Wenger’s young Arsenal side eventually succumbed to a sixth straight away defeat in 2018 – though there were some positives to take back to North London…
A roller coaster of emotions awaited Arsenal’s most successful manager as he took his team to Manchester United one final time. The day started well enough for Wenger as he was honoured with a commemorative gift, handed to him by old rival, Sir Alex Ferguson, before kick-off. The Frenchman was also received well by the Old Trafford faithful as applause broke out while he was being awarded his memento. A classy gesture from the club.
On his final day out at Old Trafford, Arsene fielded Arsenal’s youngest side in seven years at an average age of 24 years and 67 days – the youngest (at 24 years 65 days) also came at Old Trafford against Manchester United 2011 when they were thrashed 8-2 in 2011. That fixture also saw Wenger hand a debut to young defender, Carl Jenkinson, who ended up being shown a red card. In this fixture, he gave a debut to another defender, Konstantinos Mavropanos, a Greek U-21 international signed in January. The omens were not good.
Players who were playing against their old clubs were almost lost in the Arsene Wenger narrative as Alexis Sanchez and Henrikh Mkhitaryan played against their old teams for the first time while Danny Welbeck also returned to his boyhood club. However, it was an Arsenal youth academy product, Ainsley Maitland-Niles, who shone the brightest on the evening.
Playing against a midfield containing established international stars such as Paul Pogba and Nemanja Matic, the 20-year old matched the big names with his performance, stifling United’s record-signing, Pogba, for most of the game. It was that man Pogba who opened the scoring, however, tapping home a fortuitous rebound after great work by fellow high-earners, Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez.
0 – Arsenal are the only side in the top four tiers of English football yet to win a single point in an away league game in 2018 (P6 W0 D0 L6). Zilch. pic.twitter.com/tPYoquJ6Uk
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) April 29, 2018
United inexplicably took their foot off the gas, allowing their relatively inexperienced opponents to recover and it was Henrikh Mkhitaryan who brought his team level against his old club early in the second half. In doing so, the Armenian became the first player to score for and against Manchester United in the same Premier League season.
As time ticked by, Mourinho sent on his trusted lieutenant, Marouane Fellaini, for Plan B. The substitution worked a charm as the Belgian first saw an assist ruled out for offside with fellow substitute Marcus Rashford just straying off before clinching the winner himself with a brilliant header in stoppage time.
After the game, the Arsenal boss said that whoever takes over next season will have an abundance of young talent to choose from. “My successor will watch this game and hopefully he will come to a positive conclusion because I think they are the future of Arsenal football club – some, 100 percent.” Wenger said.
Perhaps predictably, Manchester United welcomed Arsene Wenger to Old Trafford with applause and adulation before the match before going on to hit him with a sucker punch towards the end of it. A goal in added time, or “Fergie” time, at Old Trafford was the exact way most Manchester United fans would have liked to see this script written.