Points to prove for Jose and Arsene

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho made a deliberate point of repeating a closing statement about finally ‘losing’ a league game to Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, but it’s fair to say that both sides were losers despite the game ending in a draw.

Losers in the respect that in a game where both teams were hoping for a post-international break boost to their Premier League title chances, they instead put on a display of why they are both likely doomed to fail this season.

It begged the ultimately pointless question; who would you have preferred to have played like in drawing the game? Dominant but toothless like Manchester United, or, dreadful and yet fortunate like Arsenal? For both sets of supporters there was plenty to be positive about if you chose to indulge in the red herrings.

Of course United could point to their superior performance. They could also complain about a contentious non-award of a penalty for at least the third time in home games they have failed to win this season. And so their fans can feel reassured by their manager’s words about bad luck, with the hope and even expectation that such fate eventually levels out.

Arsenal meanwhile can justifiably be content with their late equaliser.

It’s fair to say that too many of these games in the past have been surrendered meekly. Many a failed title charge featured crunch games where the Gunners did not turn up. The same could be said here, but the end was different; and that Olivier Giroud equaliser when Arsenal had previously failed to even have a shot on target is seemingly enough of a moment to base some genuinely high hopes on.

This was a game when both sides ought to have exposed absences in the other; United did the better job, though that counts for nought when the spoils were shared. It is, however, in those underlying issues that expectations for the future can be formed.

Fundamentally, Arsenal’s future is problematic because their issues are systematic; having missed the opportunity to seize advantage of poor seasons from their main rivals last year, Wenger is facing something of the status quo. They arrived at Old Trafford with one of the most lauded creative forces in the division, against as suspect a defence as they could have hoped to face. And yet the starting team came up with precisely nothing. It is only November but already seasoned veterans of the Emirates are beginning to fear the same pattern of capitulation they have grown accustomed to.

For United, at least, their optimism is borne from the fact that they are witnessing change. Crying about luck and bad decisions won’t wash for too long but it is enough to placate supporters in the short term who, after three years of pessimism, are glad to at least see their team be positive in a big game and be the better on the day. What is frustrating for fans is that to them, many issues that dog the team appear to have been obvious in days prior to their new manager’s arrival; so it becomes frustrating that, for example, Marouane Fellaini is persevered with. That, however, appears to be changing. Slowly but surely Mourinho is discovering his best team with his best players (who knew?!). This is translating into better performances; but, the results have been about as consistent as the team selection - the fluidity and chemistry will continue to improve with it.

Both managers left with a point, and a point to prove. In the short term Mourinho may be feeling as if he suffered a defeat but it is starting to feel as if he is getting to grips with the size of the job at hand.

By: Wayne Barton.

Photo: Shaun Botterill/Getty Images.

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