Arsenal fought back from a 0-1 half-time deficit to take a point away from Old Trafford against Manchester United on Monday night.
The draw sees us move back into the Champions League places but it was certainly a missed opportunity to take all three points in a below par performance from the team.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang grabbed the equaliser despite the goal initially being ruled out for offside. VAR intervened as replays showed our striker was onside by four yards.
Here are my ratings from Manchester United 1-1 Arsenal:
Bernd Leno 6 – The deflection on Scott McTominay’s shot wrong footed Bernd Leno for United’s opener. The German goalkeeper made a very good save to deny Marcus Rashford’s free kick in stoppage time. He had little else to do all game.
Calum Chambers 7 – Disciplined not to commit another foul after picking up a silly yellow card in the opening 10 minutes. Fortunately, Daniel James didn’t run at Calum Chambers very much afterwards with the right-back walking a tightrope. Offered support going forward but his crosses were poor.
David Luiz 8 – Had a good game in cutting out a number of crosses and denying Marcus Rashford any clear cut chances. David Luiz’s positioning from set pieces was poor though.
Sokratis 8 – Unfortunate in deflecting McTominay’s effort past Leno but otherwise Sokratis had a good game in the middle of our defence tonight.
Sead Kolasinac 7 – United attacked more down our left-hand side than our right but aside from the goal on the counter attack they didn’t create many chances at all. Sead Kolasinac could have done a better job in getting closer to Andreas Pereira and Ashley Young at times though.
Granit Xhaka 5 – Too lackadaisical for the opening goal. For starters, the holding midfielder wasn’t there to break up the counter attack and then when the ball was cut back to the edge of the area, Granit Xhaka was behind his own centre-back and not in a position to block the shot. Overhit two free kicks straight out for goal kicks in the first half too.
Matteo Guendouzi 8 – Covered a lot of ground and broke up a lot of Manchester United’s attacks. If there’s one fault with Matteo Guendouzi it’s his decision making on the ball in his own half. Too often the youngster conceded in straight back to the opposition to put our backline under stress.
Lucas Torreira 6 – Tried pressing from midfield but it didn’t work too well. He’s proven that he’s not a threat in the opposition box either. Unai Emery replaced Lucas Torreira early in the second half and we looked better in possession and a bigger threat after.
Nicolas Pepe 4 – I was excited when I saw Nicolas Pepe up against Axel Tuanzebe at kickoff. However, the club’s record signing was abysmal. He completely lost his touch in the final third with dreadful crosses and efforts on goal that were closer to row Z than to troubling David de Gea. How long does the Ivorian need to settle in?
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 7 – An excellent finish for the equaliser with what was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s only shot of the game. The striker made some good runs but didn’t receive the ball all too often.
Bukayo Saka 8 – Great instinct to pick up Axel Tuanzebe’s loose pass to play a perfectly-weighted pass with his first touch to setup our equaliser. Bukayo Saka was excellent in pressing and putting Ashley Young under pressure inside his own half. The teenager created a couple of chances in another impressive performance down the left wing.
Substitutes
Dani Ceballos (35 mins) 6 – We saw more possession immediately after Dani Ceballos was introduced but backed off again after we got the equaliser. Would have been nice to see the Spaniard in possession more in the final third.
Reiss Nelson (18 mins) N/A – Missed a decent chance from 18 yards late on by scuffing into the arms of David de Gea.
Joe Willock (12 mins) N/A – Worked very hard off the ball as Manchester United pressed down our right-hand side in the final minutes. Joe Willock wasn’t on the field very long to receive the ball though.
