We might take our eye off the league as we are firmly 3rd/4th with Newcastle with no chance to really be top 2 but also equally no chance to finish below it IMO. And we are in all cups. So for Ten Hags first season, tactical progression, comfortable top 4 and hopefully a cup win would be a perfect 1st season. Very competitive against the best 2 sides in the league (1 win and 1 loss both vs Arsenal and City).. it's very good overall.
PL L FA Premier League
Arsenal 3:2 Manchester United
Post-match discussion
Sun, 22 January 2023
Can’t win them all! Better team probably won doesnt help that we played on Friday but look arsenal are top on merit
They did the check on the last goal but did they check Zinchenko in the pass before? Seen pictures where he looks a yard offside.
Keane is harsh on United post match on Sky. We're not well short at all, just a key player or two.
Praises Arsenal for sticking with Arteta, then overly critical after last minute set backs in ETH's first half season.
For a a bit of perspective, pretty sure Arsenal were loitering around the relegation zone after like 10 games in for Arteta. Pep finished 4th, Klopp as well struggled.
Praises Arsenal for sticking with Arteta, then overly critical after last minute set backs in ETH's first half season.
For a a bit of perspective, pretty sure Arsenal were loitering around the relegation zone after like 10 games in for Arteta. Pep finished 4th, Klopp as well struggled.
Arsenal had 63 touches in our box, a record for any game this season.
We need more players in the summer. That is what we can take from these last two matches. But we need players that are technically up to it.
Two last minute goals the difference between getting seven points and four points.
Two last minute goals the difference between getting seven points and four points.
As a few have said, the Palace game fecks me off a lot more than this one.
We gave it a decent go, but without Casemiro (and to a lesser extent, Dalot), this lot simply aren't good enough. I think we get a creditable draw or quite possibly nick a win with those two. McTominay was a turnstile all game and Wan Bissaka's usual positioning weakness effectively cost us two goals.
We gave it a decent go, but without Casemiro (and to a lesser extent, Dalot), this lot simply aren't good enough. I think we get a creditable draw or quite possibly nick a win with those two. McTominay was a turnstile all game and Wan Bissaka's usual positioning weakness effectively cost us two goals.
Garnacho will be playing 90 against Forest, then Reading, then Forest again. Too much for the kid. Thats why ETH was reluctant.
Ten Hag was to slow with the subs today. The boys where knackered.
Eriksen and McT simply dont work together.
Bruno was a passenger for most of the game.
Eriksen and McT simply dont work together.
Bruno was a passenger for most of the game.
Really? Always thought it was roadmen and wife/gf beaters. Probably due to AFTV
AWB, McTominay and such simply are inadequate to deal with Arsenal's press.
1. McTominay is supposed to be the Casemiro anchor to receive the ball and form a triangle with the CB and FB in order to play it out. You see Partey doing it effortlessly. Effortlessly, and look, Partey isn't known for his exceptional passing ability, but McTominay just doesn't know how to find space tor relieve pressure. The only reason we even had the kind of possession we did have was because Shaw and Martinez are so calm under pressure.
2. AWB cannot endure pressure when he's on the ball. Not for a second. He doesn't know what to do when he goes forward, he doesn't know what to do when he's going forward without the ball and he doesn't know what to do when in the transition phase. He'll default to a pass back to De Gea or Varane and we'll look to find McTominay who of course will be mispositioned and thus Arsenal get the ball back and keep us pinned.
Our issues with possession and build up do not fecking end until those weak links are gone. No more fecking threads reconstructing and revising views on players who just don't have it just because they had a handful of games where they did what, quite frankly, ought to be the minimum expectation for a club like Manchester United.
1. McTominay is supposed to be the Casemiro anchor to receive the ball and form a triangle with the CB and FB in order to play it out. You see Partey doing it effortlessly. Effortlessly, and look, Partey isn't known for his exceptional passing ability, but McTominay just doesn't know how to find space tor relieve pressure. The only reason we even had the kind of possession we did have was because Shaw and Martinez are so calm under pressure.
2. AWB cannot endure pressure when he's on the ball. Not for a second. He doesn't know what to do when he goes forward, he doesn't know what to do when he's going forward without the ball and he doesn't know what to do when in the transition phase. He'll default to a pass back to De Gea or Varane and we'll look to find McTominay who of course will be mispositioned and thus Arsenal get the ball back and keep us pinned.
Our issues with possession and build up do not fecking end until those weak links are gone. No more fecking threads reconstructing and revising views on players who just don't have it just because they had a handful of games where they did what, quite frankly, ought to be the minimum expectation for a club like Manchester United.
Minutes away from 7/9 points this week - fine margins.
The fight was there when it’s been lacking previous seasons
we know what we need to do now, keep Arsenal and City honest and finish a strong 3rd.
I thought it showed our weaknesses though, McTominay needs to be upgraded. We need to be in for another midfielder in the summer
The fight was there when it’s been lacking previous seasons
we know what we need to do now, keep Arsenal and City honest and finish a strong 3rd.
I thought it showed our weaknesses though, McTominay needs to be upgraded. We need to be in for another midfielder in the summer
People need to realize that Arsenal aren't lucky, they are legitimately the best team in the league this season.
However, I don't think they are much better than us.
The problem we faced all game was, despite how good our defenders were on the ball ( our defenders are better both on and off the ball than theirs), when the ball was played into midfield, Odegaard, Xhaka and Partey were always able to control it. They could hold and turn, in a similar way to our defenders. On the other hand, neither Eriksen or Mctominay had the bravery or balance to do this, hence our defenders tried to play it up to Weighorst ( who had the challenge of knowing two defenders were on him). People can insult Antony, but he was our best outlet. He did a really good job of holding onto the ball and bringing others in. Bruno was decent, as was Rashford, as was Weighorst, as were the defenders including AWB. However, when facing a team that presses like Arsenal, if you don't have midfielders that can provide numbers on the ball for you, the team will struggle to keep possession. In addition, we were very tame at winning the ball in midfield. Weighorst, Antony and Bruno did a good job at trying to win it, but once they got bypassed, it was way to easy for Arsenal to get to our final third.
Games like this are useful. I don't think any other team in the league beats us at the moment. So getting a team that can fully expose potential weaknesses highlights areas of focus for the future.
We obviously need a striker. We need to decide what happens on the right flank ( we have the players, just need to know who takes it). We also need a midfielder with the skill to play for us, but also the positioning and energy to play well in the best of games. Eriksen should be more in the rotation. We can win cups with the current team and will get top 4. However, I really think with the team we have with these additions, we can compete for everything.
However, I don't think they are much better than us.
The problem we faced all game was, despite how good our defenders were on the ball ( our defenders are better both on and off the ball than theirs), when the ball was played into midfield, Odegaard, Xhaka and Partey were always able to control it. They could hold and turn, in a similar way to our defenders. On the other hand, neither Eriksen or Mctominay had the bravery or balance to do this, hence our defenders tried to play it up to Weighorst ( who had the challenge of knowing two defenders were on him). People can insult Antony, but he was our best outlet. He did a really good job of holding onto the ball and bringing others in. Bruno was decent, as was Rashford, as was Weighorst, as were the defenders including AWB. However, when facing a team that presses like Arsenal, if you don't have midfielders that can provide numbers on the ball for you, the team will struggle to keep possession. In addition, we were very tame at winning the ball in midfield. Weighorst, Antony and Bruno did a good job at trying to win it, but once they got bypassed, it was way to easy for Arsenal to get to our final third.
Games like this are useful. I don't think any other team in the league beats us at the moment. So getting a team that can fully expose potential weaknesses highlights areas of focus for the future.
We obviously need a striker. We need to decide what happens on the right flank ( we have the players, just need to know who takes it). We also need a midfielder with the skill to play for us, but also the positioning and energy to play well in the best of games. Eriksen should be more in the rotation. We can win cups with the current team and will get top 4. However, I really think with the team we have with these additions, we can compete for everything.
Arteta who's a despicable cnut has had a few seasons to mold his side. ETH and utd are in the first half of a season with a rebuild, and played a fixture list that I've haven't seen for well I don't know. Most of those 11 started on Wed night.
The last 25 mins you could see AWB was gone knackered 2 realy hard away games , Varane was running on empty, Mctom wasn't match ready Bruno and Rashford looked OK. All of this is factor on the result players cannot keep going to the well all the time. Casimero was a massive miss , we lose this game in the 90th min with a close offside goal. There's a massive cup game in midweek season doesn't need to fall away after 2 results that could have been a lot different.
The last 25 mins you could see AWB was gone knackered 2 realy hard away games , Varane was running on empty, Mctom wasn't match ready Bruno and Rashford looked OK. All of this is factor on the result players cannot keep going to the well all the time. Casimero was a massive miss , we lose this game in the 90th min with a close offside goal. There's a massive cup game in midweek season doesn't need to fall away after 2 results that could have been a lot different.
No fight there whatsoever, absolutely pathetic performance in the second half.
Need to look at replacing Bruno soon, he runs around like a headless chicken which leaves holes in behind, then when in possession he squander it far too often. In a tactically high stake game like today, you can't afford a player like that within your team, too many holes to pick at.
Shaw and AWB were useless and their men had them on toast all game.
Eriksen has waned and waned over the past month, starting him today alongside McTominay was suicidal, Fred should've been in there to match their energy.
Antony is no doubt a flop and an expensive one, he'll be benched by Sancho soon hopefully and he'll be a bit part player. One signing ten Hag has got wrong.
Only our CBs, Rashford and Weghorst come out of tonight with any credibility.
Need to look at replacing Bruno soon, he runs around like a headless chicken which leaves holes in behind, then when in possession he squander it far too often. In a tactically high stake game like today, you can't afford a player like that within your team, too many holes to pick at.
Shaw and AWB were useless and their men had them on toast all game.
Eriksen has waned and waned over the past month, starting him today alongside McTominay was suicidal, Fred should've been in there to match their energy.
Antony is no doubt a flop and an expensive one, he'll be benched by Sancho soon hopefully and he'll be a bit part player. One signing ten Hag has got wrong.
Only our CBs, Rashford and Weghorst come out of tonight with any credibility.
Only scored 2 in the box though and one from outside. We scored 2 with how many touches?
Not Suprised considering Shaw basically let Saka walk into our box all game.
We got dominated in midfield today, left our full backs exposed to 1vs1 all game.
Fullbacks exposed 1vs1 and clearly afraid to make mistakes. Both had a bad game and didn't contribute going on forward runs. Especially our left side wasn't threatening at all, with Shaw passing the ball back to the keeper instead of making a run into space. Trying to play out from the back keeping width, with no midfielders to eventually pick the ball up is not leading to anything positive.
Think we played into their hands, and should have done a lot better ourselves. Frustrating step backwards. I also think Arsenal were very fortunate to have 2 legitimate penalty claims against them just waved on, not even a review it's like nothing happens, nobody cares. Very weird. Small margins in these tough games, and with fair decisions we should have had 6 points from the last two games, despite our lack of depth and tired legs.
Think we played into their hands, and should have done a lot better ourselves. Frustrating step backwards. I also think Arsenal were very fortunate to have 2 legitimate penalty claims against them just waved on, not even a review it's like nothing happens, nobody cares. Very weird. Small margins in these tough games, and with fair decisions we should have had 6 points from the last two games, despite our lack of depth and tired legs.
Agree , it's been a tough week tougher than Arsenal have had, and like you said a good 3rd place is a massive plus , would take it at start of season.
We need to give a better partner to Casemiro as well as a better back up, a better right back and right winger. Eriksen is not a central midfielder.
Garnach needs to be starting.
Garnach needs to be starting.
Was Rashford, De Gea and the CBs vs Arsenal
I'm not feeling like melting down after that. Three games in just over a week can do funny things to a team; yes we could have managed the latter stages of this and Palace better to come away with three extra points but we know this kind of thing can happen when you're a small squad stretched to the limit.
Today I was happy we played our part in a big game, pushing the runaway league leaders to the very end after a tough period without our best midfielder. We could have managed the game better for sure, the last 20 minutes reminded me of the entire second half against Palace where we couldn't get a foothold, but we need to keep our heads high and focus on the positives. That burning in my stomach is a horrible feeling but I haven't felt that coming out of a big defeat in a very long time, I've grown to accept us falling at tough hurdles so to be so gutted is perversely quite a welcome turn of events
We'll be ok from this; let's dust ourselves off, nail top four and have a good go at three trophies.
Today I was happy we played our part in a big game, pushing the runaway league leaders to the very end after a tough period without our best midfielder. We could have managed the game better for sure, the last 20 minutes reminded me of the entire second half against Palace where we couldn't get a foothold, but we need to keep our heads high and focus on the positives. That burning in my stomach is a horrible feeling but I haven't felt that coming out of a big defeat in a very long time, I've grown to accept us falling at tough hurdles so to be so gutted is perversely quite a welcome turn of events
We'll be ok from this; let's dust ourselves off, nail top four and have a good go at three trophies.
That was always gonna happen. People were saying it, including me, in his transfer thread. He was not worth what we paid and he wasn't gonna live up to it. It was obvious judging by how he was at Ajax.
We’ve played 9 matches in the span of a month, and 6 league matches in the span of 4 weeks. It is what it is, but with injuries to an already thin squad, this match was not played on remotely level terms, and we saw that towards the end.
We probably win this 3-1 with Casemiro. He’d be plugging the gaps in the channels between the center backs and fullbacks far better than Scotty.
AWB was awful. No threat upfront, the usual negative side ways passes and was hopeless in defence.
But it's ok.....He can get past two City players every now and again.
We need an upgrade on him asap.
But it's ok.....He can get past two City players every now and again.
We need an upgrade on him asap.
First time you can legitimately question ten Hag’s decision making and in game management. Some costly decisions the last two games. To not bring on Garnacho and to continue with weghorst was baffling.
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Yeah I wouldn’t be too critical of ETH but I can’t disagree we are well short of where Arsenal and City are. One or two key players will make a big difference to us but it’s going to take more than that to beat these teams regularly. I’m still optimistic that we can get there next season though.
About 59 of those were Saka as Shaw was obeying the restraining order.
Sky just showed the lines and Zinchenko was clearly onside, Nketiah was closer but also onside.
I think ETH got his team selection all wrong today. I know it sucked missing Cassemiro but Fred needed to start. Fred took DeBruyne right out of the game last week. He should have done the same job on Odegard today. And as much as everyone would hate to see it, McFred should have started with either Bruno or Erikson, not both. Perhaps I would play Erikson in 10 and Bruno on the right, but I'd probably opt to keep Erikson out. I would have also preferred to see Rashford start in the #9 today. Arsenal hold a high line, so a target man isn't really what's needed. I'd rather have a player making runs behind the defense like Rashford does. Or at least bring Garanacho on at 60 minutes and move Rashford to the #9 at that point
I was disappointed with how we managed the last 15 - 20 minutes of the game. We basically stopped offering any threat going forward once Bruno was moved to the right. We don't have many options off the bench but I was really surprised we didn't bring Elanga or even Garnacho on earlier to make sure their fullbacks can't squeeze us up the pitch. Their third goal had been coming for a while - probably a fair result in the end.
Yeah agree with that. I was fuming after palace game for variety of reasons. We were second best today. Both full backs poor. Midfield poor.
Arsenal are ahead of us in their development which is no surprise given Arteta has been there 4 years or whatever it is and ETH 6 months. Perspective needed I guess.
Hope the xG goes a little way to providing a dose of reality to anyone who thinks we "played well" or deserved anything from that. They battered us in that second half.
Can the AWB is better than Dalot crowd take a seat today please, because he was fecking shite apart from a couple of good tackles. Terrible on the ball plus terrible positioning and awareness. We miss Dalot a lot.
The desperation to revel in a defeat that you bring out fecking xG.
No idea why I bother watching matches when I can skip them and let xG tell me how they actually went down. Would save a fortune on subscriptions to TV channels for a start.
Man of the Match
Runners-up
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21%
Marcus Rashford
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4%
Wout Weghorst
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2%
Raphael Varane
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2%
David de Gea
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2%
Aaron Wan-Bissaka
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1%
Bruno Fernandes
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1%
Luke Shaw
Player Ratings
Total Average Rating
Highest Rated Player
Lowest Rated Player
Compiled from 252 ratings.
Score Predictions
90,104,49
- Man Utd win
- Arsenal win
- Draw
Detailed Results
- 21% Arsenal 1:2 Man Utd
- 15% Arsenal 2:1 Man Utd
- 13% Arsenal 1:1 Man Utd
- 9% Arsenal 2:0 Man Utd
- 8% Arsenal 3:1 Man Utd
- 5% Arsenal 0:1 Man Utd
- 5% Arsenal 3:0 Man Utd
- 5% Arsenal 1:3 Man Utd
- 5% Arsenal 2:2 Man Utd
- 2% Arsenal 0:0 Man Utd
- 2% Arsenal 2:3 Man Utd
- 2% Arsenal 0:2 Man Utd
- 2% Arsenal 4:0 Man Utd
- 1% Arsenal 3:2 Man Utd
- 1% Arsenal 1:0 Man Utd
- 1% Arsenal 1:4 Man Utd
- 0% Arsenal 5:0 Man Utd
- 0% Arsenal 5:1 Man Utd
- 0% Arsenal 9:1 Man Utd
- 0% Arsenal 0:3 Man Utd
- 0% Arsenal 0:5 Man Utd
- 0% Arsenal 4:1 Man Utd
Match Stats
- Arsenal
- Man Utd
- Possession
- 58% 42%
- Shots
- 25 6
- Shots on Target
- 5 4
- Corners
- 12 4
- Fouls
- 8 9
Referee
Anthony Taylor
Man Utd Lineup
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replaced by Alejandro Garnacho
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-
-
-
-
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replaced by Fred
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