Manchester United 2-2 Arsenal: Spoils shared after frantic clash

Manchester United are now four Premier League games without a victory after a frantic 2-2 draw with Arsenal on Wednesday night at Old Trafford.

Arsenal, against an entirely new United back five, took the lead early on through Shkodran Mustafi's header, which squirmed through David de Gea's hands and just dropped over the line via the goal decision system (26).

Anthony Martial's close-range finish brought United level shortly after (30), before two goals in the space of a minute in the second half as Marcos Rojo's own goal from sub Alexandre Lacazette's effort (68) gave Arsenal the lead only for Jesse Lingard to score just 13 seconds after the restart (69).

The result means United are winless in four Premier League games, leaving them eight points off the top four and a whopping 18 points off leaders Manchester City after just 15 games. Arsenal are unbeaten in 20 games in all competitions but move down to fifth.

Jose Mourinho made seven changes from the draw at Southampton, saying in his programme notes that "there isn't space for people that are not ready to give it their all" as the likes of Paul Pogba and Romelu Lukaku dropped to the bench.

After a dull start, Arsenal were ahead as Mustafi lost Chris Smalling from a Lucas Torreira corner, headed straight at De Gea, only for the Spaniard to let the ball loose through his hands and just over the line. De Gea has kept just two clean sheets in 15 games for United this season.

But United were level just four minutes later in controversial fashion through Martial, as he finished from close range after Ander Herrera's centre, but Herrera looked inches offside from Rojo's initial free-kick.

The second half was lacking in chances until Lacazette's introduction with 25 minutes remaining, and the Frenchman helped put Arsenal ahead three minutes later after Rojo's mistake allowed Arsenal to break through Henrikh Mkhitaryan, and he fed Lacazette helped bundle it past De Gea via a touch from Rojo.

But just seconds after the restart United were back level as Sead Kolasinac got in a mix-up with Bernd Leno, allowing Lingard to steal in and slot home under the goalkeeper.

Arsenal nearly went back ahead minutes later through Aubemeyang, only to see his shot saved by De Gea as he went through on goal, and the goalkeeper looked to make up for his earlier mistake again with a fine stop from Torreira from point-blank range.

Arsenal did have the ball in the net twice late on, once through Lacazette's cheeky header and finish out of De Gea's hand as he looked to release it upfield, and then through Mkhitaryan's acute finish from an offside position.

The managers

Jose Mourinho: "The team had a very good response, had a big soul. We scored four goals and drew 2-2. Even in matches like today where we play well we always shoot ourselves [in the foot]. Sometimes we miss chances with open goals, sometimes we make defensive mistakes, but a fantastic spirit and good performances."

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Unai Emery: "I am very proud for our work and how we responded in the 90 minutes. When we are winning it was a good moment but they equalised very quickly then we got up after their two goals."

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Opta stats

• Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has only lost one of his 16 games against Arsenal in the Premier League (W7 D8) and remains unbeaten in home games in the competition against them (W5 D4).
• Arsenal are now unbeaten in their last 20 games in all competitions, their longest such run since November 2007 (28 games).
• Manchester United have conceded more goals at Old Trafford in the Premier League this season (10 goals in seven games) than they did in the whole of 2017-18 (nine in 18 games).
• Arsenal are still yet to lead a Premier League game at half time this season (D11 L4), although they haven't gone on to suffer a defeat in the competition since August (2-3 v Chelsea).
• Manchester United winger Anthony Martial has scored seven goals in his last seven starts in the Premier League, with three of those coming at Old Trafford.

Man of the match - Lucas Torreira

Just pipping Guendouzi and Lingard, Arsenal's Torreira takes man of the match for the second game in a row. He won the ball nine times, more than any other player, and he was the main reason United struggled for any control in midfield.

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What's next?

Manchester United host Fulham in the Premier League on Saturday at 3pm, while Arsenal are at home to Huddersfield at the same time.

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