[Scarlett Dracarys]

We were so close

 

[Gasolin]

I dont have video material to show it but I'am talking about this phase of the game:

From telegraph matchrapport:

33 mins

Darmian could be in real trouble here... he catches Jenkinson with a late challenge, putting his studs into his shin... but the referee warns him that one more of those and he's off.

He was on a yellow card there already. When I saw it on tv in close up, I tought it was really nasty and could have even been a straight red card if the ref would follow the rulebook. Was also talked about that during half-time (on belgium television) and all the analysts were agreeing he was very lucky because he should have gone off for that one. The first yellow on walcott was a very light yellow offence but this one on jenkinson was worthy of a straight red and ref didnt even give him second yellow, so he was very fortunate.

That phase was also before the penalty fase, I doubt if we would go down to 10 men that early we would be able to get anything out of this game. Nothing ridiculous about that.

The first yellow was wrong, the replay shows that Damien did not touch Walcott at all. That's what he says to the referee too.

 

[prath92]

This was the opposite of our 2-1 win a couple of seasons back where we had 1 shot on target and Arsenal ripped us apart in the first minutes.

 

[Catt]

Small silver lining for me. Correctly guessed 1-1 to take me up to tenth in prediction league!

Must feel good

 

[lewwoo]

Must feel good

It does but would trade it for the win and sabotage my standing in the league!

 

[MartialsBeard]

We totally didn't, it was a complete off day from Arsenal and despite that whilst playing at home we hardly could take advanateg off that. We hardly created a chance worthy of the name and when we do in fact score we try to park the buss while it has been clear all season we actually totally suck at parking the buss and invited Arsenal to just score and grab a free point from OT.

Also how you can laugh about Wenger who will likley stroll into the top 4 again whilst we probably are already out of the race for it is beyond me. Also We spend a fortune on our players, not just this season but the last 2 seasons under LVG aswell. The price tag of this United team is seriously ridiculous and on top off that we are paying them like kings aswell, our players fees and wages combined are probs the most expensive team in the entire game right now. But we will be losing out on top 4 for the 3th time in 4 years and we still have to win our first big match this season.

United at the moment is a complete joke, how people are still having a dig at Arsenal whilst our club is clearly in much more dire state is beyond me.

We played brillaintly against probably the second best side in the league our third choice CB pairing did an ok job until a momentary lapse in concentration.

Extremely harsh to be overly judgemental.

 

[Catt]

It'd be ok if we were outplayed and outclassed but an 89th minute header, it hurts.

It hurts, yes. But I'd rather we produce chances and play decent than play like shit with the same outcome.

 

[Catt]

It does but would trade it for the win and sabotage my standing in the league!

Of course you would.

 

[togg]

We are definitely going in the right direction. Some of our football was great and its obvious that slowly but surely Mourinho is starting to influence things and making the team play. I'm not worried about this season. Hoped but certainly didn't expect a top four, but we have to get behind this manager, because I'm bloody sure he's going to deliver. Give him the three seasons and let him build his team.

 

[N1_Gooner]

I don't agree with this, Cazorla has played in plenty of big games where we have lost, including at Old Trafford. His absence is a loss but the bigger problem is that Wenger only sets us up to play one way with a particular set of players. We also don't have like for like replacements in the squad, but Wenger doesn't change the style of play to suit the players on the field, he instead tries to fit them into the system. We then have Ramsey/Elneny trying to do Cazorla's job when that isn't their strength.

I think there's some truth to this and I'm not saying we are invincible with him in the team. Perhaps it's down to Wenger failing to appreciate that other players don't have his skillset but for me there is a huge difference in how quickly we move the ball forward with Santi in the team - and as CM, not dumped out on the wing. Passes with both feet, unlike any of our other CMs, much faster to make the right decision than any of our other CMs, much more accurate passing than any of our other CMs, with either foot. There is an absolute gulf in technical ability between Santi and Elneny/ Coquelin. You can see it with bad performances like this, or at home when a midfield of Elneny/ Coquelin fails to break down some bus parking team and it ends 0-0.

 

[PlayerOne]

They did what we used to do under SAF. Put on lots of attacking players and just went for it and I don't think we reacted to their changes.

We really need to score somehow.

 

[Jacko21]

We played brillaintly against probably the second best side in the league our third choice CB pairing did an ok job until a momentary lapse in concentration.

Extremely harsh to be overly judgemental.

We didn't play brilliantly. We just didn't. Three years of Moyes and Van Goal must've drastically tempered your expectations and indeed what you consider to be a brilliant performance.

 

[PlayerOne]

We didn't play brilliantly. We just didn't. Three years of Moyes and Van Goal must've drastically tempered your expectations and indeed what you consider to be a brilliant performance.

While we didn't create many chances, we bossed the game against a very in-from Arsenal. They're best players didn't get time or space, so taking that into account we played great, but the lack of goals hurt us again.

 

[Philadelphian]

It's quite simply a group of players that aren't up for a fight. For the title for sure maybe even for fourth

 

[Jacko21]

While we didn't create many chances, we bossed the game against a very in-from Arsenal. They're best players didn't get time or space, so taking that into account we played great, but the lack of goals hurt us again.

Defensively we worked well. Offensively, we're still nowhere near cohesive or incisive enough.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

We didn't play brilliantly. We just didn't. Three years of Moyes and Van Goal must've drastically tempered your expectations and indeed what you consider to be a brilliant performance.

Feck me, you obviously didn't watch the final years of Sir Alex either then.

Against another top Premier League side this was a very good performance and was 4 minutes away from being superb.

 

[Jacko21]

you must have a very short memory....

No, I am just astounded that people are waxing-lyrical about our performance today. I spent most of the game cursing of our players.

 

[togg]

sorry..but some of the 'new members' of the Cafe feel like they are like 12 years old sometimes.......

 

[PlayerOne]

Defensively we worked well. Offensively, we're still nowhere near cohesive or incisive enough.

All ifs and buts, but I think we missed Zlatan today. We did create more chances than them too, and in big games you don't get a lot of chances.

 

[togg]

No, I am just astounded that people are waxing-lyrical about our performance today. I spent most of the game cursing of our players.

so what did you do under Moyes and LVG...surely you can see that we are playing better than under those two?

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

No, I am just astounded that people are waxing-lyrical about our performance today. I spent most of the game cursing of our players.

feck me, bet you're fun to go to the game with.

 

[AXVnee7]

Some of my observations and thoughts:

• Arsenal are very good at reclaiming possession and I felt we didn't give this aspect of their play enough respect. Too often we dwelt on the ball too long allowing Arsenal to dispossess us. Juan was a big culprit, but also Herrera and Rashford at times.
• I've noticed that whilst our finishing inside the box is very clinical (that technique from Mata today! ), our long range shooting is very very bad. It seems like the players don't have the correct technique to generate enough power. I don't think any one of our starting players today, bar Pogba, are able to shoot a proper screamer, or Coutinho type curler from distance. Martial especially doesn't seem to have the technique to pull off such shots. I've yet to see him really put his foot through the ball and attempt a hard lace shot, as opposed to his curled efforts. I feel this is the case generally, our shooting options from distance seem very limited, again excluding Pogba.
• I've said this before, but I feel we are not and never will be a team that parks the bus. Definitely never with this current squad. It's just not organised, patient or savvy enough to set up in such a way. Mourinho must stop imposing his tired methods on this team, and instead actually have the balls to set up to be attacking and retain that status until we are comfortably ahead. If we had conceded on the counter, I wouldn't be so pissed. That back 4 today was always going to be fragile. Thankfully our midfield bossed the game and starved supply to their attackers, which meant our defence was largely untroubled throughout. However we paid the price for one error, costing us 2 points and a desperately needed confidence boost. It just made no sense to sit back and invite pressure on that defence, heck I wouldn't have trusted our full first team defence. It was impractical, and aesthetically unpleasing too.
• Speaking of attacking it's pretty obvious our attackers haven't got a great understanding with each other. There's too much improvisation, as opposed to creativity and manipulating the opponents defence. I know it's different with suspensions and injuries, but we really do need to settle on a consistent front 3/4 and give them time to gel together.

 

[Jacko21]

Feck me, you obviously didn't watch the final years of Sir Alex either then.

Against another top Premier League side this was a very good performance and was 4 minutes away from being superb.

No, I agree, we were poor during SAF's last two/three seasons. But we won more games and ended up as champions during that period - Ferguson got enough out of them to take them over the line.

 

[Loublaze]

Forget top 4. At least LVG beat the big teams

 

[Jacko21]

so what did you do under Moyes and LVG...surely you can see that we are playing better than under those two?

I hated it under Moyes and Van Gaal and of course I can see our improvement. But we're still a significant way off from where we need to be performance-wise.

 

[Dr. Funkenstein]

Satisfied with the performance, but you just can't claim to deserve a win if you don't create more chances. Blaming the referee for the draw is a bit sad.

 

[Billy Jim]

So frustrating. We're not catching top 4 now.

If we managed to qualify from our group, what sort of competition do we have in Europa? Any good teams looking likely to drop down from the Champions League?

 

[antihenry]

Depends on how you define deserve. We equalized from a legitimate move, no wrong penalty call or offside or even a foul. Did our performance deserve a point? From an attacking point of view, No, but United only scored once and when you only have a one goal lead, you always leave yourself open to a late sucker punch.

I define 'deserve' as 'playing well enough to deserve a point'. United were clearly the better team and should have won based on the performance on the pitch. Arsenal were poor, especially going forward and , they created absolutely feck all until their late goal.

 

[Jacko21]

feck me, bet you're fun to go to the game with.

No, but I do scrutinise and analyse the minutiae of our performances and indeed the club as whole.

Wouldn't hurt if some on here did the same, rather than kidding yourselves.

 

[M Bison]

Extremely disappointing result, yet whilst we were the better side we created very little and Cech hardly kept them in the game.

Lot of positives though, mainly Ander, Mata and Pogba and I feel much more upbeat about the rest of the season.

It was also good to have Rash up top although Martial was dreadful and is a major concern.

 

[ZAGREB RED]

Huge anti-climax, to put it mildly. Looked as thought it was going to be 3 points from a performance that gave a bit of hope for the weeks ahead until their equaliser. United played well in spells, second half was all United but when you fail to capitalise on your superiority that leaves the door open for a sucker punch. Some good performances today though, the potential for calamity with Jones and Rojo at CB was never likely to happen as they did all that was asked of them and Arsenal offered little going forward for much of the game.

 

[montpelier]

I thought we played very well 2nd half & deserved to win. Arsenal only created the goal, nothing else at all, after HT. Didn't see (haha) the Darmian alleged red - but certainly 2-3 yellows for Arse that were ignored. Not sure that was a pen, but never getting it today were we?

 

[Hugh Jass]

I would said Jose will be fuming with Rashford at the end for their goal.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

I would said Jose will be fuming with Rashford at the end for their goal.

He was very understanding in his interview due to Rashford being tired and Ox fresh, he'll no doubt be annoyed but Rashford is young and Jose will make sure he learns from those types of mistakes.

 

[NK86]

We didn't play brilliantly. We just didn't. Three years of Moyes and Van Goal must've drastically tempered your expectations and indeed what you consider to be a brilliant performance.

We did play very well. You don't expect to create 10 chances in a game of this magnitude. Matches between the big clubs is obviously going to be a game of chess. Our midfield completely dominated the game. Ozil was nowhere to be seen and bar Sanchez, none of their attackers were even average.

A lot of that has got to do with the fact that we dominated and controlled the tempo. We also had half chances but missed the final ball sometimes but your analysis seems way off.

 

[ash_86]

Please please don't concede. Just do it for us

And if the freekick following that results in goal, he will be blamed for taking down player at such a dangerous position.

I'll take my chances with the set piece situation. Atleast we have a chance to regroup. Anyway we need better defenders

 

[NK86]

He was very understanding in his interview due to Rashford being tired and Ox fresh, he'll no doubt be annoyed but Rashford is young and Jose will make sure he learns from those types of mistakes.

Ox was Blind's man to mark. Don't know where he was.

 

[jackofalltrades]

Very frustrating in that we let slip another opportunity to make ground on Liverpool and Arsenal. We still haven't beaten a team above us, in the league, home or away.

 

[Regulus Arcturus Black]

Ox was Blind's man to mark. Don't know where he was.

Ox was the full back.

 

[RonaldoVII]

Ox was Blind's man to mark. Don't know where he was.

How was he Blind's?