Advertisement
Robin van Persie in possession. Adam Davy/PA Wire/Press Association Images
AS IT HAPPENED

As it happened: Arsenal v Manchester United, Premier League

United travel to North London on a stormy night across Britain and Ireland.

DAVID MOYES BRINGS his team to the Emirates for one of five Premier League fixtures tonight.

As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the game. E-mail ben@thescore.ie, tweet @thescore_ie, post a message to our Facebook wall, or leave a comment below.

You may need to refresh the page for YouTube videos and other elements to display correctly.

Arsenal 0-0 Manchester United

Good evening and welcome along. If you have been living under a rock today, you won’t have noticed that this part of the world has been hit by dangerous thunderstorms with Met Eireann issuing a red alert tonight.

It isn’t much better across the water and one of tonight’s Premier League fixtures has already fallen victim to the weather as Manchester City’s clash with Sunderland at the Etihad is off due to bad weather.

Scenes at the Etihad tonight. Credit: Dave Thompson/PA Wire

At the Britannia Stadium, kick-off has been delayed by 15 minutes (to 8pm) due to traffic issues but despite conditions being far from great, the game will go ahead as it stands.

Cue jokes about whether Swansea can do it on a windy Wednesday night at Stoke etc…

Here are the five matches going ahead:

  • Arsenal v Manchester United
  • Everton v Crystal Palace
  • Newcastle v Tottenham
  • Stoke v Swansea
  • Fulham v Liverpool

Here’s team news in our feature game:

Arsenal: Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Arteta, Wilshere, Rosicky, Ozil, Cazorla; Giroud. Subs: Fabianski, Jenkinson, Monreal, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Podolski, Sanogo, Bendtner.

Manchester United: De Gea, Rafael, Smalling, Vidic, Evra, Valencia, Cleverley, Carrick, Mata, Rooney, van Persie. Subs: Lindegaard, Buttner, Ferdinand, Fellaini, Young, Hernandez, Januzaj.

Both teams come into tonight’s meeting on the back of very different setbacks. Arsenal, currently second in the table, suffered a humbling 5-1 defeat at the hands of Liverpool.

United, meanwhile, looked to be on the way to a 2-1 win over Fulham until Darren Bent popped up with an injury-time equaliser on Sunday — which leaves them a massive 14 points off the Gunners in seventh position.

The last time these two met back at Old Trafford in November, it ended in a 1-0 win as Robin van Persie proved the difference against his former side.

YouTube credit: NewsGo als

Ah here, they’re dropping like flies.

Credit: Twitter

You’ve got to feel for this guy:

Credit: Twitter

Five minutes until kick-off. How do you think this one is going?


Poll Results:

Man United win (242)
Draw (199)
Arsenal win (34)

Here’s how BT Sport reckon the teams will line up:

Credit: BT Sport

The visitors have just kicked off with Patrice Evra lumping a long ball forward for Van Persie to run onto. It runs all the way through to Szczesny.

My word, what a chance! Van Persie robs Arteta and is through on goal. He takes the shot on early but Szczesny reads his intentions and smothers the ball.

Big let-off for Arsenal.

Two super chances for Arsenal in the past couple of minutes. First Jack Wilshere works his way past a couple of challenges before Chris Smalling puts in a timely block.

From the resulting corner, Olivier Giroud heads wide when unmarked seven years out.

Tomas Rosicky has a pop from distance which comes off the back of Vidic and forces David De Gea to dive across his goalmouth.

Rafael attacks down the right-hand side and whips a cross to the front post. Van Persie has made his run early but can’t make adequate contact and Per Mertesacker gets the vital touch.

Juan Mata slips a super ball into Van Persie, who checks inside onto his right and gets the shot all wrong with team-mates available.

Arsenal play a series of passes in the opposing half but the final pass is a poor one and overhit by Rosicky.

Elsewhere, Emmanuel Adebayor has put Spurs up against Newcastle while a Kolo Toure own-goal means Liverpool trail 1-0 to Fulham.

Check our score centre here.

Rooney loses possession 25 yards out as Arteta nips in and finds Giroud. The Frenchman lets fly but is leaning back and the strike sails over.

Arsenal win themselves a free-kick in a decent position and it’s Arteta to take. His attempt strikes the wall.

Rooney is receiving a talking to by referee Mark Clattenburg.

Credit: BT Sport

Kieran Gibbs is laid out on the deck after falling awkwardly while trying to win a header.

Wilshere then shows his discontent at a tackle from Antonio Valencia.

Now it’s Rafael and Giroud receiving treatment after a mid-air collision. The Brazilian full-back looks in some pain due to what appeared to be a bad fall on his shoulder.

Rio Ferdinand is warming up on the sideline.

Rafael is back on the field and bombing down the flank once again. The final pass leaves a lot to be desired on this occasion, though.

Half-time: Arsenal 0-0 Man United

Here are the other scores:

  • Newcastle 0-1 Spurs
  • Fulham 1-0 Liverpool
  • Stoke 1-0 Swansea

Kolo Toure is having quite the night at Craven Cottage. Read all about it here.

GOAL! Daniel Sturridge has pulled Liverpool level after a brilliant pass from Steven Gerrard. It’s 1-1 on 41 minutes.

Second half, here we go…

Rio Ferdinand is on for Rafael, who obviously hasn’t recovered fully from that fall.

Credit: John Walton/EMPICS Sport

Juan Mata floats in a free-kick from wide right and Carrick puts a great flick onto the cross but no one can take advantage at the back post.

We’re still scoreless here and the game is lacking a bit of spark at the moment.

Elsewhere Paulinho has doubled Spurs’ advantage against Newcastle.

Koscielny makes contact with a Cazorla corner and Valencia is well-positioned on the line to clear away.

Moments later, Giroud complains to Clattenburg after feeling he was fouled by Vidic in the box.

Vidic and Carrick crashes into Giroud, then Mata is guilty of a blatant hand ball.

Goal at the Britannia — Chico Flores has equalised for Swansea.

Valencia goes into the book for a rash challenge on Wilshere.

Substitutes for both sides — Rosicky is withdrawn for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Adnan Januzaj comes on in place of Mata. 15 minutes on the clock.

One goal from would surely be enough to earn three points here.

HUGE CHANCE. Sagna puts a cross into a difficult area to defend and Giroud looks favourite to make contact but fails to get a toe on it.

United break through Van Persie after Carrick wins possession off Wilshere. He plays Rooney and advances to the back post where his team-mate floats a delightful ball to.

Van Persie heads goalward but Szczesny touches the effort onto the crossbar to keep the Dutchman at bay.

Kieran Richardson has scored to make it Fulham 2-1 Liverpool, by the way.

Valencia makes way for Ashley Young. His biggest contribution tonight was that cleared goal line header.

Now Arsenal go in search of a winner. Cazorla plays a pass to Giroud then takes it back. The Spaniard finds Ozil for a one-two and his shot is then well-saved by De Gea.

Couthinho has brought Liverpool level at Craven Cottage while Spurs are 4-0 up against Newcastle through Nacer Chadhli.

Evra clipped Cazorla and Arsenal have a free-kick 20 yards out.

It’s Ozil to take… but he hits the wall.

David De Gea makes a good save from Cazorla, whose shot was hit cleanly from the edge of the box.

Looks like this will end a stalemate.

Full-time: Arsenal 0-0 Manchester United

Well that wasn’t great, was it? Both sides looked considerably lacklustre throughout the 90 minutes and although Messrs Wenger and Moyes will be glad to have avoided defeat, you feel the game was there to be won.

Right, I’m off. Cheers for the company… apologies it wasn’t nearly as exciting as we had hoped pre-match.

No way back for Terry with England says Hodgson as World Cup looms in Brazil

VIDEO: Angry Irish Man United fan hilariously curses his way through the match

Your Voice
Readers Comments
66
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.