Oh dear, losing to that shower of managerless, in crisis s***e. After leading! Aubamayang is finished, he's a bit of a disgrace really. Send him off to play with his Teslas and Lamborghinis. Tavares hopeless. Partey a liability. Struggling to see any progress under this manager.

Mate not very good? They have Ronaldo AND Fernandez in their side.

They may have had bad results recently but they are a threat and we have a very inexperienced side

I agree with you Gaz, Ødegaard is lightweight. Not someone who will bring us up a notch. Good squad player at best.

I am so aggravated. I’m sick of getting f all at OT. We didn’t deserve to lose. I don’t know how the ref can stop the game and then give a pen for them
If that is so how comes it didn’t happen when Maguire fouled Tomiyasu in the box.
On the US TV feed I watched Graeme Le Saux called it a stonewall penalty.

On a separate note I thought Partey was diabolical. Gave the ball away too often and completely lost Fernandes for their equalizer right on ht
Watch it again Elneny covers Fred who has to lay the ball off to a totally unmarked Fernandes. Awful. He’s been a terrible disappointment since he arrived I don’t expect anything from Elneny tonight….he’s a water carrier but Partey….he should be dominating Fred and McT

One last thing. I think our conditioning coaches need to work on Emile Smith Rowe’s stamina and speed work. He looked knackered and his half hearted challenge before their second goal was a joke
Final final last thing. I’m 67 and the years have not matured me. I f..ing hate Utd and their scummy self important fans so much and I hate us going to that piss hole every year and getting nothing
This is a bang average Utd and any half decent Arsenal team would’ve battered them.

You must be joking. Disappointing result aside we are headed in the right direction and if you swapped ronaldo for Aubameyang things would be different.

Having a couple of stars doesn’t make them a good side.

Tomiyasu is fearless and very driven. Always gives his all. Very good player.

Let's hope Arteta play more of Martinelli after the last 2 games.

A classic Uncle Sally post.

They have quality and experience in the right parts of their team. We however are the youngest side in the league and sometimes look it.

I think if you gave us a cavani or ronaldo we would be very different. It’s a young team without a talisman

It’s not there for us yet. We are still a couple or key players short. There’s no point losing it as frustrating as it is

Agree with those that criticized Partey at half time, but I actually thought he had a pretty decent second half. Feel like we're asking him to do too much with the partners he's getting in midfield. Lokonga is talented, but young and inconsistent, and Elneny offers nothing but running. I would try to sign another midfielder in January, because even with Xhaka back we need more quality there.

Arsenal have now been to the Etihad, Anfield, the King Power and Old Trafford and we’re fifth above united and spurs in the league. Arteta would have took this scenario at the start of the season and so would our more rational fans. Internet agenda freaks won’t get it but there you go.

Disappointing to lose a game in that manner.

Partey is a massive frustration because for all the brilliant things he can do there is so much carelessness about his game, too many misplaced misdirected passes, too many caught in possession moments, too many failures to track runners or anticipate danger.

Aubameyang when not scoring is just a passenger and I don't think at this stage in our development we can carry passengers. Not sure what the answer is without buying another no 9.

Martinelli had an excellent 2nd half but was very quiet 1st half. He needs to find a way to get impose himself more on games.

Tomiyasu was excellent.

I actually thought Elneny was ok in the context of what his job was.

We always, always look so much better with the higher tempo and high press. We’ve got a back 4 who are quick and can defend high and 1v1. It’s frustrating that we can’t or don’t keep the press up more consistently

Easy to see from the clips of him play why Arsenal are interested in Vlahovic of Fiorentina. He’s what we need in a CF. Shame he wants to stay in Italy and would cost £60m

Arteta has a decision to make v Everton. He rotated tonight and I think he needs to rotate again. Who and how we play up front is his biggest problem right now.

I agree that Partey had a better second half than first, when I said Elneny, for all his obvious limitations, had outplayed Partey. That shows what a low starting point Partey’s second half improvement came from.

So true LTG. The touch and passing from so many players was bloody awful and it was clearly a weakness that Carrick and Arteta noticed. Their midfield double teamed and put pressure on the 2nd phase of midfield passing throughout the match and they won the ball back so easily.

I never expected a win up there and Arsenal were deservedly beaten by a rather *%^@ team.

...and no matter how bad his form has been, Arsenal will help him find it again.

A new top forward has to be the next priority, ideally in January but no later than next summer. People have said everything that needs to be said about Aubameyang tonight. He’s also going to be 32 next season, and is already showing his age. I felt Lacazette and Nketiah were abysmal once they came on, but as their respective contracts expire at the end of this season it seems reasonable to assume neither will be at Arsenal next season.

So as it stands we could be left next season with, if he stays, a declining and possibly demotivated Aubameyang, with Balogun and Martinelli. The latter did well tonight and deserves more playing time. Martinelli isn’t an orthodox forward by any means, but even at his peak nor was Aubameyang. But overall I see a new top level striker as Arsenal’s biggest transfer market priority.

Partey was atrocious in the first half and handed the momentum to Man Utd on a silver platter when they were already amped up by the perception of being hard done by for our goal. Smith Rowe and Tavares didn't help either as they kept giving it away as well.

I'll disagree about Martinelli though as he was the least of our worries. After being left out in the cold for 6 months, I'm not surprised it took him a while to get into the match.

We've also played all of the rest of the Top Six in our first 14 games. A bit of a baptism of fire for the Premier League's youngest team.

Exactly how I saw the first half. Even though I wasn't watching live, I was still yelling at the TV because that always helps.

I'll take 2 please.

Totally agree Andy.
They are hugely unlikeable club.
The bit at the end where their fans kept the ball and wouldn't give it back in injury time.
I'd have *%^@*** loved it if we had got a last minute equaliser to shove it down their throat.
I was so surprised to hear the stat that we hadn't lost to them in 6 games.
Just feels predictable and inevitable that we would lose up there and I just knew ronaldo would score.
It's just infuriating it really is.
They are not a good team but ronaldo and to a lesser extent Fernández are carrying that team.
We deserved a draw at least and just apoplectic that var is quick to get the ref to run to.the monitor and check their penalty incident but we were not afforded the same. How can that possibly *%^@*** be!
*%^@*** muppets at var headquarters.
Absolutely hate losing to utd.
At least liverpool city and utd away are all out the way.
Have to beat Everton.
Drop Aubameyang.

Bit early to make a call on Arteta. Lets see where we are at Christmas. The problem is that senior players are the failures continually.

There were some calls for more creativity tonight. Myself, I think that’s getting things the wrong way round. Who are North London’s most creative midfielders? In my time the likes of Brady, Hudson, Hoddle and Gascoigne would be up there. Up in Glasgow, how about Jim Baxter and Paul McStay? In France, maybe Platini and Zidane?

Well, let me tell you this. Even that mob would struggle to create for our forwards tonight. Aubameyang, Lacazette and Nketiah made themselves as available to have a chance created for them as Myra Hindley and Ian Brady were to look after children with kindness.

Agree that we are headed in the right direction. The defeat is disappointing, but not a disastrous Arsenal performance, bar Aubameyang.
If Aubameyang would only start to play like Ronaldo does. Aubameyang is listless and not driven.

Partey and Lokonga will eventually gel well. Elneny, just hope he gets a transfer into a league where he will shine bright.

If you don’t get it watch the game again and look at fernandes. A *%^@*** nuisance of a player dropping into pockets of space all over the pitch. Pinging quick accurate passes and a massive goal threat. I like our midfielders but let’s be honest here smith Rowe was ineffective and Ødegaard still isn’t that level. Also elneny was technically lacking in possession.

We haven’t got a talisman of a player who has a killer final ball. We are depending far too much on wide players for our moments of insertion. That said the way the strikers are playing there’s no point anyway. Might be worth getting someone on loan. It’s pretty bad right now

Got busy, tired and fell asleep and watched it on a replay. I thought we were going to win it as I was watching it and winding it back to see key points of the game. How did we lose it? At worse a draw I thought.

No one likes to lose but losing to certain teams is worse. Man Utd is one of them. I hope I live long enough to see 1. Arsenal put 8 or 9 past them and 2. Have a favorable head to head record.

Loss aside, I still think we are going to get better. Good to see Ødegaard score. It will help his confidence immensely.

I find that our strikers often fail to just do the striker basics outside of judging their finishing ability. I watch various strikers in the league and they do these things. Aubameyang has more talent but he can’t contribute to games other than being on the end of a chance. That’s not enough.
The modern forward cannot be a finisher alone, they need to have much more in their locker AND be a deadly finisher. Liverpool set the bar for this with any of their 4 forwards. In our squad Aubameyang, Lacazette and Nketiah don’t really have any attributes suiting this modern style of forward. Martinelli certainly does and so I think does Balogun. In reality we need to ditch the first 3 and bring in 2 more. It’s seriously hampering us right now.

Your third sentence from last is my point. If Bruno Fernandez had played for us last night, we would NOT have scored any more goals than we did, nor create any more chances than we did. Your sentence “That said the way the strikers are playing there’s no point anyway.” shows that you know it as well as me. Any problems with our lack of creativity originate from further up the pitch than Saka, Smith Rowe and Ødegaard. If they played for Manchester United, let alone their near neighbours City, or Liverpool and Chelsea, their sides would have all the creativity they need.

Yep Rich, I agree. Martinelli and Balogun are hopefully part of Arsenal’s future, with at least one or preferably two others (I always try to remain realistic). I would be happy for Aubameyang, Lacazette and Nketiah to soon be part of the club’s past.

As an aside to your post Rich about being a goal scorer or great chance taker not being enough in the modern game, perhaps the best examples of that type of striker are Gerd Muller and Jimmy Greaves. To have the reputations they both deservedly do, I suspect each would have had to develop their respective games if they played now rather than around fifty years ago.

I've had a full day to seethe on that failure against that scummy club. I am a poor loser and the more I think about performances of Partey & Aubameyang the more annoyed I am getting. I accuse both of them of not giving their best. I think both need to go. Partey, at his price has been a failure. I can think of maybe 2-3 games he has been good and one dominant performance early on. Against Liverpool he was spotted strolling around after we gave the ball away. Again in this game I noted him just taking his time strolling back after we had lost possession. The number of totally hopeless passes was large. We need experienced players to step up.

A lot of other players were just plain sloppy with passing and trying to retain possession. Is Arteta capable of sorting this out?

Everton is now a major game. Anything other than a win is not good enough.

You missed the united goal then. One midfielder setting up another midfielder to score.

Both areas are still problem areas for me. Midfield obviously slightly less right now. That said I do kind of agree with what Henry said after the game that the solution isn’t as easy as just dropping aubameyang who despite his poor form is probably the best finisher at the club. I don’t think there’s much of an internal solution here that’s being ignored.

Worth also pointing out to all the “agenda” supporters who say everything and everyone is not good enough that our 2nd goal came from parteys incisive pass to martinelli wide who had found space. Not everything is black and white.

He had a bad first half but the people lambasting him tend to be bullied at school types. I don’t think we have a Midfield pair capable enough of dominating these tough away games to the top 4. Needs someone alongside him to take the load a bit more.

I think that's right, there is no single internal solution. Martinelli lacks the experience to play the no 9 role just yet, although you might have said that about Henry when he started out at Arsenal. The obvious difference being Henry was in a quality side creating chances and scoring for fun.

Its a real shame we've no european football, the europa league could have given Martinelli and Balogun valuable experience and room for a little bit of experimentation.

Maybe playing Martinelli alongside Lacazette, as others have suggested, is an option but not many teams play 4-4-2 these days.

You mean Xhaka

Partey and Aubameyang should be the players setting the standards in games like these, instead both were relatively poor. Not for the first time either.

Why does Arteta pick Nketiah when he has turned down a new contract and he has Pépé and Balogun.

The Pépé thing is a mystery, no one is saying he hasn't been a disappointment but, like Martinelli, the lack of game time even from the bench just makes little sense.