A lot can change in 13 years. People come and go, relationships are formed and broken, film genres go in and out of popularity (unless your superhero films in which case, the cycle never stops...) and so on and so on. But every so often you find something that doesn't change. For Sheffield United on Monday we found our thing that hasn't changed since the last time we faced Arsenal. Young and French strikers that haven't been effective elsewhere have a knack of scoring against The Gunners. You may have heard already but OH MY GOODNESS SHEFFIELD UNITED BEAT ARSENAL THIS IS BRILLIANT. So, what else happened in this match exactly?
Changes were afoot for The Blades on Monday with David McGoldrick and Lys Mousset coming in for Callum Robinson and Oli McBurnie. Robinson was left out of the matchday squad, possibly due to a slight injury, but more McBurnie made the bench. Now, normally this wouldn't be a shocking thing to see but when said player was in court earlier on in the day in regards to answering charges of drink driving you can imagine it being a little strange to see him involved so quickly. Arsenal made one change to the team that beat Bournemouth before the international break with Joe Willock coming in for Daniel Ceballos. The light show commenced and you could hear the crowd go mild as someone switched the floodlights on and off in time to some music. It was pretty lacklustre against Sunderland, it hasn't improved. Oh well, the teams are out, lets play some football! The Blades started well and managed to press Arsenal into making some mistakes. The Gunners did manage to fashion the first real chance of the game though thanks to a lightning fast counter attack move that saw Nicolas Pepe somehow shank a simple tap in out for a United throw in. United heeded the warning and after a cracking corner from Norwood, O'Connell cushioned a header into the feet of the unmarked Mousset with Mousse managing to turn the ball home. Bedlam ensued and The Blades were leading! But soon after Arsenal broke away again and it looked like Saka had been brought down by Egan. Mike Dean blew his whistle and... He penalised Saka for simulation and the Blades let out huge sighs of relief. However, apart from a Xhaka shot that Henderson saved comfortably, United managed to see out Arsenal to half time. Bramall Lane applauded the team off. 45 minutes to go, history seemed to be repeating itself... Second half and Arsenal were probing for an equaliser early doors but United managed to hold them to a few very low quality chances. After absorbing pressure, The Blades broke away and almost got a second after some delicate work from McGoldrick, Norwood and Lundstram saw John Fleck hammer a shot towards Leno's goal that pummelled the side netting. That wasn't the only time a Fleck howitzer caused the Arsenal number one trouble with Leno nearly allowing McGoldrick an opportunity after spilling a long shot from the Scotsman. Arsenal threw numbers forward again and almost got an equaliser thanks to a curling effort from Pepe that kept Henderson honest. Apart from that effort though, Arsenal didn't really have a chance to have anything too clear cut and that is largely thanks to the heroic efforts of our rear-guard. Baldock, Basham, Egan, O'Connell and Stevens were absolutely brilliant last night and have been all season. They are continuously proving themselves to be Premier League standard players and it is heartening to see these guys stake their claim in a division that many said they weren't equipped for. As the clock ticked down and time ran out for Arsenal the fans began to get louder and louder and when the final whistle blew, a roar of pure ecstasy and euphoria broke out around the stadium. We did it. Our boys, who many said were just in this league to prop up the numbers, beat an Arsenal team that got to a European cup final last season. This was brilliant. These are the days when you are proudest to call yourself a Blade. Going into environments where we are unfancied, where we are expected to lose and come out of it proving everybody wrong. It's a hallmark of the Wilder era and long may that continue. It's a special time to be a Blade. Next up is West Ham, that should be fun shouldn't it?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorHi my name is John and i will be giving my thoughts on the blades matches and all blades related news in this section Archives
November 2022
Categories |