Oleksandr Zinchenko was having a very Oleksandr Zinchenko style game in a way that only Oleksandr Zinchenko could possibly have. The Ukrainian inverted left-back hardly put a pass wrong, strung a few basic one-twos with Declan Rice and then, just over an hour in, lost his concentration, got robbed and completely burned by a fresh Amad Diallo, handing Manchester United a way back into the game at 1-0 down with a dangerous free kick on the edge of the box – picking up a yellow card for his troubling troubles.
It was far from Zinchenko’s biggest faux pas, and far from his worst performance in an Arsenal shirt. It is perhaps unfortunate for him that four minutes later he was substituted. Two minutes after that, Arsenal doubled their advantage. Twenty minutes later, Arsenal had three points and Diallo had hardly had another look in.
Ruben Amorim’s side had made it a bitty, tense game. The Arsenal fans chastised every second Andre Onana took to take a goal kick and seethed at Matthijs de Ligt’s cunning ability to be too injured to get up straight away but fit enough to crawl five yards back onto the pitch to delay a restart. The Emirates was restless and jumpy – not helped by the topsy-turvy scoreline at St. James’ Park as Liverpool and Newcastle traded goal for goal.
When Fabian Schär equalised in the dying seconds for the Magpies, the chance to eat up two points on Liverpool’s lead became all the more important. Martin Ødegaard waved his arms, Saka pumped up the crowd and Declan Rice celebrated every chance he got to swing in yet another corner but Arsenal were not as impressive as their players’ attempts to enthuse the supporters.
Just as the final whistle was blown in the Northeast, Jurrien Timber took the initiative in Gabriel Magalhaes’ absence to seize the Ryan Shawcross role in Arteta and Nicolas Jover’s modern renaissance of 2008/09 Stoke City and put the Gunners ahead with a flick past a swathe of bodies from a Declan Rice corner. A scruffy goal fitting of a scruffy performance.
Despite ‘1-0 to the Arsenal’ ringing around the ground, United were far from out of the game, particularly just one goal down, and fed Diallo in every possible attack. The wiry Ivorian winger-cum-wing-back was a surprise exclusion from the starting eleven after dazzling against Everton and when he got past Zinchenko with ease, the typically-Arsenal nervy murmurs groaned around the stadium.
The nerves only jangled with more vigour when it appeared the equally error-prone Thomas Partey was being shifted to right-back against Marcus Rashford to accommodate Zinchenko’s withdrawal. Yet in a moment, and another corner, all these nerves were settled when the Gunners went 2-0 up courtesy of William Saliba’s backside.
But, even if Saliba’s overall excellence had not been gifted with a goal, United never looked like threatening once Timber was switched to look after Diallo.
You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone, sang Joni Mitchell in 1970. But what if you never truly had the thing that you lost? Arsenal had Timber for just 45 minutes before losing him for the entirety of last season – you don’t know what you’ve got ’til your £38 million versatile defender is back, Arteta may sing in a slightly more clunky rendition of Mitchell’s ‘Big Yellow Taxi’.
Since recovering from his anterior cruciate ligament injury last season, Timber has been moved around, thrust into right, centre or left back with no complaints and no faults. He has brought a calmness, strength and steel to the Arsenal backline that, with Zinchenko’s wayward alertness, was missing last season. Tuesday night was no different.
Arsenal missed Timber desperately last season. This season, he is repaying his absence by ensuring Arteta is not hurt by the injuries to Gabriel, Riccardo Calafiori, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Ben White. No matter if he is on the right, in the middle or on the left, Jurrien Timber will still have a very Jurrien Timber style game in a way that only Jurrien Timber could possibly have – one that is flawless.
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Jack McRae writes... 