Man United and Arsenal draw in four-goal thriller

Manchester United 2 : 2 Arsenal

Arsenal surrendered two leads in quick time, once in each half, and in doing so lost two points that their play probably deserved as they drew 2-2 with Manchester United at Old Trafford.

The Gunners did extend their unbeaten run to 14 Premier League matches but a win would have taken them ahead of Chelsea, who lost at Wolves, and kept them ahead of Spurs who won at home to Southampton. Instead they stand fifth.

United remain eighth having extended their run without a league win to five games.

Shkodran Mustafi and Anthony Martial scored first half goals at Old Trafford before Jesse Lingard equalised Alexandre Lacazette’s goal just 14 seconds after the restart.

History favoured United. They won both of their EPL meetings with Arsenal last season, and were seeking a third consecutive victory over them for the first time since November 2012.

Arsenal also had a problem with midweek matches. They had lost their last three midweek league matches played on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday and conceded three goals in each defeat against Swansea City, Manchester City and Leicester City.

Jose Mourinho made seven changes from the side who started against Southampton. Only David De Gea, Nemanja Matic, Ander Herrera and Marcus Rashford surviving.

Ashley Young was suspended and was replaced by Portugal’s Diogo Dalot who made his Premier League debut as a substitute against Southampton on Saturday.

The Portuguese manager also dropped Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku to the bench. Brazilian midfielder Fred and Phil Jones weren’t even in the squad. Luke Shaw (knock) failed a late fitness test. Marcos Rojo made his first United appearance of the season.

Unai Emery made two changes from the side who started against Tottenham compared to Mourinho’s seven.

Midfielder Granit Xhaka was suspended with Matteo Guendouzi  replacing him and Aaron Ramsey started for Hennrikh Mikhitaryan, while Mesut Ozil (back), Nacho Monreal (hamstring) and Laurent Koscielny (Achilles) all failed to made the cut.

United started the brighter and had the first shot, with Rashford firing straight at Bernd Leno in the Arsenal goal. There was thereafter very little threat to either goal until Hector Bellerin sliced woefully wide after The Gunner’s best spell with twenty minutes just passed.

Rob Holding was stretchered off in the first half
Photo: Premier League

Arsenal took the lead from a Lucas Torreira corner. Mustafi lost Chris Smalling and met it head first despite stumbling. He headed it downward and De Gea in the United goal fumbled it badly. Herrera was behind him and attempted to clear the danger but the the ball was already over the line by the time he hooked it out. A catalogue or errors all round for United

The lead lasted seconds. Anthony Martial scored after Bernd Leno scrambled to a Rojo free kick away to his left. Herrera reacted first and despite having been marginally offside at the free kick, play continued. He crossed perfectly for Martial to finish coolly, although questions will be asked about Arsenal’s slack defending.

Emery was forced to make an immediate change with an injured Rob Holding being stretchered off with for Swiss international Stephan Lichtsteiner entering the fray. Mustafi and Rojo were booked in quick succession with the United debutant being fortunate not to see a direct red for an awful lunge.

Jesse Lingard was next into the book for a needless tackle in the centre circle. Seconds later Hector Bellerin followed him although Matteo Darmian did seem to make a great deal of an innocuous tackle. Matic pulled back Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and became the next yellow within a minute, the fifth within a six minute spell.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan replaced Ramsey at half-time to force Emery’s second substitution.

The opening passage of the second half mirrored the first in that there were few fireworks although the outstanding Rojo warmed Leno’s fingertips with a long range effort on the hour mark. Romelu Lukakau replaced the injured scorer Martial and Arsenal’s Alex Iwobi made way for Lacazette, using up his side’s last change as early as the 64th minute.

It however was Rojo’s giveaway that set up Arsenal’s second on 67′.

Mkhitaryan and Lacazette broke away and the latter finished under heavy pressure from Rojo who was trying to recover from his error but to no avail as the French front man slide the ball past De Gea.

Alexandre Lacazette scores Arsenal’s second under pressure from Marxos Rojo
Photo; Premier League

The lead lasted even less time than the first. 14 seconds after the kick off Lingard nipped in among the Arsenal back three to pop home the second equaliser with Kolasinac looking on embarrassed as a hopeful long ball befuddled everyone.

The visitors fought back with menace. De Gea made two great saves from Aubameyang to keep United level thereafter.

Between them, Mkhitaryan blasted over from close range as Arsenal fought back. Fellaini might have been booked or worse for a hair pull and an offside flag counted an Arsenal effort out but the game fizzled out with both managers relatively content to hear the whistle and probably seek the latest news from their respective physios.

Both sides are now at home. Arsenal host Huddersfield and Manchester United host Fulham next. The team sheets will make for fascinating reading.

Manchester United: De Gea; Bailly, Smalling, Rojo (Fellaini 71′); Darmian; Herrera, Matic, Dalot; Lingard, (Pogba 75′), Rashford, Martial (Lukaku 63′)

Arsenal: Leno; Bellerin, Mustafi, Sokratis, Holding (Lichtsteiner 33′); Kolasinac, Torreira, Guendouzi, Ramsey (Mkhitaryan 45′), Iwobi (Lacazette 64′), Aubemyang

Referee: Andre Marriner
Assistants: Scott Ledger, Simon Long
Fourth official: Chris Kavanagh