I could have sworn Maguire has been booked twice. If not he should have been, twice for fouls on Lacazette when he was in dangerous areas for both

Yeah the first was should so have been a yellow. No attempt on the ball at all. But it wasn’t.

Lacazette putting in a Trojan’s effort up front today.

He’s been great again.

And I have to say, so has Pépé fair play.

Advantage played but now come back for the yellow card for Pogba. He should be off

Yes. Really pleased/relieved to see Pépé show some form at last. Perhaps he’s shedding his demons.

Lacazette going for the header, maguire just backs a back for him and flips him over. Same thing Kane does. So dangerous, game needs to get on top of this - not even a foul given

Come on Eddie. Get a goal son.

Man U got away with a few, this is why I moan so much about something like that Bruno one on xhaka, it changes the way Bruno can play, he has to be half a yard slower for fear on one slip or miss timed one.

Maguire just arms Lacazette off the ball on the edge of the box with no covering defender, it is a booking every time

Commentator immediately named Lacazette as the player who made the infringement.

Oh well. Eddie to score the winner then (he said hopefully).

Hopefully Lacazette is ‘okay’.

Not sure how I feel about that. If you could rewind and have Tierney and Saka available you’d fancy them to tip the balance. Hopefully we can get them back ASAP.

I would have taken 0-0 before hand and I'm fairly satisfied. Decent result and performance that maintains our momentum, and another clean sheet.

Overall, and considering who was out, not a bad result against supposed title contenders.

Keeps the run going and adds to the confidence.

Fair result in the end, both teams had chances to win it. We're making progress as a team, but right now we need our best players available to really threaten. With Saka, Tierney and Aubameyang it's a different game, likewise if they're missing Fernandes and Rashford.

A fair result really, neither side particularly good or especially poor.

Would like to have seen Ødegaard get longer than 7 mins.

I hope Martinelli's not injured again. Not sure about that left wing role, his best traits are his pace, movement and finishing and we just do not get him into those forward positions enough when he plays there, infact he spends more time defending and doing doggies from one player to another than he does actually getting on the ball and making things happen.

Smith-Rowe has a chance to become a very good player. His touch, awareness and game understanding are excellent for one so young.

An interesting thing is that he seems equally adept at the quick one touch passes and running with the ball at his feet. Very promising.

We didn't lose to a top 4 team.

That said, both had their chances but I might shade it a wee bit towards Man utd in quality chances. Holding is becoming the potential we saw n that cup final win over Chelsea a few years ago where he played the game of his then life.

Smith Rowe continues to put in quality performances. Willian is need of a goal, give him the next PK to shore up his confidence. We got a brief look at the new boy, hope to see more. Lacazette took a lot of knocks out there. Martinelli is always a threat. One of my criticisms of Xhaka is he doesn't automatically look forward after receiving the ball. He either lacks vision or confidence. The ball goes backwards most when he has it.

Probably a fair result. Man U fans will probably say they had the best chances with those two Cavani ones just wide, but then we came closest to scoring and opened them up just as much.

To me it seemed like two teams who weren’t quite brave enough to go for the 3 points and also both teams looked a little bit leggy which is understandable considering how quick the games are coming. There were a few times that both teams just sat off in a defensive block rather than really press.

Hard to say anyone didn’t play well. I suppose the biggest bonus is the back 4 and gk looking solid again. Arteta must take a lot of credit for giving us a reliable defence, we’ve been wanting one for a long time.

Partey wasn’t quite the tour de force he was at old trafford- a few wayward passes but still a top class player.
Smith-Rowe just has things that usually take a while to learn, an awareness and calmness and an efficiency on the ball. Decision making always good.
Pépé as I mentioned during the match worked harder than I’ve seen for ages, he was effective in the press and covered back diligently, also looked more dangerous in attack with a few of those left foot passing shots to the far corner and one goal bound first time shot blocked.
Willian was better when he came on
Lacazette I thought was excellent up top, if we get the Lacazette of the last 10 games then I’d get him a new deal in the summer. Whether we can afford to give him what he wants is a different question. But his target man, back to goal play is good and he links well with the youngsters.

We were missing some important players for us today and others stepped up. Feels like we’ve got more than just a handful of players to build upon

Errors leading to goals conceded by Arsenal per season:
14-15: 8
15-16: 5
16-17: 4
17-18: 15
18-19: 12
19-20: 5
20-21 so far: 0

Not sure if the forum already commented on this but nice touch by AFC with the match day programme. Well done Marcus. Well done Arsenal.

Are they producing match day programmes Andy? I know they did for the behind closed doors games last season, but I saw nothing about them doing so this season apart from those where two thousand people were allowed to attend.

Looks like a one off programme for this match,Bernard. Saw a photo in a couple of UK newspapers with Rashford holding it at The Emirates. May be a collectors item !

Apparent mics caught Ole shouting ‘he cannot defend, take him on!” To Rashford in reference to Cédric. I cannot recall a single time Rashford got the better of Cédric, and Rashford was eventually subbed off, also Rashford hasn’t scored a single league goal from that right wing position this season. I’d say Cédric won that duel and made Ole eat his words

He confused Cédric with Mustafi?

Interesting that Gabriel has been mostly in the bench since his returns from covid. Could be he lacks fitness from having covid or it could be that Luiz and Holding are simply in too good form to be dropped.
Mari to come back in the group as well.
I don’t know what happens with Saliba but it’s probably good practice to have 5 CB for a season, so next year we’d be looking at Holding, Gabriel, Mari, Saliba and adding one more

Lots of clubs interested in taking AMN on loan. I’m worried that might leave us a bit short at full back. It would leave us with Bellerin and Tierney, and then only Cédric to cover both of them. Chambers and Saka can play there as well but as far as natural full backs are concerned 1 injury would put you on the limit

Cédric has been playing very well actually as noted. I was a little disappointed with Partey. He's better than what we already had and I'm going to chalk it up to him still getting to the speed and aggression of the league. I expect him to get markedly better.

I can't wait to see Gabriel back in there. And as I've said, along with Partey, now Ødegaard, Aubameyang, Martinelli, newly rejuvenated Lacazette, Tierney, Leno, rapidly improving Holding, Saka, and others. The rest of the season is looking promising.

Hoping /expecting us to pick off Villa, Everton, West Ham (5th halfway through the season is nothing short of phenomenal) and with a little luck Tottenham.

Really not happy seeing the city game sandwiched between the Benfica ties. It's tough enough playing them fresh with a full squad. They will have a week's rest.

I'm not his biggest fan but Xhaka has been very good of late, much more progressive with his passing.

Ironically, Partey by his very high standards was quite poor today. Still moments of brilliance but some very sloppy moments as well, losing possession in dangerous areas a few times etc.

Leno's save from Fred was stunning.

Jermaine Jenas on MOD was spot on. Lack of movement was the reason we didn't win despite a great performance.

Take note Mikel and work on it, onwards and upwards............

The quality of play has gone up as quality players have gotten into the XI (Partey, Gabriel, Martinelli, Smith Rowe, Saka and now Ødegaard) and players are forced to step it up a level.

Players are having to play better to either keep their place or be considered on the bench.

As football fans around the world tune in to our fixture against Manchester United today, we urge everyone - particularly those in the online community - to remember the sense of unity football brings. 

Our world is experiencing extraordinary events and football has the ability to bring people together and provide a sense of belonging and shared identity.

Social media is one of the ways our supporters across the world can feel closer to the club and our players, but across football and beyond we’ve seen an online world poisoned by hateful, racist and discriminatory words. 

When the teams come out of the tunnel today, we urge everyone to take a moment to consider the diverse mix of talented individuals, each with their own story and proud heritage.  They come together as a team and connect us all, irrespective of race or religion.

Through Arsenal for Everyone we strive to ensure that everyone connected to the club feels an equal sense of belonging.  We will continue to celebrate our diversity and use our platforms to educate others and continue our zero-tolerance approach to discrimination.  We commit to using our voice and network to strengthen measures and action taken by relevant authorities to punish those responsible for this abuse. 

The players you see today and those that went before them are elite athletes, icons to so many people around the world, but first and foremost they are human beings and a part of our family.  This abuse affects us all. We cannot let racist and hateful abuse become a normalised part of the game.

WELL DONE ARSENAL
GOD I LOVE THIS CLUB

We are slowly making progress.
Smith Rowe.
What a talent . So fluid and so silky.
What a couple of jewels we have in Saka and him.
We are very lucky.
Seems Martinelli was taken off for tactical reasons. Was he really that bad??
Thought he was doing ok myself and showed up defensively as well.

The people moaning about Bernd Leno for no reason at the start of the season seem to have disappeared. Funny that.

Yep. It seemed to be that you weren’t allowed to say Leno and Martinez were both top keepers, some people seemed to think you had to pick one who was clearly better.
My stance has never changed, the sensible decision was to keep Leno, he was the more experienced and most crucially we actually had a £20m offer on the table for Martinez.

Good stuff.

It would be great if all the people calling him a liability at the start of the season could wave their hands In the air

A simple post “I was calling Leno a liability and I acknowledge that I am a *%^@*** idiot”

I've noticed that the various sites that do player ratings keep giving Leno 7/10, with few exceptions. Like this: "Always steps up when it matters and made two brilliant saves to keep Arsenal in the game. 7/10".

If a striker scored two brilliant goals would he get 7/10?

This is true. Every week he seems to do something that prevents the ball going in our net but gets little actual credit.

He’s understated and reminds me of how Seaman was solid and understated also. Remember the people micro analysing his passing earlier in the season ? Absolutely ridiculous