Man Utd news: Improved Red Devils draw with Arsenal ahead of Europa League decider
Struggling Manchester United managed a 1-1 draw with high-flying Arsenal at Old Trafford on Sunday in a much-improved showing by Ruben Amorim’s side.
A Bruno Fernandes free-kick in first-half stoppage time was eventually cancelled out by a well-worked Declan Rice goal as the game ebbed and flowed throughout.
With Real Sociedad set to visit Manchester on Thursday for a crucial Europa League clash, Amorim will have been delighted by what he saw from his beleaguered players against the Premier League’s second-best team.
Sports News Blitz writer Robert Bore unpacks the details of a solid result.
Dark clouds gather ahead of kick-off
The headache was there as I rose on Sunday morning. Cold sweats. A shiver down the spine. Is it a heavy cold coming on or the flu? Maybe that horrible Norovirus or even Covid?
Then I remembered it was matchday. Put the Lemsip away; no amount of paracetamol is going to sort this out, because it’s Manchester United at home to Arsenal.
One thing was clear: with a Europa League second-leg decider against Real Sociedad looming on Thursday, there were two chances of Ruben Amorim naming a full-strength side against the Goonies – a slim chance and no chance. And slim had just left town.
The tension in my head percolated like fresh coffee all day as I awaited the team sheet. It didn't disappoint.
Like a tragi-comedy, or being forced to watch Dirty Dancing all the way through, the sight of Victor Lindelöf at the back and Christian Eriksen alongside Casemiro in the engine room made me shudder.
It certainly wouldn't have helped the mood outside the ground, where United fans protested against the Glazers ahead of kick-off.
And while Arsenal may have bottled their shot at the Premier League (again) this season, a 7-1 spanking of PSV Eindhoven in midweek had left them with an upcoming dead rubber.
That, combined with a United substitutes bench resembling a creche, meant I was about as confident about this game as Rasmus Hojlund is in front of goal.
Poor Hojlund – less service than a £16 RyanAir flight to Dublin, with just 15 shots to his name in 19 games and no goals, consigned to the bench as the only sub with any sort of first-team pedigree.
The fact I was so excited to see four-appearance Toby Collyer available told its own sorry story of the state of our squad.
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Cagey opening period ends with Fernandes cracker
Normal service was resumed inside two minutes as both Diogo Dalot and Joshua Zirkzee misplaced passes. And Arsenal should have gone ahead in the 10th-minute, but the in-form Mikel Merino fired wide of Andre Onana's left post.
Leny Yoro stayed down, needing treatment, and the stadium held its breath, apart from the contingent of Arsenal fans going through their repertoire of three songs.
Still, in my head I'd split the game up into nine segments of 10 – we'll worry about injury-time later – and we'd made it through the first segment in one piece. Not that it was all one way, with Fernandes releasing Alejandro Garnacho, who shot across goal.
It was all a little flat though. Arsenal's build-up play was slick and incisive without any real threat, while United's was pretty much non-existent.
Eventually, Arsenal won a corner and the first ‘air-raid warning' siren went off. Luckily, Onana actually remembered he can throw his weight around in his own box and fisted the ball clear of danger.
Leandro Trossard then curled wide after a miscontrol bamboozled the United defence before he should have done better with a cute ball over the top by Martin Odegaard.
It felt like Arsenal had another gear and United had no idea the game was being played mainly in their own half.
United's main hope was Garnacho, who ran at the Arsenal backline and won a free-kick 25 yards out just off to the right of goal, which Fernandes quickly took ownership of in added time.
Then – whoosh! – it was suddenly 1-0. From nowhere and out of nothing, it was special.
The skipper stepped up and swung his right foot at the ball, which flashed past David Raya's left side. It was United's first shot on target and, within three short steps, my entire in-running match narrative was shredded.
But there was a long way to go and I'd been here before.
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Visitors find an equaliser through Rice
Yoro never made it out for the second half, making way for former Arsenal youngster Ayden Heaven on his league debut for the Red Devils following his recent arrival.
Odegaard saw a long-range, first-timer tipped over by Onana and, from the resulting corner, Rice volleyed over when unmarked on the edge of the box. He should have done better but he's not Paul Scholes after all.
Zirkzee subsequently did well on the halfway line to turn and feed Dalot, who crossed perfectly for Noussair Mazraoui to meet on the run at the far post, but Raya managed to keep his shot out.
It was all much better from United, who were starting to find some fluency and encourage the crowd. That said, it was noticeable that William Saliba and Gabriel were camping 30 yards from United's goal.
Arteta blinked first, Gabriel Martinelli and Myles Lewis-Skelley being thrown into the fray at the expense of Ethan Nwaneri and Riccardo Calafiori.
Odegaard continued to be the creative glue for the visitors, though, as he found more space in the middle without the injured Manuel Ugarte snapping at his heels like in the FA Cup tie between the two sides back in January.
Arsenal were given a free-kick on the edge of the box, in a central position. United argued over the distance, maybe mindful of Arsenal's faux pas for Bruno's goal, but Odegaard could only smash the result into Casemiro's head.
The clock ticked on as Arsenal swung over another free-kick with a weird set-piece routine that had the attackers start offside, dart across the United backline, and then back onside.
It looked like something Take That might have choreographed on a world tour back in the 1990s. I'm glad it never came off – far too pretentious for football.
Nevertheless, they were soon rewarded when United's midfield went AWOL. Jurrien Timber cut in from the right, where Rice was left unmarked on the edge and screaming for the ball like a wailing banshee.
The ball came, he swung at it with a greedy right foot, and it flashed across and past Onana. No huge surprise but it was 1-1.
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Red Devils and Gunners settle for draw
Hojlund and Collyer were brought on for Eriksen and Zirkzee, and it was left to Arteta to try and manufacture the win to keep those faint title hopes alive.
Martinelli almost fashioned it, having been left in acres of space on the right with Dalot out of position, but his hand-stinger was palmed away for a corner by Onana.
Rice mugged Hojlund with an excellently timed tackle in his own box after Merino's dodgy back pass looked to have played the Dane in and Trossard shot wide at the other end.
Hojlund was denied again after Garnacho and Collyer combined well, Gabriel managing to get a nick on the ball ahead of the striker, whose luck must surely change some time.
It was suddenly end-to-end and United looked dangerous.
Lindelöf strode out of defence with the ball like a Scandinavian Franz Beckenbauer, finding Garnacho, who fired over the top and we were into injury time.
Onana inextricably palmed another shot into Martinelli’s path, but the attacker was offside and his wild shot a mile off.
Raya was then the hero, somehow keeping Fernandes' effort out after Mazraoui's cut-back. The stopper blocked well at first before the ball spun goalwards on the bounce, but it didn’t go far enough and Raya recovered his feet to punch clear.
And that was that. A point apiece and a much better second half from the hosts. A shot in the arm ahead of the visit of those Spaniards on Thursday.
United are a strange bunch – consistently inconsistent and often within the same game.
The first half was almost a non-entity, with little in the way of meaningful threat. Yet, at times after the break, certainly after Arsenal's goal, United looked good. It's hard to fathom, but it needs fathoming by someone at Old Trafford.
In the meantime, I'll reach for the paracetamol as a new headache brews, a Europa-shaped migraine that will haunt me all week.
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