Matheus Cunha’s outrageous late effort secured a fantastic and well-deserved win for Manchester United at Arsenal; the Gunners took the lead, and then came back to make it 2-2, but Michael Carrick’s team were in control of this match at the Emirates as soon as they equalised following a nerve start.
Arsenal stand as the perfect embodiment of the contradictory nature of the modern Premier League. It is more wealthy than it has ever been, and middle of the road clubs are stronger than ever, able to pick players from elite European clubs and not always fear losing their best players to them. Yet the quality of football, the quality of the spectacle is arguably the poorest it has ever been since the rebrand in 1992 after a decline over the last five or six years.
Today’s footballer is a premium athletic being and spends more time training and perfecting their technical ability yet this generation appears to have lost in the shuffle and balance the true elite footballers. We watched Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi battle it out, the two last true greats, reaching numbers nobody ever had – wondering how that was possible. We attributed it to their superhuman nature. Could it be that the standard of the game was crumbling at the same time? Maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle, but if the Premier League is today’s global stage, then where are the true greats? Forget Ronaldo and Messi. Where is the Zidane, the Kaka, the Ronaldinho?
The spectacle of the league is so poor that there is an increase in goalless draws, teams still persist with an attempt to play out from the back – an approach which has slowed the game down considerably – and a team like Manchester United, who started last year being described as the worst team in their own history by their own manager, have since been so poor still, that they sacked that manager, and remain in genuine contention for a Champions League spot, on the numbers alone. That is not reflective of a sudden improvement by United.
The league awaits the outcome of the Manchester City case, with Guardiola’s side initially hesitant to splash the cash, but have started to do so again with no concern, cherry picking two of the best players from those middle of the road clubs, systematically weakening the general competition once more.
Arsenal are worthy league leaders and worthy favourites in the Premier League but will go down as the worst Premier League-winning Arsenal side in history.
They will try and deflect that by comparing themselves favourably to great United sides of the past, hiding away from the contradiction that says that in that same opinion this Arsenal team must be better than the Invincible side of 2004. But no, they’ll say, as they attempt to unwind the knot – we think the Arsenal team of 2004 are the best. Of course, it’s not the clubs themselves who drive the narrative, but it was nauseating in the extreme to listen to Sky’s lead commentator Peter Drury discuss the Overlap podcast in just the second minute; another indication of the subtle way our major broadcaster attempts to dictate the narrative. They cannot, though, change history,
Arsenal are also worthy favourites, certainly from England, in the Champions League, but the standard of European football is abysmal. It is a wasteland, a by-product, collateral damage, a victim of the Premier League’s greed and wealth, in much the same way as the Championship was at the start of the century, only now it is the consequence of one club’s determination to buy every trophy. The standard of European football has never been lower.
The only attraction of the rebranded Champions League comes in the big names going head to head, and even then, it’s the glamour of the history and little to do with the present.
Oh, well, faced against such corruption, that makes Arsenal’s success even greater, doesn’t it? That’s what we were told when Liverpool managed to win two league titles. But every title race has a nearest challenger, and Liverpool followed their Premier League wins with two of the most disastrous defences. Well, that just underlines the competitiveness of the league, doesn’t it? Sure, but this Manchester United team were fifth heading in to today’s game. And, at present, a United supporter stands to be the most objective man or woman in the land, as they can admit that this is still one of the worst United teams they’ve ever seen.
The prediction heading into today’s game was straightforward. It would be tight, probably not much fun to watch, and decided by a set piece in Arsenal’s favour. That is a strength of Arsenal’s, and Mikel Arteta’s, and has to be appreciated as such – that these patterns of games can be called in advance.
United, one might have thought, would have been well-schooled to not give corners and set pieces away, yet they still line up with full-backs who have flattered to deceive at the club for 12 and 8 years respectively, and plenty of corners were conceded in the opening exchanges. O were soft free-kicks, and from one conceded by Dorgu, the first chance came – Zubimendi climbed above Casemiro, but his header was well saved by Lammens.
United lacked the same zip in their play as last week primarily because Arsenal, even on their home patch, are a team who like the opponent to have the ball, and compress the play looking for set plays or errors. The visiting defence was happy to oblige on the half hour, failing to get the ball out, and then Odegaard sliced a cross which was then sliced into his own net by Martinez. It was the sort of messy goal that was worthy of the game it was scored in.
It did, at least, wake United up. They responded in anger and Bryan Mbeumo made the sort of decision one does when starved of opportunity – he second guessed when he could have taken the shot on, and laid the ball off for Bruno Fernandes, who thrashed the ball wide. The same player shot wide just minutes later, too, when the ball was nicked off his toe at the last just to put him off.
But the reaction had been good, and led to an equaliser, when Zubimendi’s casual pass was intercepted by Mbeumo, who rounded Raya and tapped into the net. Mbeumo might have even made it 2-1 on the stroke of half-time with an outrageous lobbed effort from a Fernandes pass, the ball sailed wide of the goal.
Outrageous was the word for what came soon after the break – Dorgu and Bruno Fernandes played a couple of one-twos, before Dorgu, fully 25 yards from goal, struck a sensational half volley which flew in off the crossbar.
Arsenal struggled for a reaction so made a range of substitutes, and moved Bukayo Saka over to the left, but their game plan never shifted from playing for set-pieces. When Carrick made his own change, it was the same as last week – Cunha for Mbeumo – but the Cameroonian seemed less understanding than he was against City, having just returned from international duty.
United survived a couple of scares when Harry Maguire appeared to handle but was given the benefit of the doubt, and then Casemiro switched off to allow Saka to cut in and shoot with his left, but Lammens did well again. From the corner, however, Arsenal finally found joy, and Merino pushed the ball over the line after a typical Arsenal scrum where fouls are committed but none are ever picked up.
It appeared as though Arteta’s side had done enough to snatch a draw but from the very next attack, Cunha advanced with the ball and shot from outside of the area – it nestled beautifully into the near corner, sending the United fans in that area of the stadium into disbelief.
Carrick switched to a back five to see out the game, and Arsenal played for their scrums, but United got through without too much difficulty, and at full-time it was hard to believe that they had overcome the champions-elect in such a comfortably manner.
That’s two wins in two for Michael Carrick, and the comparisons to Ole Gunnar Solskaer’s start – which incidentally moved to eight wins from the first eight with a win on this very ground seven years ago today – will therefore pick up. United, after several invitations, finally accepted an opportunity to jump into the top four. If they stay there, on performances like this, it would be unwise to rule Carrick’s name out of the running.
Ratings : Lammens 7, Dalot 8, Maguire 7, Martinez 7, Shaw 8, Mainoo 8, Casemiro 7, Amad 7, Fernandes 7, Dorgu 8, Mbeumo 8
Subs : Cunha 8, Sesko, Mazraoui
