Giroud snatches point for Arsenal in 1-1 draw at Man United

Jose Mourinho summed up the stalemate perfectly in a post-match interview, telling Sky Sports: “Of course it is two points dropped”.

Wenger sent on the France global and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain after the Gunners had gone behind to Juan Mata’s opener.

Pogba and Herrera drifted to that side of the pitch, with Aaron Ramsey failing to track back, and the Spaniard burst past Monreal before his cutback allowed Mata to run on to the ball and guide it neatly beyond the helpless Cech. Wenger, who did nearly nothing right all game, responded in the correct way, by inserting striker Olivier Giroud and letting Jose Mourinho do the rest of the work for him. After a bright start they faded and spent long periods on the back foot and Giroud’s leveller, set up by fellow benchwarmer Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, came out of the blue.

Bournemouth won away for the first time this season and ended Stoke’s recent revival.

Gunners boss Wenger said: “The result is positive but it was a scrappy game.when you are 1-0 down and come back to 1-1 you are happy”. “They have a week to prepare for each game and are in a much better position to improve than we are”.

“To come back so quick from a broken bone speaks volumes for him and his attitude to get back and play”. ‘But we are getting too many draws at the moment and with three points for a win you can not afford that too many times so it’s important for us to get back to winning habits’. If it was a mistake I don’t want to say yes or no.

“But it is a lot sort of easier to deal with a result like that when you know you’ve played well, you’ve done everything you can and you deserve to win”.

Martial was invisible in the first half.

City, which lost injury-prone defender Vincent Kompany with a first-half head injury, conceded a 66th-minute equalizer when Palace striker Connor Wickham beat a weak attempted save by Claudio Bravo.

Wenger’s substitutions worked out perfectly with both players involved in the goal and while the result will have felt nearly like a win, with the equaliser coming so late, the performance certainly left room for improvement.

“We have shown steel”. We had not our usual style to go forward.

Yaya Toure made an immediate impact on his return from his Manchester City exile.

Rooney replaced Martial just after the hour, with Rashford shifting to the left, but their right wing was once again the source of success as they took the lead. Claudio Ranieri’s side has already lost six times, double the number of defeats it had in the whole of last season.

Tottenham has the chance to close the gap on Arsenal in fourth when it faces West Ham in Saturday’s late kick off, while Chelsea will return to the top of the league with victory against Middlesbrough Sunday.