Anyway, that’ll do from me. Much to chew over there. The Blades can glory in an excellent win; Arsenal will wonder where on earth they go from here. Thanks for your company and we’ll talk again soon!
Christian Widerin doesn’t mince his words:
“What Emery is doing to this club is a crime. I consider him probably the worst coach in the Premier league atm. Just completely fed up with him, also with his attitude towards Ozil. It’s ridiculous. A defensive coward, he despises creativity and the beautiful game. Good riddance.”
Ben Park also writes:
“[Arsenal are] Schrödinger’s cat I believe, would be an adequate analogy for this Arsenal team. It is (insert your preferred football style), and at the same time is not.”
Here is the match report from your correspondent on the scene, Paul Doyle:
Chris Wilder, such an outstanding coach, speaks:
“We were under pressure in the second half but we limited their chances. Three points was a great reward for the players. It’s crazy if people think we can just open up against Arsenal. You saw in the first half some of their players skipping round our like they weren’t even there, so we had to find a balance. We defended manfully.
“If people watched us last year, we try to play our own way. We wanted to speak to our identity this year. We had to tinker in certain parts, we knew we could’t play two in midfield this year. We try to win a game of football by whatever means and we’ve got some talented boys who’ve been on the journey from League One. It’s a fantastic result and a great reward for everybody.”
Some fine performances from Sheffield United players there. Fleck and Baldock were the standouts for me but there was no weak link. They look so well drilled, so physically and mentally on point, but play some fast, exciting, aggressive football too. Can any of that be said for their opponents?
That’s why performances matter. This is a waste of a season. Awful.
— wearethenorthbank (@northbanklower) October 21, 2019
An Arsenal take, referring to the fact that results had been papering over some quite obvious problems. On a night when Aubameyang can’t step in and rustle something up, it makes for a big problem.
Full-time: Sheffield United 1-0 Arsenal
A famous, deserved win for the Blades! And on the other hand that was pallid, bland, ineffective, absent nonsense from Arsenal. Perhaps a low for the Emery “era”.
90+4 min: The pressure abates, Chambers picks up a booking for dissent, and Sheffield United are so nearly there ...
90+2 min: Another corner is met by a Blades head and it is now anywhere-will-do territory as the home side slash the ball far upfield.
90+1 min: Arsenal have FIVE minutes to score the goal they have rarely threatened.
89 min: The ball reaches an unmarked Chambers on the right side of the area and anything could happen as he lashes a cross-shot across goal. What does occur is that it’s deflected heart-stoppingly wide and Arsenal make nothing of the corner.
87 min: And now McBurnie heads a left-wing corner not too far over. This is where the Blades want the action to be.
86 min: In his first act, McBurnie draws a chop from, and a booking for, Sokratis.
85 min: They have a breather now as Sharp is fouled in the middle. Then Norwood comes off and on jogs McBurnie.
83 min: Another Arsenal corner leads to nothing but I expect pretty much wall-to-wall pressure from here. The Blades are so close to a big, big win ...
82 min: Fleck is a decent shout for man of the match and almost sets up a glimpse on the counter after a delightful flick opens up the midfield.
80 min: It’s one full-back to another as Chambers crosses deep to the onrushing Kolasinac, who has a pretty good chance at the back stick there and should do better than head well over.
78 min: Emery makes his third change and it’s Gabriel Martinelli, the superbly talented young Brazilian striker, replacing the again-disappointing Pepe. The hosts make a switch too, McGoldrick off and Luke Freeman on.
76 min: Norwood drills wide from range after smart hold-up play from Sharp. The hosts remain a genuine threat on the break.
75 min: Pepe’s best moment yet, now, as he takes aim from 25 yards a little more effectively but blasts a yard wide. Sheffield United just need to be careful here. Arsenal don’t look good but Lacazette’s arrival has definitely perked them. Henderson is booked by Dean as he attempts to kill some time at a goal kick.
73 min: ... which is on target from Pepe but well marshalled by the calm, composed Henderson.
72 min: Now Arsenal have a very, very interesting-looking free-kick just outside the box as McGoldrick catches Lacazette. It’s on for the shot ....
70 min: Some really fine work from Saka ends with a delicate delivery towards Pepe, excellently defended by Basham. It’s a corner and, for the first time really, the away fans roar. They then groan as another poor delivery from Pepe reaches Henderson.
69 min: Now we do see the return of Lacazette, who I think may well be Arsenal’s best player. He is on for the captain, Xhaka.
67 min: Fleck thuds a really meaty one from fully 35 yards and Leno spills it ... but McGoldrick can’t quite snaffle up the rebound in time. I fancy another goal in this one, for someone.
66 min: Guendouzi appears to fell McGoldrick on halfway but no, McGoldrick has – like Saka earlier – dived and gets a yellow. Kolasinac is also booked for reasons unclear.
Updated
65 min: In the meantime Arsenal win a right-sided corner. It’s poor from Pepe, aimed low to the near post and hacked away.
Great to see John Fleck perform so well - again- in esteemed company. Not only a great lad but one who quietly, gradually rebuilt his career in England after things petered out at Rangers. Clearly had the attitude to match his talent.
— Ewan Murray (@mrewanmurray) October 21, 2019
And this is a useful take from Ewan on the excellent Fleck.
@NickAmes82 has Aubameyang touched the ball in the box once all game?
— John Nekrasov (@john_nekrasov) October 21, 2019
Doesn’t seem so. The service is woeful.
63 min: Might be time for Lacazette soon. Arsenal really don’t have a lot out there. Even though there is still every chance Aubameyang will still paper over the gaping cracks yet again.
61 min: Close! Nice interplay involving McGoldrick and Lundstram ends with Fleck leathering a left-footer into the side netting with Leno at full stretch. Half the crowd thought that was in.
Updated
60 min: So of course they come fairly close to scoring now, Saka dinking across for what should probably be a crisp volley into the net by Ceballos. Instead Stevens does just enough to get in the sub’s sights and the shot is relatively harmless for Henderson.
Updated
59 min: Arsenal may have had a fair chunk of the ball since half-time but they do not look remotely like scoring. There’s no verve, speed, intensity. Any of that is coming from the Blades, who look more assertive again now and see Baldock shoot wide.
56 min: A change for the Blades. Club legend Billy Sharp is on for the possible matchwinner, Mousset. I think he’s got some sort of knock.
Seems like Ceballos has been brought in to try and help Arsenal hold the ball better in midfield and draw Sheff United out.
— Arsenal Column (@ArsenalColumn) October 21, 2019
In the first-half, Willock played as a no.10 and was used more for his ability to get behind SU midfield, but they were alert to cutting out those passes
Useful explanation of What Is Going On Out There.
53 min: Mousset is found in all sorts of space by a Fleck diagonal after some ballwatching by Kolasinac and Arsenal are very lucky that the forward handballs when trying to control.
52 min: Mousset buys himself a free-kick from Sokratis and Sheffield United can get a foot on the ball for the first time in the half, really.
50 min: The early pattern here is of Arsenal possession. The Blades don’t want – or need – to sit in too deep too early, though.
49 min: Your takes on Arsenal are actually flooding in now but don’t be offended if we have to focus on the game for the moment. Depending on events, I’ll try to stick a few more up for everyone’s consideration at the end.
47 min: Arsenal spring straight up the field and win an early corner. It’s a decent enough delivery from Pepe but McGoldrick nuts it away.
Peeeep! We are back underway
Arsenal bring Ceballos on for Willock, who is a super young player but simply didn’t get a kick in the first half.
Oh hold on, two more:
Anders Stenberg – “Best group of young players since at least 10 years. A necessary ingredient for most great teams, despite all the billions in the game. Think Barca, United, Bayern and just recently even Spurs. That is the positive. The negative is that one never knows how they will develop, but I am actually more excited now than I have been 5-6 years.”
Mike Nichols – “Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang dragging an entire club, kicking and screaming, into the Champions League places.”
Updated
Anyway, second half on its way. You’ve all been very helpful but I still don’t know what Emery’s Arsenal are. Any clues coming up in the next 45?
Russell Eberts writes: “Emery strikes me as a villain from an old TV show or movie (Adam West’s Batman, maybe, or an old Bond film). He cooks up overly-elaborate plans that he’s convinced himself are genius, only to see them fall apart spectacularly as soon as they’re put into action. No one is entirely sure what he’s trying to accomplish, but it’s very clear that he’s failing miserably.”
“They are like a chicken without a head and, worse, a heart,” says Peter Tuhill. So a thigh, a leg or a breast?
I’ll be back in a few minutes. If you could all let me know exactly what this Arsenal team *is* in the meantime I’d be delighted to hear, because I don’t have a clue.
“Based on the evidence on display so far, Arsenal’s defence have not passed the Lys Mousset, er, the litmus test,” notes Peter Oh.
Half-time: Sheffield United 1-0 Arsenal
One clear chance apiece and the Blades have taken theirs!
45+1 min: A lovely turn and run from Pepe almost gives Aubameyang a chance ... then Xhaka takes aim with a hammer of a 30-yarder as the ball sits up and Henderson batters it round the post. Arsenal’s best moment so far, not counting Pepe’s miss. Xhaka glances a looping header wide from the corner.
Updated
44 min: A corner for Arsenal now though. Can they square it up before the break? Spoiler: no.
43 min: Arsenal have been quite positive since conceding but seem so short of craft in the middle. Imagine if they had a world-class German playmaker watching from a sofa somewhere in north London! That’d be daft, surely.
40 min: Norwood intercepts a slack Leno ball from the back and Arsenal are lucky that it zips away from danger.
39 min: Another yellow now, this time for O’Connell, who rather cynically stopped a Pepe break.
36 min: Now Dean gets a moment in the spotlight! Kolasinac plays Saka in down the left and he tumbles over Egan’s challenge. Penalty? No! Dean books the winger for diving. Arsenal are furious but I think the ref was right there, you know! There was no contact. Freddie Ljungberg, on the side, certainly doesn’t agree and is also booked.
Updated
34 min: Aubameyang takes aim from the edge of the area but it’s blocked for a corner, moments after Baldock tumbles dramatically in the box with Kolasinac beside him. No penalty was given. Arsenal try to be fancy with the corner but it’s snaffled away.
32 min: No, it was O’Connell with that header across. But who was picking up Mousset?
Goal! Sheffield United 1-0 Arsenal (Mousset 30)
They find a good delivery for the first time! And Arsenal prove my words about their solidity stupid. Norwood swings the corner to the back stick, Egan – I think – wins the back-post header and Mousset, all alone close to the goal, stabs in the opener!
Updated
30 min: The lively, overlapping Stevens forces yet another corner. From which ...
28 min: It really hasn’t been a classic yet but, remember, Arsenal really should be a goal up through Pepe, whose start to Premier League life has been rocky.
26 min: Arsenal have, whisper it, looked pretty solid so far despite some smart approach play from United, particularly down the left.
24 min: Chambers heads out a Norwood free-kick for the Blades’ latest corner. Once again, no chance results.
21 min: But that should be 1-0 to Arsenal. Pepe should score his first goal from open play here, a rapid counter bringing a perfect delivery from the left from Kolasinac. Pepe is unmarked in front of goal but, swinging for the ball with his left foot when maybe he should wait for it to reach his wide, barely makes any contact and skews well wide. It’s a bad miss.
Updated
20 min: McGoldrick helps the ball to Fleck, deep into the Arsenal box on the left, but David Luiz clears. Then a Stevens drilled delivery strikes Mousset, and ultimately it’s another Blades corner. Leno fists it away, but this is a decent spell of home pressure.
17 min: Pepe does well to find Saka on the left of the area but Baldock holds him up equally adeptly and Arsenal’s momentum slows.
15 min: Now Dean has ample excuse to flash a yellow as Fleck scythes in late on Aubameyang. He makes no mistake, reaching for his pocket and displaying the card with aplomb.
Updated
14 min: David Luiz earns cheers from the home crowd with a misplaced ball, unopposed, that he sends out for a throw-in. Wouldn’t get away with that when their opponents are lurking. From the resulting throw-in the hosts win their third corner, which is thudded out at the near post by the head of Xhaka.
12 min: Scruffy stuff after that flurry of early corners, but Arsenal look reasonably snappy.
9 min: A few meaty challenges flying in. Arsenal will have to stand up physically here and have shown an appetite to so far.
7 min: Replays show Egan got a handful of Sokratis during that last corner. Should Arsenal have had an early penalty?
6 min: A few signs from a lively home side that Arsenal shouldn’t engage in their customary messing about at the back. Then a sign that Pepe might have the run on O’Connell today as he runs beyond the defender and rolls a lovely ball tantalisingly across goal. Arsenal keep up the pressure and win three consecutive corners, albeit to little end. Good start, full of intent, here from both.
3 min: It’s played short by Norwood but they rush it a bit and nothing results straightaway, although they do eventually earn another flag kick that Luiz heads away.
2 min: Guendouzi checks O’Connell and concedes a foul, but Mike Dean keeps his cards tucked away. The Blades then win the game’s first corner ...
Peeeeep! Arsenal, in yellow, kick off
They shoot from left to right.
The teams are out on the pitch and preparing to start! It’s a crackling atmosphere up there.
JR in Illinois fumes: “It’s not ‘Where’s Ozil?’ or ‘Where’s Torreira?’ the real question is ‘Where’s Tierney?’ He’s way better than Kolasinac. Why’s he on the bench? Emery doesn’t know what in the effing hell he’s doing!”
I suspect Tierney will be first choice in that position within a fortnight.
Admir Pajic writes: “The goalkeeping cameo wasn’t the last bit of Phil Jagielka’s heroics against Arsenal. Last season, he started for Everton only because Michael Keane, who had been named in the starting line-up, had to sit that one out due illness. Jagielka took the chance and scored the only goal in a 1-0 victory for Toffees.
“As an Arsenal fan, I can’t help myself thinking that both we’ve been riding our luck this season and that we could’ve easily been closer to Liverpool than we are now. We have enough firepower to Ferguson our way through the teams between 11th and 20th without fuss and our defence should be more reliable against top half teams. Unfortunately, Unai Emery thinks Mesut Özil’s talent is not unique and that Granit Xhaka’s is. Lucas Torreira was at heart of our improved performances in big games last season only to get benched regularly this term. If you ask me, give Arsene Wenger these players to pick from and we’d have a three-horse title race. With Emery, 5th place is more likely.”
Emery speaks! But he doesn’t really say anything worth transcribing, which isn’t really anything new. It’ll be a tough game like every match. And Arsenal must impose their gameplan. That’ll do. He did make the point that Sheffield United are very mobile, in all fairness.
More on Sheffield United’s front line: Lys Mousset, who is just 23 but strikes me already as one of those players who hits 30 before you know it and is still a “prospect” makes his first top flight start for the Blades.
“I don’t care about the money he is making. I just want him in the pitch giving Auba some service,” says Charles Little of Ozil, not unreasonably.
“When will Emery reveal what his plans are regarding the Øzil enigma? Never has anybody made that much money from so little time on the pitch,” sniffs Henrik Nielsen.
For the Blades, star striker Ollie McBurnie makes the bench. He’s been struggling with a knee injury.
“Ozil being absent is just a smoke screen to keep us from asking the real question – where is Torreira?” muses Filip Gieldon. “I’m firmly moving into the Emery-out camp based on this decision by the manag ... sorry ... *head coach*.”
Sheff Utd: Henderson, Basham, Egan, O’Connell, Baldock, Lundstram, Norwood, Fleck, Stevens, McGoldrick, Mousset. Subs: Luke Freeman, McBurnie, Sharp, Robinson, Jagielka, Moore, Besic.
Arsenal: Leno, Chambers, Papastathopoulos, Luiz, Kolasinac, Guendouzi, Xhaka, Pepe, Willock, Saka, Aubameyang. Subs: Tierney, Ceballos, Lacazette, Torreira, Holding, Martinez, Martinelli.
Referee: Mike Dean!
Lacazette is back on the bench for Arsenal. Mesut Ozil is nowhere to be seen, once again.
Back in a few minutes with more buildup ...
Hello
Monday night football! And a tussle that should be bracingly fun, even if I can’t promise you a goalkeeping cameo from Phil Jagielka this time around. Nobody quite knows what we’re going to get from either of these two sides but, at a snapping and snarling Bramall Lane under the lights, I’ve a feeling it is going to be good.
But who for, overall? Arsenal are accidentally doing quite well and will return to third if they win, and still four points clear of Crisis Club Tottenham if they draw. Do they convince you? Of course they don’t, and they don’t convince me either, but they’ve picked up that winning knack largely because they have a matchwinner – Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang – who is better than almost anyone else in the league. If Unai Emery could just refine the rest of it, who’s to say they can’t finish the season back in those hallowed Champions League spots?
The Blades might want a hand in that conversation, for tonight at least. Remember how they rattled Liverpool? Arsenal seem eminently rattle-able and there’s no doubt Chris Wilder’s side play some delightfully intense, intelligent, insistent football whose style and quality still aren’t appreciated quite as much as they should be. If they’re on it tonight then you’ll hear the strains of “Greasy Chip Butty” as far away as Leeds. The more they can take points from games like this, the less likely they are to face a relegation battle. I fancy they won’t have to worry about that, when push comes to show.
So let’s strap in and enjoy. Send in your emails, tweets and goodness knows what else – and we’ll hold each other’s hands through the madness.
