Wayne Rooney a sideshow as Man United fail to finish the job

Man United 1 Arsenal 1: Wayne Rooney can — and did — protest all he wishes about the unfair treatment he received over “Wedding-gate” but the fact remains that, with every passing week, the Manchester United and England captain is proving ever more dispensable for club and country alike.

His arrival just after the hour as a substitute in this disappointing draw with Arsenal coincided with United taking the lead, although it is putting it kindly to describe Rooney’s contribution to proceedings as “insignificant”. In fact, the only impression Rooney left upon a fixture in which he has scored 14 times over his glittering career was an injury-time booking picked up for a petulant verbal outburst at referee Andre Marriner.

Still, this is a Rooney battling for his very career, for both club and country, and at the end of a week in which he took the ill-advised decision to attend, and drink, at a wedding reception while on England duty, and still in his squad kit, he was able to hog the headlines with an outburst against the media’s handling of the affair.