Rice counters Fernandes opener to rescue point at Old Trafford
Arsenal's Declan Rice (left) celebrates. Pic: Martin Rickett/PA Wire.
DECLAN Rice rescued a point for Arsenal, equalising Bruno Fernandes’s first-half free-kick, but if there was any faint remaining hope of his team challenging Liverpool for the Premier League title, it disappeared at Old Trafford.
The night ended with Mikel Arteta’s team 15 points behind leaders Liverpool and, even though they have the luxury of a game in hand, there can be little hope of turning that around.
For United, whose supporters staged a big pre-match demonstration against their club’s unpopular owners, there was a rare positive home performance that gave new manager Ruben Amorim some encouragement.
The pattern of the game followed so many of Arsenal’s recent league outings, rather than the midweek trip to PSV Eindhoven in which they somehow managed to score seven times.
Plenty of possession, pretty patterns and no end product. Not even United’s shellshocked defence was unduly worried.
Instead, and in keeping with dropping five points from their last two games, Arsenal somehow found themselves trailing at the interval of a game they had utterly dominated to that point.
In the second minute of injury-time, some untidy play outside the Arsenal area ended with Leandro Trossard needlessly tripping Alejandro Garnacho from behind, earning a booking and conceding a free-kick.
It was 20 yards out - prime Fernandes territory - and the fact no other United player stood over the ball, apart from the United skipper, gave away the worst kept secret that the Portuguese star would take the kick himself.
And what a strike. The ball beat the wall and the diving David Raya and, even though there were question marks over the keeper’s starting position and late dive, it was a stunning hit.
It was an astonishing half-time scoreline but then Arsenal only had themselves to blame, as Martin Odegaard orchestrated the entire match but his side failed to properly test Andre Onana.
The United keeper, whose wayward kicking suggested he was not in a prime state of confidence, only had one on-target attempt to deal with, from Odegaard’s 19th minute shot from outside the area that was straight at him.
Mikel Merino and Trossard shot wide from promising positions while, from United’s only other meaningful attack, Garnacho’s shot flashed harmlessly across the face of goal.
It was a depressingly familiar story for the travelling fans who have seen their season unravel due to the injury absences of goalscorers Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Jesus.
At least their response after the restart suggested they were still capable of rescuing the game, with Odegaard’s long shot tipped over by Onana and Rice volleying the resulting corner over.
The added urgency left Arsenal susceptible on the break, however, and Raya made up for his error for the goal with a superb, one-footed save to divert Noussair Mazraoui’s first-time strike from a Diogo Dalot cross on the break.
There was also an audacious attempt from Joshua Zirkzee, back-heeling Garnacho’s deflected cross and forcing Raya into another good stop.
But Arsenal soon started to dominate the ball again, Trossard shooting wide and Odegaard planting a free-kick straight into the United wall from a similar position to the Fernandes goal.
And, on 74 minutes, the visitors made their possession count with an equaliser that finally found United’s defence lacking as Jurrien Timber broke into the area from the right and spotted Rice in space. The ball picked out the Arsenal midfielder who stroked in a perfect finish from just inside the area.
Both teams went for the win, Gabriel Martinelli forcing a good save out of Onana and Garnacho shooting inches over before Onana pushed Odegaard’s injury-time shot straight to Martinelli, who blazed over from an offside position.
The drama was not over. In the fourth minute of added time, Raya made a superb save from Fernandes’s 12-yard shot and somehow managed to recover to scoop the ricochet off his goalline.
Onana 5; de Ligt 7, Lindelof 7, Yoro 6 (Heaven 46, 6); Mazraoui 7, Casemiro 6, Fernandes 8, Dalot 6; Garnacho 7, Eriksen 6 (Collyer 76, 5); Zirkzee 7 (Hojlund 76, 5).
Raya 6; Timber 7, Saliba 6, Gabriel 7, Calafiori 6 (Lewis-Skelly 58, 6); Partey 6 (Tierney 76, 5), Rice 7; Odegaard 8; Nwaneri 5 (Martinelli 58 5), Merino 6, Trossard 5.
A Taylor 7.
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