adminMANCHESTER. — Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s second-half penalty gave Arsenal their first Premier League away win over Manchester United since 2006.
Aubameyang ended a run of five games without a goal by sending David de Gea the wrong way on 69 minutes after Paul Pogba had fouled Hector Bellerin. Paul Pogba got the wrong side of Hector Bellerin, and Manchester United served up their fifth penalty in seven home league games.
Prior to that, it had taken them 101 league matches to concede the same number of penalties at Old Trafford. Bit hard to argue against the effects of having no fans in the stadium with numbers like that. Either Manchester United have become exceptionally clumsy since lockdown, or referees really didn’t like getting on the wrong side of 75 000 locals.
There is also the Pogba factor, of course. He has given away three times as many penalties as any other Manchester United player since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer took over. Yesterday’s was a particularly dismal specimen.
Take nothing away from Arsenal, though. The best team won. Pogba succeeded in delivering the right result, to the players that deserved it.
At the risk of welcoming yet another false dawn, this is the club’s first away win against a member of the Big Six in 30 matches. Mikel Arteta will remember the last one, mainly because he was playing. December 23, 2015, a 2-1 win at Tottenham.
It was September 17, 2006, when Arsenal last won at Manchester United. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was playing that day; so was Freddie Ljungberg.
Back to the present and Pogba’s tackle was the pivotal moment. Arsenal had been superior, but had missed good chances and their moment looked to have passed. Then Willian picked up the ball on the right. He tried to entrap Luke Shaw, but the Manchester United man was having none of it. Then he slipped the ball to Bellerin and Pogba did the rest.
There is a difference between tracking your man and playing at it. Pogba went with Bellerin but not in with enough commitment; so he was the wrong side when the ball arrived and clipped him. Definite penalty, and no critical mass to dispute that.
It fell to Aubameyang to break his longest scoring drought since 2014 with Borussia Dortmund. He stuck it low and right, De Gea went the wrong way. Aubameyang expressed his joy with the medium of dance and why not. It’s not every day you get a penalty at Old Trafford — although it might be until fans get a say again.
It is very rare to see a match with no additional time these days. Maybe Mike Dean, the referee, was as underwhelmed as everybody else with the first-half here. It was hardly Arsenal’s fault, mind. They had the best of the game, the best of the few chances and hit the bar after 39 minutes.
Manchester United, by contrast, were a shadow of the team that put five past RB Leipzig less than four days ago. They had a solitary first-half chance, after 21 minutes, when Marcus Rashford played a sublime pass through to Mason Greenwood, whose shot was saved by the legs of Arsenal goalkeeper Bernd Leno.
It was a terribly poor return given how vibrant they had appeared on Wednesday, particularly as this match brought the return of Rashford and playmaker Bruno Fernandes. Not that there was much making of play early on.
The opening exchanges were sloppy from both sides, reflective perhaps of their league positions. Yet when the players settled it was Arsenal who looked likelier to score, a 14th minute cross by Hector Bellerin that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang couldn’t quite reach, the first warning of danger.
By half-time they could have been three up. The chance that went closest, when Willian hit the bar with a shot, after Victor Lindelof had served up possession from a throw-in, was actually the most difficult of the trio of opportunities. Either side were two crackers. The first came after 37 minutes when another cross to deep from Bellerin picked out Aubameyang, who headed back across the face of goal. Alexandre Lacazette, in a splendid position centrally in front of goal, took a huge swing and missed the ball completely, although replays suggested Lindelof got the tiniest, vital touch to change the trajectory slightly.
The best chance, then, fell to Bukayo Saka, picked out once more by Bellerin but steering a clear header wide of the goal.
It should have gone in. Had it fallen to a more experienced member of Arsenal’s front line, perhaps it would have. — MailOnline.
Online Reporter