[12OunceEpilogue]

We played ok but it's a poor day overall. We carried too many passengers today; Rashford out of form, Matic back from injury and looking about 70, Pogba not at his best, DDG with a poor mistake and Lindelof looking shaky again. Martial was dropped into a 2-0 and couldn't get up to speed quickly enough as we got more and more desperate.

I thought Fred did well, Dalot was ok though needs to improve his end product and Lukaku back to his best everywhere apart from in the box. Shaw was great again and my MOTM.

A frustrating kick in the teeth, but let's move on. Ole should rest the players that need to be rested in the FA Cup, tell all the national managers Fergie-style to suck it over players that aren't 100% and get ready for a hectic run-in.

 

[Dr. Dwayne]

Even Robbie Fowler doesn't think it was a penalty!

 

[YzWayne]

The ref handles their constant diving very well all game. Then falls for the worst one of them all for the penalty. Absolute bastard.

I wish people would stop calling it a ‘soft’ penalty. It just wasn’t a penalty.

Yea , it wasn’t. If we are not getting top 4, I would rather Chelsea than these divers.

 

[FcUnitedRed]

Half-arsed effort from far too many players - yet the goals came from a fluke feck up by Dave and a penalty that was soft as shit.

Just about sums my thoughts up. Looked way too lethargic all over the field. A real let down considering where we could potentially end up.

 

[LuisNaniencia]

Sloooooooow start cost us.

 

[MUfreak]

We need a fecking system so that when things are going south we revert back to the system ffs.

Luck brought us thus far

 

[Cpt Negative]

The sad thing about all that is we all know it was a dive, but the FA won’t do anything about it.

You can’t really blame the refs too much when the players are systematically trained to cheat

 

[roonster09]

Weird game. We were better than in the previous game against them but lost while winning that one.

It’s okay though, still a good chance at top 4.

Yeah, after their goal, they didn't create anything. It was all United and then that feck up from Moss.

Arsenal away is a hard fixture, shame we could have got at least a point.

 

[bondsname]

Loved the performance and attitude. Hate the result.

Even if Jon Moss was a decent referee, we would've still lost. Just one of them days.

I hope the players get their act together for the next game and not bend over like a bunch of babies. Solskjaer is doing a great job so far.

And what the feck was wrong with Rashford? He did nothing right all game.

 

[KennyBurner]

Fact of the matter is we were terrible even though we created multiple chances. Arsenal sat back like we do once they were ahead and this created the illusion that the game was open. Not too impressed with Ole's tactics today as it was a cry for help and shows he didn't know what to do when it really mattered. We lost even more control of the game after that weird substitution removing matic and dalot.

I feel sick.

 

[Paxi]

Without sounding like a deluded lunatic - I thought that everything I've seen was great today. Good away performance. It wasn't our day in the end.

I like how Ole changed tactics mid-game -- we dominated after that. Sometimes you just got to take an L.

On to the next one.

 

[slored1]

Really unfortunate loss. Arsenal are jammy feckers, had no chances but scored twice.

 

[bosnian_red]

Created plenty of clear cut chances, didnt take them. They had a howler from De Gea and the pen was incredibly soft but these things happen. Was always going to be a tough game, performance was encouraging enough but the run had to end eventually.

Important to bounce back now and go on another run. 3 points from Spurs in 3rd, 2 from Arsenal/Chelsea if they win their game in hand. All of them have had troubles away from home especially and arent going to win all of their remaining games.

 

[Ban]

Disgusting refereeing, incredibly poor performance from everyone except Shaw and possibly Smalling, dull, pragmatic crap setup from Ole.

What was wrong with the setup? I mean we had a fair share of chances and looked dangerous. Although we disappeared after the 2nd goal.

 

[TheReligion]

Quite good in a weird way to bring the lads back down from Paris and get them refocused. The game itself was very even and United should have bagged a couple which would of changed the course of the game.

Bad conditions, goalkeeping error and a poor penalty call. Not much you can do really. I'm quite satisfied that United are a better team than Arsenal and on the up. Just one of those days unfortunately!

 

[Chippa62]

One of them games where things do not go for you along with a very soft penalty. It's ok, just start a new winning run and beat the Wembley squatters.

 

[RedOldBoy]

Arsenal have a much easier run of games, this was a bad game to lose. Can't believe we couldn't convert any of our chances and conceded a fluke of a goal

 

[TheReligion]

Had plenty of luck during our recent run of success, bad luck today. De Gea will blame the wind and I can only presume Lacazette will also blame the wind for being blown to the ground. Because it wasnt Fred

 

[Drawfull]

Rashford was dreadful. 3.3 is probably generous.

Disagree completely.

 

[Barthez]

One of those days. I Must say some absolute embarrassing and discraseful fan boy drivel spouted in the match thread......

 

[Ban]

Total average 4.9
Come on people ffs.

 

[killerboi2]

All this damn waiting with Ole's contract having the opposite effect that the foolish board and some of the more foolish, superstitious fans fans are hoping. He should have been given the job right after the PSG game. Spirits aren't gonna be kept high and we're not gonna win every damn match just because you haven't offered him the job as yet.

 

[jderbyshire]

Ah well.

We don't have a good record there do we.

Arsenal set the tone from the beginning - took us ages to get going. Some players like Pogba started off very casual.

But overall we played alright - in the first half whenever we attacked we looked dangerous. I was particularly impressed with Shaw, who I know I give a hard time on here, but you can't deny he's improved under Ole.

Fred needs time to adapt, but being that sloppy on the ball is unacceptable in any league.

Rashford again showed his youth with his bad decision-making. He's rapid but because his brain isn't as fast as his legs, he slows down our attacks oddly.

This was the more important game than wedneday - but despite having more players available, we weren't as focused or determined.

Like I said, we looked dangerous in the first half - we just needed to step it up a gear in the second half but it just didn't happen. When we went 2-0 down, we had 20 minutes to step up and throw everything at it, but we didn't do that - we actually started playing slower, more lethargic, dwelling on the ball (yes that's partly down to Arsenal sitting back and letting us have the ball, but still we failed to up the tempo)

Overall we were unlucky you have to say, losing to a swerving long shot and a very harsh penalty (did Fred even touch him??) but Arsenal's performance and attitude complemented the fact that the match went their way.

 

[dogrob]

S**t Happens, last game in the cup we were the better team but today it was Arsenals turn and they took it, there is still plenty to play for and the run in is so tight anything can and probably happen, people need to take a deep breath and relax a little.

 

[stu_1992]

Terrible terrible performance. Quite clearly the worst of Ole's reign. Just as it looked we might get back in the game we give away a stupid penalty, added to the clear mistake for the first goal and it's a frustrating day. Out of the top 4, and of Chelsea win their game in hand we could be down to 6th. We couldn't string passes together, and it looked like the ball just bounced off our players and back to Arsenal's.

 

[Jake]

Shite performance that let’s be honest.

Lukaku in good positions, so can’t fault him too much, but no finishes.

Lethargic, rashy crap game. Felt like even with another 90mins we wouldn’t score.

But shit really but just confirmed we have joined the top 4 race and we aren’t leading it. Let’s have a rest and regroup.

 

[Canucantona20]

Can’t win them all. Don’t think we played bad just was unlucky. Lukaku should have buried that chance before they scored their fluke goal. Matic was rusty and Pogba wasn’t his usual self today; think Herrera was sorely missed today but Fred was decent in my opinion.

Rashford was really poor and needs a rest. Ole needs to rally the team and look at the positives from this game.

 

[Ban]

Abysmal performance in the first half. Arsenal absolutely dominated United. Fair play to Unai Emery, he got his tactics right.

United got into the game more second half, without really threatening the Arsenal goal. But I felt the penalty really killed any prospect of United getting a result.

Arsenal deserved the three points today.

Dominated in what?

 

[Sambob]

Down to fifth and probably sixth if Chelsea convert their game in hand when we should be joint 3rd. Can't think of any way other to describe that other than to say we bottled it. Should have been up for this but we were wasteful. For everything we did good we did something bad.

The PSG result as amazing as it was is worthless if we keep throwing away league games, we arent going to win the champions league if we are realistic about things but we should have beaten that arsenal side.

 

[Houdini]

DDG and Fred cost us the game. Maybe a key moment of this season... Rashford and Lukaku lost their mojo but those 2 mistake were crucial as Arsenal was impotent.

 

[RedIke]

That sucked.

But in all honesty, hard to be over the top angry. Dave didn't have a save to make, combined with his feck up. It was always going to be about rescuing a point.

Soft pen, annoying as hell. All in all though, the run had to end at some point, and tons of good fortune United have had really ran dry today.

Inches away from multiple goals on a off day sums it up for me.

 

[Drainy]

Players were so lax in the first 30 mins and losing the first goal in these types of games is always difficult to come back from.

Rashford clearly isn't right, Lukaku has a mental block against top 6 teams and Pogba really needs help in the creativity dept. When he is taken out of the game we don't do enough, so he gets targeted in the middle.

 

[It's B Rubble]

Reading a lot of “Fred was horrendous “ posts.. QUICK to forget he had the most bite in midfield, had to be amongst the leaders in tackles an interceptions, made a game saving tackle more than once and showed some wild agility wriggling out of tight spaces. He obviously needs a ton of improvement on decision making but his defensive position for the most part was on point and his passing, inventive to say the least.

 

[cyberman]

How we lost 2-0 I do not know. Those goals were gifted worse than last Wednesday.

 

[Gandalf]

I hate the result but actually liked a lot of what I saw. It ended up pretty even but although the cnuts won it was a great game to watch with a ton of attacking intent on both sides and that is what we were crying out for a few months ago. Some results are going to go against you even when you don't deserve it but the style of play matters and I love Greenwood coming on for Matic and playing with 4 attackers at the end even if it didn't produce a result.

I see some giving Ole stick for not bringing Martial on sooner but he had him warming up from the start of the second half and I am sure he would have made the switch if we started slow but we dominated for 25 minutes and looked like getting level until that awful penalty call.

 

[Dve]

United played very well and was overall the better team. Special mention to Young and Smalling and another good match from Fred and Lukaku as well. Less impressed by Lindloef and Rashford.

 

[Jazz]

On another positive note, young Greenwood did well on his PL debut. Happy for the lad.

 

[Decade long lurker]

Had to end sometime. Disgraceful penalty decision from an overweight referee. Killed the game. Move on.

 

[deadrevelz]

Weird game. We played poorly without energy or cohesion, but should have scored 4 or 5. Terrible error by De Gea and an incorrect penalty have killed our morale.

Shaw, Smalling, Dalot very good.

Mason gets his first PL appearance.

 

[Zexstream]

Bizzare week, joy midweek and a loss today.

Its strange because I half expected us to lose today, im not even bothered because so much happiness beating PSG.

Wasnt our day to day, it had to come so glad its over and Ole can get on with the job.