Arsenal 2:0 Manchester United

DomesticTadpole · May 7, 2017

RedFish said:
Should have played full strength side. We're United ffs.

If we get through on Thursday, I hope he plays the kids for the rest of the season. We are a side on the brink of a final.

red forever · May 7, 2017

sunama said:
Are you saying that you cannot tell the difference between how we play now, vs how we played last season?
The improvements are night and day. If we had an average finisher in our team, we'd be 2nd place, minimum. A better finisher and we'd be leading the title race.

If's, But's, Maybe's. The fact is we are in the same position as we were last season, only last season we had an injury crisis and had to play a lot of youngsters. Also last year we went to Chelsea and drew 1-1 City and won Liverpool and won. This year away to the other top clubs we have not really attempted to score at Chelsea, City, Liverpool and Arsenal, is that what you mean by night and day improvements.

Bruno8 · May 7, 2017

Tuanzebe played really well

Womp · May 7, 2017

Vida5Nick said:
Then it should be on him if we don't win it this season. We could have gone for both but didnt. If we won today we could've put pressure with Pool drawing.

We aren't making top four, regardless of the result today. Jose knows that. We aren't beating Spurs who are probably the best side in the league at Shite Hart Lane.

Vanrouge · May 7, 2017

DevilRed said:
Yes we have been woeful in collecting points. But our form has generally been good this season if you've actually bothered to watch the matches. Especially when compared to prior years.

Its inexplicable that we have so many home draws. That was the difference to being in the top 4 and where we are now. We have dominated most of the games at OT this year but our finishing has let us down.

I truely believe its a false position in the league. We have also managed to win one trophy whilst being close to reaching the final of another. We are moving in the right direction and cleaning out the deadwood and bringing in Jose's own players will get us there next year.

Well said.

Prodigy24 · May 7, 2017

Well done Axel Tuanzebe, great debut! Rest of them not so much.

christinaa · May 7, 2017

Tuan could have won Motm

Mister_Stubbs · May 7, 2017

Jose, the players and a lot of fans have totally embarrassed themselves today.

Mentality of a fecking mid table club.

Janson · May 7, 2017

sunama said:
We may be losing, but man, this thread is throwing up some gems.

It really is.

SirAnderson · May 7, 2017

Well thank goodness that terrible unbeaten run is over now. So much for prioritizing and bringing rash on and playing herrera. Anyway, here's to all the eggs in EL.

GM K · May 7, 2017

Now let's see if the gamble pays off. If United wins the Europa, then yes, good gamble. If United doesn't win it, then the daggers will be out for Jose.

DavidDeSchmikes · May 7, 2017

Well it's Europa league or bust

Random Task · May 7, 2017

DeejayJamieCee said:
Haha, I've blown the whole thing wide open!

Could you imagine how many "I almost signed.." stories he could amass in that time though? The Sun newspaper are praying for it.. Clickbait headlines aplenty!

Like the positive spin!

afrocentricity · May 7, 2017

The BlackGaijin said:
Lingard gets all the stick here. What does mikhi do against top teams? I know he scored against Spurs but he is shite more often than lingard

I noticed this... Doesn't surprise me tho.

Mister_Stubbs said:
It really sad to see so many people just brush this under the rug.

I don't know if anyone's doing that... It's perspective. Some of us have decided to take the L and move on. The significance is being overplayed in here.

Mourinho has decided to prioritize Europe, it is what it is.

Zii · May 7, 2017

Just because your playing a weaker squad Jose doesn't mean you have to set up that squad to lose. LVG often had to play make shift sides but atleast he tried to win.

He seems to think that playing a weaker side means a free pass to lose. It doesn't.

Garethw · May 7, 2017

RedFish said:
Should have played full strength side. We're United ffs.

What and risked reaching the EL final?

Top 4 was conceded weeks back.

I don't have an issue with the team selected today. It's the negative fecking tactics and approach I'm annoyed about.

christinaa · May 7, 2017

Ozil looks as if he's leaving the gunners.

Jazz · May 7, 2017

Theonas said:
Well his best achievement this year is appealing to the fans, especially his hard core base. He knew exactly how to pander to them. He knew how frustrated last year we were and understood that some of our fans somehow applied the mental gymnastics required to associate having the ball with boring and bad football so he emphasized that point to appeal to them. He also understood that fans when out of ideas tend to blame defeats on lack of bottle/courage/passion or whatever as though all it takes to be successful is to want it. So again, he is repeatedly pointing to these factors on a regular basis. Looking at the free pass he is getting for finishing behind the likes of Liverpool and Spurs and even Chelsea, his tactics with the fans are definitely working.

All this. He's a great manipulator and doesn't care who he uses to get his point over - even his former mentor and friend LVG. It's apalling behaviour and fans are just lapping it up.

Djemba-Djemba · May 7, 2017

Zii said:
He will be here next year

No way will he.

He's already 4th or 5th choice.

After the Summer he's going to be 6th or 7th choice.

LouisDanGaal · May 7, 2017

If we go through on sunday then it was worth it.

Jazz · May 7, 2017

Not going to bother getting mad at the players. This loss is all on Jose today.

On to the EL then.

zlatan_ish · May 7, 2017

LouisDanGaal said:
On the positive side this result puts the arsenal fans in such a good mood it might be time to announce the new wenger contract

Dr. Funkenstein · May 7, 2017

Theonas said:
For me it is not even about that. You are the richest and biggest team in the country, maybe the world, it's just embarrassing to not try and be pro active. It's a simply question of status. Real won a league title and were largely successful under him and a lot of their fans hated that cowardly set-up, when we accept it, we are basically saying we are a small team.

True, but those go to together. To take control of a league you have to take control over matches. Otherwise you're just hoping that the defence holds and you can counter attack. If you specialize in attacking football you're specialized in turning games around too, and the luck of shot going in of the back of a defender is there for the attacking team.

Dargonk · May 7, 2017

Poor performance in the end. The moment we went behind it was basically all over. We didn't even look like we were ever going to get a goal back, let alone two.

Dobba · May 7, 2017

DavidDeSchmikes said:
Well it's Europa league or bust

It has been since we won the quarter-final second leg.

sunama · May 7, 2017

Womp said:
We aren't making top four, regardless of the result today. Jose knows that. We aren't beating Spurs who are probably the best side in the league at Shite Hart Lane.

Most of what you have written is correct, though Spurs are not the best team in the league.

Enigma_87 · May 7, 2017

Esquire said:
Yes but that's not really an excuse right because we were up 5 points on Arsenal before start of today's game. We had much more incentive to beat Arsenal to keep pace with Sh*tty. I'm not sure as Man Utd we can ever accept this excuse of we are not in the league. It's a game against Arsenal. This was a pile of crap served up and no matter how Mou rationalises it post game (and I'm a Mou fan), today was not acceptable by any means. I can accept being outclassed and outplayed, but not out fought and out hustled.

Well 2-3 years of mentality under LvG and Moyes give you that.

Even if we beat Arsenal today we'll be point off City and two off Liverpool with much harder remaining fixtures(away to Spurs). Risking our best players with this injury crisis is suicidal for our CL chances for next year as winning EL is our best shot.

I don't like being outfought either but what can you do? When in a game like this you have to prove a point(Rooney/Martial/Micky/Jones/Smalling) etc they have been wank.

It was a game of two halves - Arsenal weren't better till the fluke goal, then we conceded second and it was game over. One of those games I guess. We fell apart and didn't deserve anything after the second goal, while Arsenal pulled back a bit.

LLMU · May 7, 2017

Bad game overall. No urgency at all

GM K · May 7, 2017

De Gea was superb in the first half but I'm hanging the two goals on his neck. Especially the first.

christinaa · May 7, 2017

Does 6th placing get us into next year's Europe League?

sunama · May 7, 2017

Zii said:
Just because your playing a weaker squad Jose doesn't mean you have to set up that squad to lose. LVG often had to play make shift sides but atleast he tried to win.

He seems to think that playing a weaker side means a free pass to lose. It doesn't.

Eh?
This is the first time that Jose has lost in months. You are making it sound like we are serial losers (which we were, under LVG).

wr8_utd · May 7, 2017

Not at all arsed about this defeat tbh. Even if we'd won, we'd still need to beat Spurs and Southampton away and I don't see us doing that anyway. Would have been a bad defeat if we'd manage to win last weekend.

Son Of Sam · May 7, 2017

Vida5Nick said:
Then it should be on him if we don't win it this season. We could have gone for both but didnt. If we won today we could've put pressure with Pool drawing.

Of course!
If Jose fails to win the Europa cup, then I would be the first person to say Mourinho out.

Imagine if he lined up a strong team today and Rashford, Pogba and Bailly suffers a gruesome knee injury....you people would be saying it's poor man management.

A win against Arsenal today does not guarantee top 4. It only improves our chances. Why not go full blown on a game that massively increases our chances of playing CL next season?

Theonas · May 7, 2017

Janson said:
Saying he just asks his creative players to create something is something completely taken out of thin air. You have no idea how he coaches and instructs the players what to do, where to position themselves. Clearly whatever he is doing, it has been working for him. If you want to play a different style, more attacking then ask for another manager, simple.

It is not taken out of thin air, it is clearly an exaggeration but I assumed that was understood. There is a lot of truth however to the amount of tactical work Mourinho does on the offensive side of the game compared to the likes of Guardiola, Klopp, Pochettino or even Wenger. You can see it from the way his teams function and come to that reasonable conclusion when you hear players who played under him or professional analysis of tactical setups. If you think that this is not valid enough to make such a claim, then I am afraid we cannot talk about anything.

And of course I know that the way his teams have been playing worked for him, what is your point? I don't understand as I never claimed he doesn't produce teams who win. The problem that I have with him as many do is that his teams do not play like big teams, they are too reactive. Some of us think that winning alone is not enough if you are one of the biggest and richest clubs in the world, hence the criticism. Oh and by the way, his methods cannot be argued to be working anymore when you consider his record in big games over the past 3 years.

Vida5Nick · May 7, 2017

Womp said:
We aren't making top four, regardless of the result today. Jose knows that. We aren't beating Spurs who are probably the best side in the league at Shite Hart Lane.

Or was it not because of Jose's ultra negative tactics? We could have won here today if not for the dire football we played. And you could say the same about the Europa. There are still strong teams left and if we played today like we play in the final, assuming we even get there in the first place, we won't win the cup regardless of resting players.

wr8_utd · May 7, 2017

christinaa said:
Does 6th placing get us into next year's Europe League?

Unfortunately winning the League Cup already did that.

Womp · May 7, 2017

sunama said:
Most of what you have written is correct, though Spurs are not the best team in the league.

On their day they're the most dangerous team in the league imo. They blow hot and cold though.

Hugh Jass · May 7, 2017

Their goal was flukey. On another day it would have went miles over the bar. That changed the dynamics of the match.

Rooney is finished. Very poor.

freeurmind · May 7, 2017

GM K said:
De Gea was superb in the first half but I'm hanging the two goals on his neck. Especially the first.

Harsh. The deflection for the first was wicked, more Herrera's fault that DDG. For the second, Smalling is marking no one and misjudges the flight of the ball. From that distance hard to blame DDG.

RedFish · May 7, 2017

Garethw said:
What and risked reaching the EL final?

Top 4 was conceded weeks back.

I don't have an issue with the team selected today. It's the negative fecking tactics and approach I'm annoyed about.

We should back ourselves when it's in our own hands for top 4. We basically said "thanks, but no thanks" after the dippers drew their game.

Womp · May 7, 2017

Vida5Nick said:
Or was it not because of Jose's ultra negative tactics? We could have won here today if not for the dire football we played. And you could say the same about the Europa. There are still strong teams left and if we played today like we play in the final, assuming we even get there in the first place, we won't win the cup regardless of resting players.

No. Tbh I don't even see where all this ultra defensive bollocks is coming from. We weren't ultra defensive, we were getting pinned back by a team that was better on the day. We were dominating the ball in the early stages and creating chances.

Our performance against City was an ultra defensive performance, this was just a case of the hungrier team pushing the other team back.

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