Such is life for the modern Manchester United the first point to make is that their supporters no longer need to check the bottom half of the Premier League table to find their team.
This result lifts them from 11th to 10th, just above the jagged line. It still isn’t where they want to be – but Arsenal did enough, ultimately, to warrant a point from a thud-and-blunder evening that demonstrated how far these old rivals have to go before they can harbour realistic title ambitions. On this evidence, it is going to be a long way back. Scott McTominay did score a peach of a goal for United but, last season included, the difficult truth for Ole Gunnar Solskjær is that his team have not managed more than one goal in 11 of their last 12 league fixtures.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang supplied Arsenal’s equaliser after VAR had overturned a rotten offside decision and, points-wise, it is the first time since the 1989-90 season that United have not reached double figures from their first seven games. The same season, you might recall, that Old Trafford chanted for Bryan Robson to take over and a banner appeared in the stands calling for Alex Ferguson, then just a plain old Mister, to be removed from office.
This time the crowd is nothing like as grumpy. The weather is still the same, of course, although it would probably be a bit too generous on the two sets of players to blame the near-unremitting Mancunian downpour for their inability to pass the ball more stylishly. It was an accident-prone evening, littered with errors and clumsiness, and it told a clear story about why these sides are already playing catch-up to Liverpool and Manchester City in the top two positions. Nobody should realistically expect them to win that chase.
Not that the lack of real quality – and it was startling at times – stopped the game from burning slowly into an entertaining contest. The first half, in truth, was a bit of a stinker. Or at least it was until McTominay grew weary of the torpor and, 20 yards out, smacked in a firecracker of a shot. After that, however, there was lots of drama and incident at either end, not least the equalising goal when Aubameyang was initially judged to be offside in the moments before he flicked the ball over David de Gea.
It turned out to be a particularly poor judgement from a trigger-happy linesman and possibly the easiest VAR decision yet. Harry Maguire had been playing Aubameyang onside by some distance. United did have a reasonable argument De Gea would have made more of an effort to block the shot had he not seen the raised flag.
It was a lesson, perhaps, for De Gea and all the goalkeepers in this league that the officials cannot always be trusted now the rules have changed.
For Solskjær, the disappointment was compounded by the fact the equaliser came from Axel Tuanzebe, playing at left-back for United on a night when they were missing both first-choice full-backs, making a wretched pass inside his own half to lose possession and give Bukayo Saka the opportunity to feed Aubameyang.
It was that kind of night and, in the worst moments, it was remarkable to think these were supposedly elite teams.
For Arsenal, it certainly must have been a cause for anguish that McTominay’s goal could be traced back to one of their own corners. Arsenal looked vulnerable as soon as their opponents started streaming out of their own penalty area. In a rare moment of nostalgia, United had managed to turn defence into attack in just a few seconds. Daniel James could not produce a telling cross but Marcus Rashford chased the ball towards the corner flag and then cut it back for McTominay to let fly. He struck the ball beautifully and the shot was still rising as it hit the back of the net.
Though McTominay must also feel he could have won the match, at 1-1, when he had a golden opportunity to score from a header.
Until his goal the first half had been a grind. Nicolas Pépé put Arsenal’s first real chance into the Stretford End when he had more time than he probably realised. Andreas Pereira tried to liven up proceedings with a shot that Bernd Leno saved down to his left.
The away end chanted for VAR after a cross thudded into McTominay’s chest. The rain fell hard on a humdrum game. And at that stage United’s best hope appeared to be high ball into the penalty area and someone getting on the end of one of Maguire’s knockdowns. It was poor in the extreme and, unfortunately for Granit Xhaka, his first game since being named as Arsenal’s full-time captain contained an element of tragicomedy.
For Example A, consider his ability, at 0-0, to make a pig’s ear from a free-kick in a promising position. More damagingly for Arsenal, however, Xhaka was also culpable of ducking out of the way of McTominay’s shot. The only possible mitigation was the ball took a tiny nick off another Arsenal player. Xhaka’s head was down, his eyes fixed on the floor, and the ball was spearing into the roof of the net.
It was the kind of moment that might wake Tony Adams, Martin Keown et al during the early hours in a cold sweat. And fitting, perhaps, for a night that left you pining for the days when this game was the biggest occasion in England’s top division.
