London has become a bit of a prolific hunting ground in recent time for United hasn't it? As of the time of writing this article, it has only been a mere 685 days since Sheffield United since lost a match in the nations capital. It's a very impressive statistic and the streak was added to on Saturday with United taking a point back to Sheffield from The Emirates. United came into the game on the back of a narrow 1-0 over West Ham on Friday whilst Arsenal had only managed a draw at London rivals Crystal Palace, not only that but influential forward Pierre Emerick Aubameyang was suspended after a nasty tackle that saw an initial yellow card upgraded to red thanks to VAR. United made one change to the team that started against The Hammers with Lys Mousset coming in to replace the injured David McGoldrick. United started pretty brightly and had Mousset managed to keep his headers on target, could have had a couple of goals early on. Arsenal soon showed their potential threat though and Gabriel Martinelli somehow managed to spurn a very good opportunity laid onto him by Arsenal's record signing Nicolas Pepe. It looked like United would get into the half time break unscathed by an improving Arsenal but Martinelli didn't waste his opportunity this time and finished off a well worked move that saw a deflected cross fall into his path which Martinelli duly buried. 1-0 with United not getting the chance to even think about a reply as the half time whistle blew shortly after.
Second half and it looked like Arsenal were now posing more and more questions of the United defence, cue VAR. So Nicolas Pepe was charging into the box, Jack O'Connell attempted to make a tackle and Pepe set his feet and flung himself into the leg of O'Connell. Mike Dean said no penalty and, surprisingly (that's three positive VAR decisions now... Yay?), so did VAR. Arsenal were furious but it wasn't a penalty. Pepe was looking for contact and when it didn't come, he tried to initiate it himself. This seemed to buoy United and after some tactical changes The Blades went hunting for an equaliser with two Oli McBurnie headers first getting cleared off of the line and then held by the keeper when he really should have done better. Then United finally got their goal. Besic dropped his shoulder and slid the ball to Robinson who played a lovely ball to the back post which was knocked down by Sharp to a waiting John Fleck who knocked the ball into the turf and watched as his volley hit the back of the net. It was a wonderful goal scored by a wonderful player who has made the transition from Championship to Premier League look easy. It's hard to believe that we got Fleck on a free from Coventry and it's even harder to believe that Fleck isn't yet a regular starter for Scotland. Hopefully his 5 goals and 2 assists so far this season will make the Scottish FA sit up and take notice. United nearly won the game late on with McBurnie failing to connect properly with a golden opportunity just outside the six yard box. Eventually the final whistle blew and it was another point on the board for United and a total 4 points from a possible 6 taken from Arsenal, not only that but United have managed to secure 16 away points, more than we have amassed in our previous Premier League campaigns. It's another positive result and sets us up nicely for the visit of the current champions. Speaking of them... It's been an indifferent season for the blue side of Manchester with a season that not many will forget being followed up by one that many may want to forget. Already 16 points off table topping Liverpool, City have been pretty inconsistent with City losing 5 games already this season and coming into this game against United on the back of a rather disappointing draw against their bogey team in Crystal Palace. Despite their current struggles, City are still a team full to the brim with world class footballers with players like Gabriel Jesus and Riyad Mahrez sometimes being consigned to the bench. It's hard to pick just one player to choose when talking about danger men but I think the biggest one is the man they call Kun. Sergio Aguero is a modern day Man City legend and deservedly so. Signing for a fee of around £35 million in 2011, Aguero has gone on to score just shy of 180 goals in 256 games for City. The fact that there was talk of this man being dropped seems almost inconceivable now. He's a genuine gamechanger and United will have to be on their very best form to keep this man quiet. How do I see this one going? To be honest, it could go one of two ways. One way could be we do what we did against Liverpool and get blown away by a team that want to prove a point or we could do what we usually do and don't pay attention to reputations and just go out there and try to bloody the nose of a team that no one outside of United fans think they could beat. I'm hoping for a draw but if we play to our full potential, then anything could happen. Until the review, UTB.
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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
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