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McBurnie Rescues A Point For Blades After Late Lacazette Strike IRISH
Second-Half United Comeback
Substitute Oli McBurnie secured Sheffield United a deserved
share of the spoils as a thrilling, helter-skelter clash with Can’t Hide Gunners’ EXAMINER
Manchester United ended in a 3-3 draw.
Chris Wilder’s promoted side have been so impressive this sea-
son that few eyebrows were raised at the fact they headed into this |
encounter ahead of the 20-time league champions in the stand- Failings Under Emery
ings.
The Blades put on another stirring show of organization and lexandre Lacazette rescued and converted the opener off not to fall behind a second time November
creativity and were on course for their first win against an injury-time point for the inside of the post. as Sokratis Papastathopoulos
Manchester United since 1993 thanks to John Fleck’s bundled AArsenal at home to strug- Lacazette would equalize as dallied and lost the ball to
effort and a fine Lys Mousset strike. gling Southampton–buttheresult Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s Cedric Soares inside his own 27th,
The visitors were out-thought and outfought for long periods willdolittletoeasethepressureon shot was blocked into the path penalty area.
at a bouncing Bramall Lane, but, with the shadow of the newly headcoachUnaiEmery. of his strike partner, who made The Portugal full-back’s 2019
out-of-work Mauricio Pochettino looming large over Ole Gunnar The Gunners boss was given no mistake in turning home his cross evaded Michael Obafemi,
Solskjaer, his side went on the most unlikely of seven-minute scor- public backing by the club’s first goal since September 1. the young forward six yards out
ing sprees. hierarchy during the interna- The rest of the half was a from an open goal but unable
Nineteen-year-old Brandon Williams’ first senior goal in the tional break but he was reliant scrappy affair, Southampton to make contact.
72nd minute was the catalyst, with 18-year-old Mason on a Lacazette brace to twice already happy to start running Another error would see
Greenwood netting his maiden Premier League goal before bring his side from behind to down the clock while Arsenal Southampton take the lead
Marcus Rashford swept home to send the visiting hordes wild. earn a 2-2 draw. still proved wasteful in posses- with 20 minutes remaining as
Yet Wilder’s men are made of stern stuff and dug deep, with The south-coast side have sion as a smattering of jeers Tierney pulled back on Ings fol-
McBurnie coming off the bench to secure a draw in the 90th not won a league game at from the home fans greeted the lowing a ball back into the box,
minute as a crazy game came to a fitting conclusion. Arsenal since 1987 but looked half-time whistle. with referee Stuart Atwell
The gap between defense and attack coupled with wayward on course to end that run as Emery responded by revert- pointing to the spot.
passing left the visitors under pressure from the outset and David James Ward-Prowse tapped ing to a back four and introduc- Ward-Prowse stepped up
De Gea pulled off a superb double save in the 11th minute. home after having a penalty ing club-record signing Nicolas but saw his low penalty kept
John Lundstram hit a superb volley that forced a flying one- saved by Leno, cancelling out Pepe in place of Chambers. out by Leno, only to tuck away
handed from the Spaniard, who was back on his feet when the ball Lacazette’s first following Saints goalkeeper Alex the rebound and celebrate in
came back across to deny David McGoldrick’s close-range header. Danny Ings’ opener for the visi- McCarthy was called into front of the travelling support.
Phil Jones, making his first Premier League start of the season, tors. action soon after the restart to Emery turned to youngsters
came off worse in his second duel of the afternoon with Mousset Arsenal are now winless in keep out Aubameyang after the Gabriel Martinelli and Joe
and Wilder’s men struck. six games across all competi- ball had broken fortuitously Willock and it was the latter
Chasing a ball down the flank, the French forward unceremo- tions and have celebrated victo- into the path of the Arsenal who had a header well-saved by
niously knocked Jones to the turf and play was allowed to contin- ry in just two of their last 11 skipper. McCarthy.
ue by referee Andre Marriner. Premier League games. Pepe then summed up his The England Under-21 inter-
Mousset continued to cutback for Lundstram, whose shot was For Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side, start to life in England as he was national was then heavily
saved by De Gea but bundled home by Fleck in front of the Kop. this would have been a much- slipped through behind the involved at the other end as he
The visitors looked shaken and Jones particularly frazzled. The needed morale boost but they Southampton defense and ran raced back to clear Moussa
defender foolishly gave away a free-kick that Fleck fizzed into the have not won in the league in one-on-one against Djenepo’s goalbound shot off
box, with the slightest of touches by Fred preventing a quickfire since September 14. McCarthy before attempting to the line.
second. While bitter rivals square to a team-mate instead A number of stoppages led
McGoldrick was denied before Anthony Martial mustered the Tottenham celebrated victory of take on the strike. to seven minutes of injury-time
visitors’ first shot on target in the 29th minute – an effort met by at West Ham earlier in the day The Ivory Coast forward did as Djenpo spurned a fine
ironic cheers given the anonymity of their attack in a first half that having opted to sack Mauricio well to make contact with chance to seal the points and it
could easily have been worse. Pochettino and replace him Tierney’s cross but his scissor proved to be costly as Lacazette
Jesse Lingard came on for the hapless Jones at half-time, but an with Jose Mourinho, Arsenal kick came back off the wood- thrashed home at the back-post
early Rashford effort and more directness was undone by poor put in another mediocre dis- work. to salvage a point which does
play. play. Emery’s side started to con- little for Emery’s current stand-
Mousset capitalized on typically poor play by Andreas Pereira, The club may have stuck by trol proceedings but were lucky
before playing out to Fleck and making a lung-busting run from Emery but the jeers which ing. C
inside how own half towards the United goal. greeted the full-time whistle
FoundbyFleck,heshowednolittleconfidenceandskilltosend suggests the majority of sup-
a superb low strike past De Gea. porters may soon be calling for
With 72 minutes on the clock, James made space down the a change.
right to clip over a cross that was only cleared into the path of Southampton had a great
teenager Williams, who fizzed a stunning volleyed effort into the early chance as Stuart
far corner. Armstrong robbed former
What looked to be a consolation effort was soon added to as Celtic team-mate Kieran
Greenwood, on for Pereira, prodded home a lovely cross from Tierney of possession with a lit-
Rashford. tle over 30 seconds gone but he
Sheffield United looked punch drunk and the visitors capital- could only shot wide.
ized, grabbing a third in the 79th minute as good work between The lead would belong to
James and Martial down the left flank led to the former cutting the visitors nine minutes later
back for Rashford to sweep home in front of a shellshocked Kop. as they caught the Arsenal
TheBladesfaithfulhadbeensilencedtemporarily,butthehosts defense napping.
would not roll over. Nathan Redmond was
In the dying embers of normal time, substitute McBurnie col- fouled by Calum Chambers and
lected a cross in the box and struck home an effort that lifted the the recalled Ryan Bertrand
roof – a goal given the green light by VAR at the end of a thrilling played a quick free-kick into
game. C James Ward-Prowse celebrates after following up his penalty to restore
Ings, who ran in on Leno’s goal Southampton’s lead at Arsenal