Sweet, sweet JUSTICE.
This was United's pinned post on X:
'Nuff said.
They had the ref in their pocket and still couldn't beat us 😂.
Where to begin with that though 🥵?
United went to The Emirates on the back of their best performance this season by getting the most unlikeliest of 2-2 draws at high-flying, unstoppable, will absolutely destroy Man Utd, Liverpool.
The character shown in the toughest game of the season was unquestionable althouth both manager and captain questioned it. 'Why can we play like this here [Anfield] but not everywhere else?' Good question indeed.
So when traveling to Arsenal in the first match in defence of our FA Cup, people understandably felt that this was a chance to show some consistency from last Sunday and put in a performance that was in keeping with what United did at Anfield.
Ruben Amorim did make a couple of changes to the starting XI, one out of necessity (Garnacho for Amad as Amad did have an issue during the week according to the manager) and another that was a bit of a surprise, one that raised a few eyebrows, including my own: Onana out, Bayindir in 👀.
But beyond those alterations, United were nowhere near as good as they were against Liverpool. All the energy, passion and ability to play good football went out the window against Arsenal for, what?
There was no reason as to why we couldn't perform as we did last Sunday this. United also had the luxury of a week off giving them extra time to prepare, something that our opponents didn't have due to mid-week Carabao Cup duties.
Yet it was the home side that showed more than the away side as Amorim's players looked very flat and lethargic. It was a performance more reminiscent of the games before Liverpool as we were awful against Newcastle, Bournemouth and Wolves.
The game came to life in the second half after what was a very disappointing first from both sides.
Much like Liverpool last week, it was United who got the lead. Captain magnifico with a beautiful finessed finish after good work from Garnacho, who himself has had his critics of late but put in a good shift and got his 2nd assist in two games to silnce some of those critics.
A lead to hold onto for United with almost the entire second half to play.
But, and there ALWAYS seems to be a but with United, we go down to 10 men.
Dalot with a second yellow to put his side in all sorts of trouble.
I'm intentionally not talking about the referee because 1. how much time you got? and 2. I don't want to take away from the character of this team despite the referee Andrew MADley trying his absolute best to get Arsenal the win. Honestly, he couldn't have done any more.
In saying all of that though, the one decision he probably got correct was the sending off.
A stupid attempt at trying to win the ball back from Dalot after a heavy touch saw him get that fair second yellow. While it wasn't the heftiest of challenges, why give the ref a decision to make in the first place, especially this ref?
Gabriel Magalhaes then scores straightaway to eqaulize for Arsenal.
It was at this point where you're thinking that we're going to lose.
Backup goalkeeper Bayindir was having a pretty average (at best) game and he was at fault for that equalize after a poor attempt at punching the ball. He got more height than distance on it giving the Arsenal defender a shot at goal. A deflection off De Ligt helped get it past the goalkeeper.
With half an hour to go against 10 men whilst you have 12, it really was all Arsenal from here with only one team the favorites to win it.
Try as they might though, the Gunners couldn't get over the line.
Substitute Declan Rice came on and caused United problems as he had two big chances to win the game for his side.
But where Bayindir failed in his distribution and commanding of the box, he more than made up for in shot-stopping as he pulled off two magnificent saves to deny the Arsenal midfielder.
As the refereee was on Arsenal's side though, they weren't out of it yet as one of the softest of penalties you'll ever see was given against Maguire. Kai Haverts (who couldn't hit the ocean from a boat) went down as if taken out by a sniper.
The former United captain was absolutely livid at this decision (much like everyone else) and kick-started a bit of a brawl between the two sets of players.
You know when Maguire of all players is losing his shit, something is not right. He very rarely ever loses his cool.
Yet even still, with no VAR, the penalty stood and up stepped the Arsenal captain, a player Amorim spoke about in his pre-match presser.
Bayindir then channeled his inner Peter Schmeichel in that moment as he made one heck of a save much like the Great Dane in 99 to keep United's hopes of winning the FA Cup alive. We were 10 men in that game as well. It wasn't a bad penalty from Martin Odegaard but guessing the right way and a great leap meant that the Turkish international got his hands to the ball and thwarted the Arsenal skipper to keep the score at 1-1.
Justice.
Amorim then made changes to freshen things up with Zirkzee, Amad and Collyer coming on for Hojlund, Garnacho and Mainoo. All of them made impacts as well.
United managed to hold on until extra-time and take the game into another 30 minutes. A valiant effort from the men in blue.
The first period of extra-time went as expected with Arsenal on the front foot.
Another Arsenal substitute in Leandro Trossard with a brilliant opportunity to put them in the lead came about but much like his goalkeeper, De Ligt said 'no way Jose' as he made an unbelievable clearance to deny the forward.
With the goal gaping in front of Trossard from all but 6 yards out, the United defender managed to get a foot in ahead of the Arsenal player and clear the ball in what was an amazing piece of defending, the equivalent to scoring a goal.
First 15 minutes ends still at 1-1.
United then had a chance at the start of the second period as substitutes Amad and Zirkzee combined with the Dutchman drawing a great save by David Raya who had next to nothing to do all game.
That was the end of that in extra-time and at this point, United already won in my opinion. Away from home, 10 men and the referee playing for the opposition, to take it to penalties was a superb achievement.
But of course, we still wanted to win this and defend our crown for one more game.
Penalties
Bruno converts the first spot kick which is always tricky. Odegaard makes amends for his earlier miss and sends Bayindir the wrong way.
Amad makes it 2-1 to United with a confident finish in the right corner. But then big Bayindir (who was now standing at 10ft tall) comes up with the goods again as he saves Havertz's spot kick.
United with the upper hand.
Both sides then converted their next penalties with Joshua Zirkzee stepping up to take the decisive shot.
For a player who had that incident in the Newcastle game a few weeks ago, to step up to take this penalty was always going to be such a difficult thing. So much would've been going through his head.
But, he took it as easy as you like and sent Raya the wrong way and put United though to the 4th round in the most dramatic yet satisfying ways possible.
5-3 win on penalties.
Again, justice.
Ruben Amorim would've been delighted with the character shown from his players after such a difficult day. So much against us and yet they managed to pull it off anyway.
The performance with 11 men will not have made the manager happy but with being a man down and the injustices of the referee, it sort of brought United even closer as the team were more together. Much like last week, that togetherness was the only way they would've been able to get out of this game with a positive result.
A lot of players stood up for the manager and team which will show that Amorim has more players that he can now trust compared to what he may have had when he first came to the club 2 months ago.
What a day!
Ratings
Bayindir - 10 MOTM
De Ligt - 10
Maguire - 10
Martinez - 7
Dalot - 3
Mainoo - 6
Ugarte - 6.5
Mazraoui - 5.5
Garnacho - 7
Bruno - 7
Hojlund - 5
Amad - 6.5
Collyer - 6.5
Zirkzee - 10
Malacia - 6
Yoro - 10
Ruben Amorim - 10
I may have gotten a little carried away with some of these but who cares, we won 😁.
Final Thoughts
Football, bloody hell. It's never straightforward with United, is it 😅?
A lot of that game wasn't down to us. The referee was so bad his performance was compared to the Chelsea v Barcelona game of 2009, one of the most corrupt refereeing performances in football history.
This is how bad that was from Andrew Madley.
Nonetheless, for us to win anyway makes the victory all the sweeter.
Couldn't be happier with that character and fight back shown by the players. Perhaps all of that injustice was needed for us to get even closer as a team.
We saw a lot of fight, passion, energy, blocks, interceptions, putting your body on the line, and backing up of teammates, things we very rarely see with United these days.
But we got that today and we couldn't ask for anything more 👏.
That is two great performances and results at two of the hardest places to go to in England, back-to-back. We came away with a draw and win, both deserved. There was no luck involved in either.
We now need to take this momentum into Thursday as we cannot be having inconsistencies from here on.
But as for tonight, let's just enjoy this one Reds. We don't get this often 🍻.
Background Image: Altay Bayindir drops a heroic man of the match performance against Arsenal - Arsenal 1-1 Man Utd | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)