Energetic Sheffield United leave it too late to threaten Arsenal

Sheffield United made the last few minutes of yesterday's game extremely uncomfortable for Arsenal, but ultimately they lost.

They are making a habit of narrow defeats at the moment – seven in a row in the Premier League, four this season. The hope must be that, like a striker in front of goal, once they get one, they go on a run.

That was not how it worked on the day, McGoldrick breaking his side's goalscoring duck for the league season – he got their other goal of 2020-21, in the League Cup – in the 83rd minute but his team unable to add to it.

It had come out of the blue from a side whose first shot on goal, a long-range effort from substitute Oli McBurnie straight at Bernd Leno, had only come five minutes earlier.

Until then, Arsenal had teased and toyed with Sheffield United, apparently snatching away their hopes of a first Premier League point of the season. It looked gone in 190 seconds as Bukayo Saka and Pepe scored twice in no time.

Until then, they had done little to hurt their opponents – even leading them on with some risky defending – and they did little after, but the Blades' heavy perspiration did not translate into inspiration either. They were in a gunfight with only a blade.

Arsenal's plan from the start was to draw the Blades onto them. Chris Wilder was happy to play that game at times, demanding more aggression from his right wing-back at a goal-kick passed around very deep. “Georgie! Tackle!” he yelled, slapping one hand against the other to emphasise his point.

The Gunners' risk taking – led, of course, by David Luiz – was a constant encouragement to the visitors in the first half.

The Brazilian centre-back got lucky in the first five minutes, taking a big tug at Oliver Burke's shirt when the striker caught him dallying in possession. Impeded, Burke was unable to beat Bernd Leno to the loose ball. The Blades players and their coaches demanded video assistant referee Andre Marriner take a look but if he did, he was quick, quiet and incorrect. It was a goalscoring opportunity denied, a red card offence.

Keeping the ball against 11 energetic men in green would have been much harder a man down.

By contrast, Ramsdale almost always looked to go long with the ball at his feet and when he changed tack, it showed why. An attempt to pass the ball along the ground after 37 minutes picked out Dani Ceballos, who teed up a fierce Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang the goalkeeper had to tip over. It was his only difficult shot of the first half.

A glancing header from Eddie Nketiah – the former Leeds United loanee preferred to Andre Lacazette, Aubameyang's shot on the turn and shinned volley were all routine for him.

In fairness, though, Leno was a virtual spectator. When Stevens played a wonderful ball down the line to Burke, Gabriel came across to block his delivery and when a great turn in a similar position minutes later allowed McGoldrick space, his centre was woefully overhit. Rhian Brewster's signing from Liverpool had not been completed in time for him to play a part.

Sheffield United's aggressive approach might have cost them too. Sander Berge looked surprised to be booked after winning the ball cleanly from Aubameyang but he dived in with both feet off the ground and caught the forward's ankle in his follow-through. It is an approach the officials do not look kindly on nowadays.

The second half started in similarly uneventful fashion, Aubameyang failing to stretch to Ceballos's cross the only real goalmouth drama, but there was a sense that the Gunners were pushing harder at the door. It burst open just after the hour, Saka peeling off Baldock to head in a chipped cross then Pepe playing a one-two with Hector Bellerin and curling in.

Arsenal seemed content just to keep the ball away from the Blades. Billy Sharp was waiting an age for the ball to get out of play so he could get on, but the Blades' urgency was able to force them back into the game.

Moved to the tip of a midfield diamond to give his team more attacking options, McGoldrick gave a pass from Baldock an exquisite finish just inside Leno's far post with seven minutes remaining, and ended the game as a third centre-forward but it was too little, too late, for a side who go into the first international break of the season still pointless but far from hopeless.

Arsenal: Leno; Gabriel, David Luiz, Tierney; Bellerin, Elneny, Ceballos (Xhaka 81), Saka (Maitland-Niles 87);Willian, Nketiah (Pepe 58), Aubameyang.

Unused substitutes: Lacazette, Runarsson, Holding, Willock.

Sheffield United: Ramsdale; Basham (Sharp76), Egan, Robinson; Baldock, Lundstram, Berge, Osborn (Fleck 62), Stevens; McGoldrick, Burke (McBurnie 56).

Unused substitutes: Lowe, Norwood, Foderingham, Ampadu.

Referee: L Mason (Lancashire).

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Thank you,

James Mitchinson