Manchester United and Arsenal played a scoreless draw in their Premier League fixture Wednesday night at the Emirates stadium.
The once heated rivalry between United and Arsenal seems to have cooled down as Wednesday night’s match lacked the intensity, drama, and entertainment the fixture once provided.
Both teams came into the match out-of-form, Arsenal having lost to Liverpool, 5-1, on Saturday and Manchester United suffering a late equalizer Sunday night in their 2-2 draw against Fulham.
Robin Van Persie returned to the Emirates stadium for the second time after leaving Arsenal and could have put United out front, in the second minute, after dispossessing Mikel Arteta at the edge of his own box, but fired his shot straight into the hands of Polish goalkeeper Wojiech Szczensy.
Arsenal striker, Olivier Giroud, failed to convert a chance from a corner kick delivered-in by midfielder, Mesut Ozil, when he headed the ball wide past the far post.
Both sides went into the dressing room at halftime with the score tied at zero a piece and neither team playing with an intent to score.
United began the second-half introducing Rio Ferdinand as a substitute for Rafael da Silva who was taken off during halftime after landing awkwardly on his head.
Centre-back Laurent Koscielny almost netted a goal for the gunners with a wonderful headed effort in the 62 minute of the match, but was denied by a headed goal-line clearance from Manchester United winger Antonio Valencia.
United would introduce Adnan Januzaj for Juan Mata and Arsenal would make a change of their own bringing in Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain for Tomas Rosicky with 15 minutes left to play.
Wayne Rooney floated in a superb pass, with 10 minutes left, to the far post to set-up Van Persie who did an excellent job in guiding the ball towards the goal with a powerful header, but was denied by a wonderful save from Szczensy.
United goalkeeper, David De Gea, denied Arsenal midfielder Santi Cazorla twice in the closing stages of the match diving to his right to block a left-footed effort from the outside of the box in the 84 minute and making a diving save to his left, on a right-footed effort from the half-circle just outside of the box in the 90 minute.
Arsenal remain second place in the Premier League table trailing Chelsea by one point for the top spot and Manchester United are in seventh place 11 points behind fourth place and a UEFA Champions League spot.