Crazy game. Two early defensive howlers led to two smartly taken goals from the visitors, and despite sustained furious pressure from the Gunners, United's desperate defending and DeGea's excellent goalkeeping (he tied a PL record for saves in a game) limited us to a single goal, though it came early in the second half and made this a real cracker of a game. Pogba's strength and savvy got United another goal in the second half, and then he spiked Bellerins' knee (ugly stuff) and got sent off. United defended better with ten men, actually. We had some penalty shouts; Welbeck had his legs taken out from under him after a nice cutback and it should have been given. We also had a couple misses from close; Xhaka, Ramsey, and Alexis could easily have had goals, and probably should have.
Read about the game on Arseblog if you like; I'm too dispirited to go into a critique. Mustafi got himself injured in the process of giving up the second goal. Kos made a poor pass to Kolasinac, who allowed the ball to be intercepted, and that led to the first goal. Just awful: two down in nine minutes. Then came the assault on DeGea's goal, which lasted for most of the rest of the game. United couldn't clear it and couldn't hold it, but we simply didn't find that final pass or sharp finish at the end of our attacking moves. It's impossible to say what would have happened had we not gifted United the early chances or they not cashed in; it doesn't matter, because we did and they did. I haven't looked at the table, but surely Liverpool has passed us into fourth, and we're far back of United and about four back of Chelsea. We're still three up on Spuds thanks to their 1-1 draw at Watford.
I think we travel to Southampton next weekend, after a meaningless Europa League tilt at home. (Start Nketiah, please.) If we play this well against the Saints, I like our chances.
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