Anyway, it’s time for me to wrap this up. Here’s a match report from David Hytner. Bye!
Joshua Zirkzee had heard his name chanted to the Emirates Stadium rafters by the travelling Manchester United fans when he was introduced as a substitute. There has been a concerted effort by them to build a few bridges after what happened against Newcastle at the end of December: Zirkzee applauded off after his 33rd minute withdrawal, a shattering low.
When the full-time whistle went here, this FA Cup third round tie locked at 1-1, Zirkzee turned towards the United support to whip them up. The connection had been restored. And it simply had to be Zirkzee who stepped forward at the end of the shootout with the kick to win it.
Much more here:
I was surprised at how many emails I got from apparent neutrals who dislike this Arsenal team, principally it seems for taking so long over their set pieces and scoring so few goals by any other means. Certainly this performance was quite dispiriting, though they created more than enough chances to have won the game easily enough. They seem to attack in hope rather than with conviction.
From the start United set out to defend, and some will see this as a betrayal of their history. But at the very least they have started to look organised and motivated, and for all its many faults there is enough quality in that squad to convert those minor improvements into results. They have a likeable coach who appears to be doing good work.
The other object of criticism is the referee. He certainly got two big calls wrong: the penalty, which thanks to Bayindir did not decide the game, and the Jesus foul on Fernandes. But it was a challenging game to officiate, occasionally verging on wildness, and I think he did OK overall. He awarded 35 fouls and if one of those shouldn’t have been given and there was one other that should have been, that’s a pretty decent success rate. Maybe I’m being generous, but it was a fun game and that’s the kind of mood I’m in.
