If Arsenal fans craved something different more than anything else then they certainly got that at Old Trafford on Wednesday night.
It has been a long time since Arsenal left Manchester feeling disappointed that they only collected a point. All too often they returned home with nothing other than a new humiliation to process.
But that wasn’t the case on Wednesday night.
Here are a few other things that stood out during and after the game…
4The FA are a joke
Imagine, if you will, that Marouane Fellaini had grabbed a chunk of Lucas Torreira’s hair and dragged him back. At worst he would have received a yellow but most would have called for a red.
You simply cannot go around a football pitch pulling a player by his hair, no matter what length it is.
Andre Marriner, in his infinite wisdom, gave a freekick but issued no card. Because he gave a freekick the FA can do nothing about it.
It’s the same story with the red Marcus Rojo should have got for his ‘challenge’ on Matteo Guendouzi in the box. Freekick given, no chance to deal with the matter properly retroactively.
In the same category, I would include the inability to appeal yellow cards.
While most times yellows are incidental beyond controlling a player’s behaviour during the game, the totting up process means players end up with bans – like Granit Xhaka who was unavailable for Wednesday night because he’d picked up five bookings.