It was as if Martin Keown was bouncing in the face of Ruud van Nistelrooy all over again. The late drama of 2003’s Battle of Old Trafford was being repeated here at the Emirates as Arsenal snatched victory from what looked like a last-gasp defeat. And boy did the Gunners celebrate it. Pizzas all round, no doubt!
As the emotions ebbed away with the fans into the unseasonably warm London evening, cold reason could only conclude it was a win that Arsenal had deserved. They had dominated most of the match and some better, more incisive finishing in front of goal might have given them the win before all the late drama.
Any sort of drama would have been welcome in a fairly drab first half save for a couple of minutes which served up goals at either end. Kai Havertz had already fluffed an appalling left-foot shot with the goal at his mercy in the 13th minute, then gave the ball away cheaply in the 27th.
Christian Eriksen’s pass was as immaculate as ever and Marcus Rashford was on it straight away, his shot was too strong to be pushed away by the fingertips of Aaron Ramsdale.
Arsenal responded to going behind against the run of play instantly, though when Martin Odegaard hammered in a drive from the edge of the area. That was pretty much it until an incident on the hour-mark that would be a prelude to all the drama. When Havertz went to the floor under challenge from Aaron Wan-Bissake, referee Anthony Taylor pointed to the spot.
It looked clumsy, but every replay seemed to show less and less contact, until eventually Australian VAR Jarred Gillett, still establishing himself in this country, made the brave call to suggest arguably the country’s leading official had possibly made a mistake. (It’s supposed to take out the human element, right?)
The important thing was that Taylor agreed after looking at the monitor and it looked as though United were going to hold on for a point they ill-deserved. Rasmus Winther Hojlund finally came on for his debut and looked abrasive and bristling, but was fighting a lone battle with no real understanding with the players around him.
At the other end, United were to end the game with Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans. The first game after the window had shut, nothing about it was saying title challengers. Yet Erik Ten Hag and his player thought they had nicked all three of the points.
Substitute Alejandro Garnacho ran clear on a counter-attack in the 87th minute and coolly slid the ball past Ramsdale as the away fans went wild. VAR had not finished for the evening, though – and after an agonising couple of minutes decided the Argentina international had started marginally offside. That was just the start of it.
Eight minutes of additional time were indicated and in the sixth of these Declan Rice bundled the ball home and a slight deflection off Evans was no more than he deserved for another commanding midfield performance.
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The Emirates went mad. Assistant manager Albert Stuivenberg was booked for going a bit too wild, but as with Keown all those years ago when Ruud Van Nistelrooy missed a last-minute penalty to leave the game goalless, there was a lot of emotion sitting behind that dam.
These days, though, we have added time to the added time and United sense there was still time for one last twist.
Instead, it was Gabriel Jesus who sprinted from the half-way line, left Diago Dalot on his backside and swept the ball into the empty corner of the net.
The scoreline certainly could have been very different, but ultimately the worry for Ten Hag is it was probably a fair reflection of the relative balance between these two auld enemies at the moment.
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