Old Trafford was bathed in sunshine for the visit of Arsenal. 'Arsenal Weather', as my dearly-missed father used to describe it; although to be fair he described all weather as Arsenal Weather... and Arsenal were rocking up for what on paper looked like a pretty simple task. United's Monday night thrashing at the hands of Crystal Palace suggested that they were in disarray, and the continued absence of Old Weasel Face Bruno Fernandes, and of a single centre-back who was more than half-fit, all added up to what we hoped would be a relaxing afternoon.
Sure, with a win an absolute necessity, there was pressure. And that place doesn't hold too many fond memories; I recall two absolute thrashings (8-2 and 6-1), and that appallingly refereed game that stopped The Invincibles unbeaten run in its tracks. Although there were also 1998 and 2002, of course... but that's history, and Arsenal had big fish to fry in May 2024.
Another unchanged squad from Arteta, whilst United had McTominay back, but again selected Casemiro at centre-half. To his and their cost, as we know... and for the first few minutes Arsenal were camped in United's left back corner of the pitch and looked likely to utterly dominate proceedings.
United finally got out of that corner, and as Arsenal retrieved the ball following the home side's first foray at goal Thomas Partey turned into trouble. And for me - and this was in just the 5th minute - this seemed to change the way the game played out. It was clear that, for a change, Ten Hag had actually thought about tactics. A different set up, block and press and - until Arsenal scored - a reasonable amount of discipline that stopped Arsenal from doing their best work by cutting off many of their favourite passing channels.
Odegaard and - particularly - Rice were stifled. There was space wide out but it wasn't really exploited. Partey looked leggy in the face of pacy counter attacks. On the whole, not a brilliant performance. But there were two keys. Firstly, Arsenal got their goal; as early as the 20th minute. And secondly for all their huffing and puffing United rarely looked particularly dangerous - Hojlund had an early chance, and Garnacho very much flattered to deceive. Gary Neville, the most biased of pundits, correctly pointed out that he often doesn't know what he's trying to do, so how can his team-mates?
Yes, it was tense. But it was only tense because the lead was a single goal, and just one slip could have been fatal. It did feel that the only way United would score would be down to an individual Arsenal error, because they created very little. The Arsenal centre-halves almost always looked comfortable.
And so to the crucial goal. And you've of course all seen what happened. Intelligent play from all the Arsenal 'pressers' forced Onana, for once, to go longer than he wanted, as passing channels were blocked off. Casemiro never recovered from having to drop very deep from the previous phase of play, and never got out in time. White's clip over the top found Havertz, who had taken up a position that under almost any other circumstances would have been well offside. He then drove into the penalty area, where Casemiro made a second mistake by not covering the near post, Wan-Bissaka failed to see Trossard's clever dart inside, and Trossard did what Trossard does. This was intelligent off-the-cuff play from Arsenal, taking advantage of a scenario that could hardly have been envisaged. And it proved crucial to where the points ended up.
At the other end, my main concern was the amount of possession that United were afforded. But looking back I personally believe that we fans were probably more concerned about that than the Arsenal players were. They let United have the ball, knowing that they really didn't have the wherewithal to do anything constructive with it. Just the odd flash of danger, mostly centred around Garnacho, but Raya was rarely tested and Saliba made one awesome tackle at one point, as you'll recall.
I must admit to pacing around my lounge as injury time started. But in truth United had very little to offer, did they? Perhaps after their previous result the almost felt relieved to escape with a 0-1 defeat, and not get the thrashing that Arsenal could have given them?
The match, of course, ended in 'heavy weather' as a massive storm hit Manchester. Ten Hag's ludicrous linen suit was surely ruined,as biblical rain hit Old Trafford. All of which would have been of great interest to Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who could see at first hand how much disrepair the ground has fallen into. I'm aware that Emirates Stadium has had its own roof issues over the past few years, but this was something else. Water pouring off the roof and forming streams in the lower tier, and by all accounts a number of leaks sprung up in the away dressing room. What with the state of the playing squad, the ground and the training facilities, there's a massive job required to start to return United to former glories. If there's any proof as to the damage the Glazer family has done to that club, those images of veritable waterfalls summed it all up.
Still, that's hardly out problem, is it? Our main problem is mathematical. Manchester City can guarantee the title with two more victories. Away to Tottenham this evening (as I type, we're hours away from that), and then a simple home game against West Ham United.
And it's all a bit complicated; psychologically at least. City have failed to register a single goal at Spurs' new ground in 4 PL attempts (admittedly against Mourinho and Conte sides; this Tottenham side will be set up completely differently). But there must surely be something in that for Guardiola and his players to overcome? On the other hand, they are a much better side than Tottenham, so they can probably only beat themselves. Still, the longer the game goes on without a City goal, the tenser they'll become.
From Tottenham's point of view, Villa's result on Monday means that they need two wins in order to have any chance of qualifying for the Champions League, so they have to try to win the game. Villa have a very tricky final game, and the gap is 5 points. The fans may hate the thought of it, though. Spurs beating, or even getting a draw, would probably hand the title to Arsenal. I honestly don't believe that this will have much effect on the players, and the supporters should, frankly, grow up and worry about their team's progress above and beyond anything else.
As for West Ham; if it comes down to Sunday we can forget it. They are as 'on the beach' as any PL club can be. Everton, our last day opponents, will be trickier opposition - they have 5 successive clean sheets behind them. But if Arsenal need to beat them to win the title, I'm sure they will.
Meantime, let's hope for a miracle. So it's COYG, and (one time only) COYS!
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