Can’t believe Leno got blamed on the 2nd goal… It was all Kola
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Defensively he was terrible though imo.
Other than the one brainfart that let RATFACE score to 2-2 i didnt notice any clear weakneses in his defensive performance tbh. Are you thinking of a specific incident?
I think one mentioned previously that, he saw Auba covering the LM/LB position more than anybody else on the team.
Kola’s forward movement was immense, no doubt about it, but it is also fair to say that, our left side was so exposed, especially in the 2nd half.
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Leno could do nothing about the second, Kolasinac chipped it right in front of him and exactly where Lingard needed it. Terrible defending from a guy who was great overall
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Overall I thought a draw was a fair result, mistakes aplenty from both sides. Frustrating we couldn’t nick a win after taking the lead twice but our defence is just garbage we know that.
4/6 vs Spurs & United is a good result though, coupled with Chelsea losing unexpectedly at Wolves.
Next 4 games on paper look favourable before a trip to Anfield, let’s mske these count at entrench ourselves in the top 4 at the halfway point of the season.
Really hope the news for Rob isn’t as bad as we fear and that Ramsey is just a minor knock of some sort.
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Is this Luca’s twitter??
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Watching highlights of the game and it just crossed my mind, if goal-line technology didn’t exist, there is absolutely no way our 1st goal would have been given. I still remember that ManUtd-Spurs match at Old Traffored when Carroll dropped the ball one yard behind his goal-line and it wasn’t given.
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I almost got this right, apart from the scorers, but one thing it proves is that Mourinho is the Portuguese version of Allardyce.
The only difference between them is that Mourinho slags his own players off and spends record breaking amounts on world class players and then gets them to play dinosaur football.
Perhaps Mourinho’s next big signing could be Goonersaurus.
Although I think our mascot has got more style than to play for him.
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On reflection of last night’s game (now the emotions are out of the way):
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I’m still concerned about our defensive structure. Evidently we don’t have the right kind of CBs. Mustafi was trying his best Bonucci impression with balls over the top of the United defence but they were poor all night. Holding showed his naivety with the United goal and poor positioning, but he’s young so you give him a pass on that one and just hope he rebounds stronger when he returns. Sokratis gives away needless fouls in dangerous areas, and that was a theme again tonight with one or two silly fouls. But he’s the strongest of the 3.
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Kolasinac is a disaster. I noted it earlier in the thread, Aubameyang was always flying back to cover the left wing back before Kola would come arriving 20 seconds later. I understand the need to push our wing backs on to create width and to pin the opposition full backs and wingers back in their own half but Kolasinac left out left side constantly exposed. If United had a full back stronger than Dalot, than it would have been a very serious problem.
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Guendouzi is a good little talent but his youth showed in abundance tonight. He is naive, he overran the ball plenty of times and generally tried a little too hard. I’m a big proponent of young players imposing their personalities on the game but I think in a game last night, he just needed to keep it ticking and that’s why I think Elneny would have been the better option. I can understand the logic behind Guendouzi because he does play the ball forward ala Granit Xhaka but it left us dangerously exposed in the middle and if United had a more mobile midfield they’d have pressed Guendouzi even harder and we’d have been serious susceptible.
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Injuries fucked us big time last night. I have no doubt the enforced change with Holding had a big impact on how we could play the game. Ideally - I’d have preferred if we switched to a 4-3-3 when we lost Holding. So I’d have preferred us to bring on Mkhitaryan, moved Ramsey into a central midfield role with Guendouzi and Torreira (I know lol) and then tried to stretch the United back 3 a bit differently. That’s not to say Emery got it wrong, because they scored from an offside goal and a dreadful defensive mishap. It’s just something I would like to have seen.
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Playing Lacazette and Aubameyang at this point is important. They interchange well, they link up pretty well and when they’re both on the pitch there is less pressure on both men to score. When only one of them players, they are the reference point and there is more pressure on that individual to perform. When they are on the pitch together they seem to play with more freedom and less pressure.
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We desperately need quality wingers. We don’t stretch teams as well as we can because we don’t have the right personnel. Kolasinac was excellent at giving Dalot problems (although his final ball left a lot to be desired) but with a good strong winger we’d have eaten United alive last night.
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VAR. VAR. VAR. VAR. VAR. You could argue we’ve conceded two offside goals in our last two fixtures and they’re both very important games. Last night it had an impact on the result, over the weekend thankfully it didn’t. But I think we have to accept now that this is the richest league in the world and important games cannot continue to be decided by poor officiating.
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Manchester United are a shambles. At Old Trafford, with a squad worth a considerable amount of money and a manager with a reputation for his performances in big fixtures – they were just terrible. Rashford is a pace merchant, Matic is slow and lumbering, Smalling still can’t distribute the ball properly and DDG is showing signs of his star being on the wane.
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I agree with much what you wrote SRCJJ.
However, point number 2 I must disagree with. Kolasanic was not a disaster in my opinion. He caused a lot of problems for their backs as well, making very well timed runs into their space, providing a fair few assists to the strikers and had Auba and Mkhi converted their tap ins we would be looking at 2-4 instead. Ultimately, if a wing back is going to make runs forward it is a little harsh to blame him for not doing his defensive duties.
He made a mistake for the second goal, but there were two more Arsenal players plus the keeper around that ball as well. It was just an unfortunate event. Other then that I think he did well.
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I think I didn’t phrase it too well but it was only in relation to Kola at the back. Going forward - he was a constant threat and roasted Dalot all night. But at the back he leaves us very vulnerable and I was just concerned that a lot of the time it was Aubameyang doing the tracking back.
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Fair enough mate
This could be the OA version of 16 conclusions haha. Nice one
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I was trying to read the shorter threads before spending time on @SRCJJ long one…
Then I saw this “point number 21”??? Fuck, SRCJJ wrote a long essay or what???
Then okay, it was point number 2!!!
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Still bitter as fuck that we didn’t do our fucking job yesterday and secure those three famous and valuable points. Fucking gift wrapped easy work and we blew it horrifically. Fuck off with the positives Arsenal Media 
20 games unbeaten my arse conceding goals like that to these cunts. Hate these wankers 10 times more than I’ll ever do Spurs.
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Loved this match as well from a general entertainment/spectator perspective. My perspective is coming from telling myself that we would have gotten beat or even crumbled in this match under Wenger. We’re saving points all over the place this season.
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