shot over again, this time put off by a hilarious attempted block by Coquelin, and Arsene Wenger used his last two subs, bringing on Giroud and Bellerin for Oxlade-Chamberlain and Welbeck.
The rest of the game played out in Arsenal’s favour, the three points were much needed, and Arsene Wenger enjoyed his first ever Premier League win over Jose Mourinho.
All in all a good day.
Na na na na na na na na na na na na suck it
Brilliant effort. The second a Utd player got the ball, 3 Arsenal players were upon him in a flash.
Wenger finally gets his win over Mourinho. Congrats. Now the FA cup. Somehow finishing top 4 would be a great cherry on top.
Utd halted Arsenal’s run at 49. Utd r never going to get a 49 match unbeaten run so Arsenal had to make do with just halting Utd’s miserable unhistoric little run of no defeats since November.
Consider the debt repaid/
It was about time somebody ended the worst unbeaten run in the history of sports ! I am so glad we were the ones to do it, and to finally get one over that arrogant twat mourinho… What a feeling !
And that too without cheating like Rooney the cunty diver
Yup!! So many pluses today. Wenger first league win over that Moanin’whore. Poss top 4 finish chances better. End MU unbeaten run and confidence towards FA Cup trophy. Talking about trophy….
Did you know, ‘Pochettin’ as in the Sp*ur’s managers name means “Trophy” in Spanish. The ‘0’ is only added for the number of trophies won.
On another note, just how bad is Wayne Rooney these days? Walks around the pitch like a headless chicken half the time.
Yet the commentators love him?
They were surprised noone was picking him up since he’s supposedly such a threat. Apparently if given “5 yards of space” he can “turn and run (hah, tell another) at the Arsenal defence” or “pick out a player making a run down the wing” (neglecting the fact that that player will almost always be offside). He was such a threat, in fact, that I forgot he was even on the pitch in the second half. Amazing.
Enjoyed his corners most of all. Seeing him lining up for deliveries put me at ease.
Same goes for Martial, was he even on the pitch??
The chance from Holding’s mistake he’d normally bury against us, just another sign of his decline I guess
Nobody beats ( or draws ) Arsene Wenger 16 times in a row !
Except for Chuck Norris
Ox was named MOTM. But my goodness, Ramsey was outstanding today. Everywhere. Ran and ran and ran, created space for others, got himself into amazing goalscoring positions, won the ball, etc.
i thought ramsey was MOTM . but you are right he was outstanding , popped up everywhere. one minute trying to score in the opposition box , next minute he is defending for us in our half, his workrate is outstanding
Ox was poor first half. Very poor.
Ramsey probably shades it.
Granit was excellent too.
And Ozil I thought was much better than Alexis.
Ramsey was named MOTM, for me it was between him and Ox. Ramsey isn’t exactly the most popular player around here for sure but was class today and gave Rooney and Carrick a lesson in midfield
Ah, the channel I was streaming had named Ox as MOTM.
i always thought that , if ramey was left free he would be a good player for us like he does for wales . right now with three central defenders , and xhaka to circulate ball and stay back he is free to roam and he is using his freedom to pop up in united penalty box which surprised them a few times . no one was able to pick him up and with his workrate he will never be a defensive burden for arsenal . hoping this new formation gets the best out of him and ox as bothof… Read more »
Best game he has had for us in years. Hopefully he can kick on and show more of the same
I think he’s one of those players that needs like 5-10 games to fully get into gear.
His start stop season has ruined him.
I might argue Petr Cech as man of the match. He made 2 HUGE (as Trump would say) saves in the first half to make sure ManURE could not park the bus for an hour. If Man U gets the lead, they probably win that game with his negative tactics.
Fuck off Mourinho
Came here to say the same thing.
Fuck off Mourinho.
Fuck off Mourinho
And thank you making Arsenal look like Arsenal for a change.
And they say United can attract Griezmann or Mbappe. United as a club are on a downward spiral.
Great result, we deserved it.
I wonder what Mourinho will have to say, something c*untish I’d bet.
Correct.
I hope they get a nasty surprise on the return leg with Celta Vigo.
They’ve put all their eggs in one basket.
The numpty thinks he has already won it.
Does it matter? We won!
That was much more like it today. Got a bit of luck, but showed fight in the second half to get the goals to win the game. Obviously this doesn’t absolve all the terrible performances that we’ve seen this season, or that this definitely has to be Arsene Wengers last season, but its a nice refreshing reminder why we choose to watch football. Even though United looked like they couldn’t give a shit today, its always fun to beat them. Beating Mourinho is a beautiful bonus.
Does every thread have to be punctuated with calls for Arsene to leave? It’s getting tiresome.
Yes it has gotten tiresome, that’s why change is needed. Can enjoy the win today without getting sidetracked from bigger picture.
You are tiresome too, so why don’t you f*ck off?
Sky do such biased reporting. The way Martin Tyler repeatedly yelled into the microphone that “Tottenham will finish above Arsenal for the first time this season” was almost absent in the case of “Arsene Wenger defeating Mourinho in the PL”.
And Jamie Redknapp talking continuously about how awful Xhaka’s first season has been.
Anyways, well played Gunners!
Pundits are cunts. What else is new?
Up yours Mourinho! 🙂
We got the fuckers today!
And Ramsey was very good today!
Ramsey was quite superb. MOTM in my opinion.
Get in! Welbz’s header against his old club was a beauty! And let’s not forget this is Arsene’s first win over Moanrinho lol
*Premier League* win. Charity Shield in 2015 🙂
Sanchez was absolute pony again.
pretty comfortable:)
Great. Mourinho was hoping this would keep Wenger at the club while he goes on to win the EL. Evil genius
Good solid victory. Ramsey was really, really good.
Der der der DER – DANNY WELBECK!
Aaron Ramsey official motm…..I’m still not convinced
Did you watch the game? He was everywhere… making great runs and covering equally well!
His use of the ball is still less than top class, and as a central midfielder this is important, arguably more important than runs into the final third. But fair play to him for working hard and playing better.
Don’t really care who gets motm, but It was the best Ramsey performance I’d seen in quite some time. I really think Xhaka is being a bit overlooked because of his role, and Ox had a top performance as well. 1 beautiful cross assist, one throw in assist. He lost it a few times, but he kept them under pressure all day.
And Monreal was what I’d call ‘quiet cool’ and threw in a few raiders in the 2nd half.
I’m so glad we won even if Manure made 8 changes! Well done Chamberlain, Wellbeck and Ramsey!
Let’s go on a winning run and grab 4th spot!
COYG!!!!
What a lucky winner but I’ll take it.
Not Arsene’s first win against Mourinho, Arsenal’s.
First Premier League game
I’m just saying that we should start to focus on Arsenal and not Arsene. We hadn’t won against Mourinho in a Premier League game neither.
Club vs club makes sense. Manager vs manager makes sense. Your idea of club vs manager (Arsenal vs Mourinho) doesn’t.
Butt clenching stuff from Holding, less of that lad. Good showing all in all though. Ramsey had a good day.
Although it wasn’t great from him I thought Czech or koscielny should’ve done better, they made it look worse by acting so slowly
I’m not sure what more petr Cech could have done for there? Kos was absolutely caught on the back foot but it was a crap pass into no mans land!
Wenger’s worst season and he beats mourinho. Smh
It’s a funny old game.
Arsenal *might* still win the FA Cup, too, while Sp*rs win nothing. Go figure.
Jamie Redknapp is a fucking bell-end.
Average player that got roasted more often than not.
It’s in the genes.
Did you hear him on the Spuds v Arsenal? Full of sheeeet! Why do sky sport employ clueless ex players? He didn’t have one good word about Arsenal, he was just praising spuds. TWAT!
Be fair. There were not a lot of good words to say about Arsenal after that game. Posters on this board were in full-on apoplectic, end-is-nigh mode. Did you really want to hear Jamie tell you it wasn’t that bad?
Rather listen to someone else myself, but can’t fault anyone for criticizing Arsenal’s performance after that match.
I needed something positive after a poor start to the workday- so thanks to the lads for giving mourinho and the mancs their first league loss since october.
Moanrinho can go and dab along with that dabbing machine and that other twat Lingaard.
Damn near perfect weekend this is, Mugsmashers dropping points too!!We still need a miracle but hey, atleast Arsene snapped his record against Moanrinho.
Any chance for Liverpool or City to drop points in their upcoming fixtures?
This season everyone has dropped points in random matches. Always a chance!
…including the Arsenal, too, unfortunately. I wouldn’t bet on getting a perfect 12 points from our remaining matches. I think if we did we’d get 4th place. I think one of Liverpool or City will drop points again.
Bloody hell. Thought Wenger made the wrong decision with line up again. Would have preferred Bellerin on the right and Ox on the left. As is Gibbs had a good game (Helped by inexperience on the United right) and Ox was poor all first half. Welbeck I thought was doing nothing all first half. Not any more mobile than Giroud, panicky when he got the ball. So it was fitting Ox provided a magic cross and Danny planted it into the net for us. Granit bossed midfield with Ramsey who was good today. The one thing about some of our… Read more »
But we don’t really need the media to call it a lucky win do we? You already done that but for them
Hahahahaha it was 3 at the back right!
Thought Ozil was good today as much as Alexis was infuriatingly ineffective.
Alexis wasn’t great but he did put some nice balls in for Ramsey, the cross and slide ball down the side spring to mind
and he didn’t give the ball away much…and nor did anyone else! This isn’t fucking rocket science! 🙂
It was a superb win.. I love xhaka.. I love arsenal.
Probably not hugely important in the scheme of things but at least Arsene finally beat that twat Mourinho.
Here’s a poem for you all
Oxlade’s crosses
Oxlade’s crosses
Oxlade’s crosses
Oxlade’s crosses
Throw him in at wingback and all of a sudden these beautiful crosses show up, out of nowhere. Love it.
Serves them right to suffer ! Huge win at last 🙂
Look at what happens when we don’t give the ball away.
As I said before, the Ox is the best wing back in the Prem for me!
Brilliant performance from the team and having two “left backs” with the proper “we are Arsenal” attitude and spirit of Mon and Gibbs is great.
Also Holding was excellent and you can’t get the ball off Mesut without fouling him…Happy!
Ramsey cut out the cute stuff and was very good indeed. He’s soooo much better when he’s playing for the team and not showing off.
Take that Maureen you cxnt!
Lol, if Rooney were on Target that may have been a good Coq block.
Nice to pick up the 3, beat Mourinho, and end that unbeaten steak.
Jose won’t be happy, so this makes me happy.
Mickey Tarzan..lol. I want that guy at Arsenal. Besides the fact he was outstanding at Dortmund (Mourinho can make any good player look like crap), I’d love to hear 50,000 fans doing a Tarzan yell every time he scored. That would make me piss myself.
Those good runs of Ramsey required the right ball getting there and Alexis provided nearly all of them. I think Alexi had a very good game.
Alexis has put the bar high enough, so anything less than a perfect game for him is seen with bad eyes.
However his game was positive today with some superb passing.
I absolutely love the way Welbeck celebrates when he scores against man poo. Class act, their loss. Mourinho is the scourge of football and the fact that tonight he and all the other man ure supporters will be sad makes me happy….very happy indeed. Love it.
Yea! Hurray at long Last Wenger beat that arrogant bast***d not saying Wenger Is humble tho but it feels good, seems nobody really want that top four this year.
I still feel purely and immensely happy 18 hours after the match.