Man United v Arsenal in pictures

A last-gasp equaliser from Olivier Giroud saved Arsenal’s blushes, as well as their unbeaten streak, after a sub-par performance against Jose Mourinho’s Man United at Old Trafford on Saturday afternoon.

Realistically the clash was never going to live up to those of the past. Not because of the ‘culture of modern football’ or any old rant like that, purely because the scheduling was awkward.

A fixture as explosive as Man United v Arsenal seems wasted being placed the weekend after an international break, which saw both sets of players travel thousands of miles between themselves.

Furthermore, thanks to the will of Sky Sports, the kick-off was moved forward to lunchtime, which knocks players off their stride and is never going to help the game.

All that aside, it is fair to say that the game was not a classic. The early end-to-end action, which saw Alexis Sanchez miss a golden opportunity with his head, died down and we had to wait for some sloppy second-half defending from the visitors to see the deadlock broken by Juan Mata.

If it weren’t for the Frenchman’s thunderous header in the closing stages, we could all have been panicking, or more liekly arguing, over the November curse and the future of Wenger.

Having had some time to swallow the result, here are THREE pictures which perfectly sum up the game…