Manchester United, Arsenal Draw At Old Trafford

Arsenal played out a disappointing 1-1 draw with Manchester United at Old Trafford to further dampen their faint Premier League title hopes.

The Gunners needed a win to reduce Liverpool’s lead but they faltered again to go further behind the table-toppers.

Mikel Arteta’s men have now failed to win their last three Premier League games against West Ham, Nottingham Forest, and Manchester United.

Bruno Fernandes gave Manchester United the lead just before halftime with a sublime free kick, which was only their second shot of the encounter as Arsenal dominated proceedings.

The Portuguese midfielder once again showed his importance to Manchester United with another free kick, equalling Wayne Rooney’s record.

He became the first Manchester United player since the 2013/14 season to score more than one free-kick goal in a season. The last ones were Juan Mata (2 goals) and Wayne Rooney (3).

He has also recorded seven goals, and seven assists in the Premier League this season.

The Gunners felt hard done despite doing everything possible to get in the lead but they couldn’t as United went into the break with a 1-0 lead.

Declan Rice brought Arsenal back into the game with a first time effort which sailed past Onana to make it 1-1.

Both sides continued to look for the winning goal but Arsenal had Raya to thank for making a series of impressive saves to deny Manchester United.

He made a stunning double save in the closing minutes of the game to ensure a share of the spoils for Arsenal.

The draw had implications on Arsenal’s shaky title aspirations after going 15 points behind Liverpool with a game in hand.

Manchester United, on the other hand, moved up from 15th to 14th.

The Red Devils have still never lost a Premier League game at Old Trafford in which they have led at Half-time.

Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta was disappointed with the way the team conceded chances in the encounter.

He said: : “Sometimes that is what is missing. The execution has to be in to the right player and the right player to shoot. How we conceded [chances] in certain moments was not acceptable. They have so much quality and they pick the right player and normally that would end in a goal.

“We opened the gate to lose the game. there was no chance to lose the game and we opened it ourselves. I will defend my players all the time but in those moments we have to do better.”

“When we had the first half that we had where we were exceptional, we didn’t test the keeper. We had some unbelievable situations but we didn’t get the last shot or the last pass. We didn’t capitalise, we rushed the game, we started to lose duels and we could have ended up losing it.”

Ruben Amorim was delighted that the team finally took the lead at home after going behind in most of their previous matches.

For the first time since December 1st, Manchester United took the lead in a Premier League game at half time.

It ends their longest run in the division of not being ahead at the break.

He said: “It helps when you score a goal and don’t suffer [conceding first], you can feel the energy in the stadium.

“At this moment, we try to win games and be compact. We were so close in the second half to score a goal. We were really competitive and I think that is important.

“We pushed forward and not back. We had some situations to win the game. Arsenal put a lot of men inside the box to win and I think Alejandro Garnacho did a complete game and that helped us a lot.”

Manchester United are winless in their last six games against Arsenal across all competitions (D2 L4); their longest run without beating them since April 1999 (also a run of six – D2 L4).

The Red Devils will resume Premier League action against Leicester City on Sunday, while Arsenal will take on Chelsea on the same day.

Manchester United, Arsenal Draw At Old Trafford is first published on The Whistler Newspaper