By Walter Broeckx
Arsenal starting line up: Leno, Bellerin, Mustafi, Sokratis, Holding, Kolasinac, Torreira, Guendouzi, Ramsey, Iwobi, Aubameyang
On the beach: Cech, Lichtsteiner, Maitland-Niles, Elneny, Mkhitaryan, Nketiah, Lacazette.
United with the better start in the opening 15 minutes but only one shot from them that was stopped by Leno. Arsenal not really calm on the ball but rushing it too much. 0-0 after 15 minutes.
Finally Kolasinac with a good run but United can clear the low cross. Arsenal taking the game in hands now but also not really much goal chances. Arsenal win a corner and Mustafi heads it towards goal and De Gea spills it and the ball goes over the line before a defender can clear. The goal line technology works! GOAL! 0-1 after 26 minutes.
United win a free kick and the initial kick is saved by Leno but Herreira starting from an offside position is first on the ball and plays it back to Martial who can tap it in. A goal that should have been disallowed but no VAR in the PL yet. 1-1 after 30 minutes.
Ramsey with a shot but the ball deflects for a corner. Then Holding is fouled by Rashford at the half way line but no foul given. Holding has to be stretchered off and Lichtsteiner comes in the field. Mustafi with a tackle from behind on Rashford and he gets a yellow card. The following free kick is cleared by Guendouzi but Rojo comes in flying like the madman he is with a two footed lunge. He escapes with a yellow card. Suddenly there is bad blood in the field after the injury from Holding. Lingard with not his first foul also goes in the book. Bellerin also for a little foul. Ref trying to keep it short. Arsenal trying to counter but Aubameyang is pulled back and Matic also gets a yellow card. Ramsey then clips his ankle and looks in trouble but he can continue but I don’t know if he will come back after half time.
Mkhitaryan starts the second half in the place of Ramset as expected. Again a not fluent start from Arsenal in the second half but Mustafi can clear the cross from Rashford after some 8 minutes. After 64 minutes Iwobi goes off and Lacazette comes on. Arsenal wins the ball from Rojo and Mkhitaryan gives it to Lacazette and a good one two and then Lacazette pushes the ball over the line while being fouled by two defenders. GOAL !! 1-2 after 68 minutes.
Bugger. United kick off and Kolasinac wins the ball from Lukaku and thinks Leno will come out to pick it up but a little hesitation and Lingard is first on the ball. 2-2 after 69 minutes.
Arsenal come close. A low cross to Aubameyang but De Gea with a save from a few meters out and the Mkhitaryan shoots just over from close range after a cross from the left. Aubameyang with a curling shot but De Gea palmed it away. 2-2 after 75 minutes.
Pogba with a cross but Arsenal can clear their line after a little bit of hesitation. Torreira gets booked for a wild challenge. Fellaini doesb’t get a red card when he pulls Guendouzi back by his long hair…… Not even a yellow card???? In the last minute Mkhitaryan scores from an impossible angle but he was standing in an offside position when the first shot came in. This time the assistant has seen the offside.
Arsenal tries to get a winner but there is no more score in this match. Too many errors (in fact all goals came from errors be it from players or from the referees) and so we have to take the draw. But 20 matches unbeaten is still a good run. And given the injuries we sustained and the changes that has brought I can live with the draw.
Sorry for not being able to update in the second half but the internet went down in my part of the world for a while
So with the two for Spurs that’s three goals against us in two matches that shouldn’t have stood! We really are doing well to still be unbeaten.
IWalter, I thought the referee was terrible all game and for much of the time he had no control of it at all. Should have been at least 4 red cards and in terms of legal goals we won the match so robbed by the PGMO again
Pat
Just imagine the media uproar if that fact had been the other way around !
Well, I would say that the question as to whether PGMO just hated Wenger, or hates Arsenal has been answered. PGMO hates Arsenal.
I wonder if there will be an honest medja reports on this game? I doubt there will be.
BBC no mention of the fouls, two footed lunges, double assault on Lacazette, dive for free kick, injuries to Holding, Ramsey, hair pulling, which could have caused serious neck injury. Other than that, quite a fair report….. (irony).
@ Pat, Nitram & Gord
Too f’in right they could have picked up two reds, should have had one disallowed for offside, whilst an almost identical situation for us is, miraculously spotted. As I’ve said many times, you have to win by three clear goals at Old Trafford to scrape a win by a single goal. Looks like Riley gave his orders tonight. Complete disgrace.
Completely expected. After all, Dean failed the PGMO mission on Sunday, so they had to make sure tonight. In the circumstances, a point is a result to be proud of.
Just want to say I said to my son before the match, who’s an Arsenal fan by the way, mariner worries me and it seems to me he’s auditioning for riley’s job.
He was of the opinion I’m too hard on the refs, but after today he finally agrees with me. Today felt a little like that 50th match at OT; have never seen so much bad fouling/tackling being totally ignored by the ref, as happened today, since that day.
I’ve no doubt mourinho told his players to rough us up, the first 10 minutes or so we were not allowed to have possession at all. Each time we had the ball our players got taken out, with ref just waving play on. Rojo was a thug all day, if he wasn’t two footing our players he was literally hauling them down with his hands. And mariner only gave him a single yellow all match. Felaini too. It was disgusting.
Always expected them to start tilting the pitch the longer our unbeaten run continues, but did not expect it to be this blatant. On Sunday it was Dean, and 3 days later this?
Medja is just going to plan. There was absolutely nothing wrong with:
1. what is called a foul for Arsenal being different from what is called a foul for ManU
2. the idea that the number of fouls by Arsenal is the same as the number of fouls by ManU; regardless of whether there is a difference in the quality of the fouls.
3. the idea that if a player requires treatment from a tackle, there is no need to consider the foul leading to the treatment as being something that should be carded.
4. the idea that if a player needs to be substituted after having been fouled, the referee should not have given a card to the player who inflicted the treatment.
Which just points to to FA/EPL/PGMO all being biased against Arsenal in any game and every game, to the best of their “ability”.
Yesterday Tony Pulis was utd manager , he had a Mourinho full body mask on.
Interesting how the Thuggery will hide under VAR next season.
Will the FA look at the Fellaini hair pulling incident retrospectively? I doubt.
We got robbed two points.
Woe oh , ohh ! Am disappointed that we didn’t get all 3 points , as I felt we truly deserved them. That they ended the game with 11 players on the pitch was a surprise.
I am happy that our players kept our cool and tried to play football.
What they played , or tried to play was not football.
Anyway a point at OT is still a good one , as we could have easily been robbed , as in previous seasons.
Up the Gunners !
Just seems there is no point complaining about the PigMob and the FA or the EPL anymore. The bias against AFC is as clear as can be but none of them give a hoot so long as it goes ‘kachiiing’ every PL match for them. The certainty is that they will pay a price far higher than what they rob Arsenal of, so brazenly. Over what that price is they have no control, individually or collectively.
Interesting to see juan moan over at the Old Toilet, that as far as it was concerned, Arsenal spent the entire game doing Ashley Young impersonations.
Mourninho has become even more obnoxious than before. I would never have thought that possible. He combines the worst features of Ferguson and Pulis, instructing players to dive, cheat and injure opponents. MU were never likeable but the present lot play even worse, classless football than Stoke. Scholes, Van Nistleroy and company were thugs, but they could play when it suited them.