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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s incredible unbeaten run with Manchester United in the Premier League came to a sour end as Unai Emery’s Arsenal trumped them at home with a convincing 2-0 margin.
A goal in the first half by Granit Xhaka was seconded by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s safe spot-kick in the 69th minute. In return, United failed to trouble the scorers as they missed some very promising opportunities to cut down Arsenal’s lead in both halves of the game.
Paul Pogba returned in the starting XI for United and the rest of the lineup remained majorly similar. Meanwhile, both Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil played for Arsenal.
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The German filled in the gaping hole behind the two strikers, whilst Ramsey played as the box-to-box midfielder in the 3-4-1-2 formation.
Here, we discuss the numerous sub-plots from the game and analyze certain crucial moments throughout the course of the ninety minutes.
#5 Arsenal take full advantage of Manchester United’s initial rustiness
Right from when the first whistle blew, Arsenal’s intensity was one to be admired by the masses. They ran behind every loose ball, moved the ball to the flanks were quickly and used their pace to excellent effect from the wider areas.
Ozil moved around the forward line and regularly searched for spaces whilst looking out for passes out of nowhere. Sead Kolasinac and Ramsey ran tirelessly on either side of the pitch to maintain their initial burst of insane intensity.
They did not allow United establish their stronghold over the proceedings by recovering possession, playing some tricky passes between the lines and constantly troubling United’s backline. On one such occasion, Xhaka received a pass that he shifted to his preferred left foot and took a powerful shot on the empty side of the net.
United made two mistakes here. Firstly, Fred failed to close down Xhaka’s shot and allowed him too much space to attempt a shot.
Secondly, David de Gea misjudged his presumption of the direction of the shot, thus shifting to his left, thereby barely making it to the actual position of the shot. Arsenal, therefore gained a deserved early lead against their opposition. Ole has brought in the tendency to start games on a positive note, something that was missing from their style of play prior to the Norwegian’s appointment. However, today was an off day from that perspective.
Also see : Manchester Transfer News, Arsenal Transfer News, EPL Transfer News
#4 Sudden lack of composure in United’s final third
One of the trademarks of United’s recent resurgence has been their innate calmness in the opposition’s box.
Their players have been able to sort out any kind of insecurities when in front of the goal and hence have notched goals fearlessly at an excellent rate since late December.
However, on Sunday, they seemed too hurried at times and hence tended to mess up whatever chances they came up in the first half.
Ole’s team managed to break down Arsenal on the counter-attack on certain occasions through their sumptuous gameplay but they seemed to be caught in two minds whilst taking an attempt at goal.
Within the first twenty minutes, they hit the crossbar and the post once each and hence were unlucky on that aspect for having missed their chances by mere inches.
In retrospect, Arsenal grabbed their opportunities quite well and hence ended up with two goals to nil, which fairly should not have been the case and somewhat arguably doesn’t give an accurate assessment of how the events progressed throughout the first forty-five minutes.
Particularly, there was one such move just at the brink of halftime when Pogba along with Luke Shaw broke down an Arsenal attack before swiftly transitioning it into an offensive move through an excellent cross-field pass by the Frenchman to Romelu Lukaku.
However, here too, Marcus Rashford seemed to have lost his balance whilst attempting to shoot Diogo Dalot’s low cross. Accordingly, United missed one opportunity too many to cut the deficit.
#3 Tactical tweak ensures Solskjaer’s team gains momentum but not a goal
Maybe, the reason for Arsenal’s partial dominance in the game was that they were managing to outdo United in the midfield in terms of tenacity at times. So, Solskjaer, as he has done multiple times in his short tenure so far, introduced a quick tactical tweak by shifting Fred to the centre of the park.
This had a sudden positive impact as United were now in even better dominant position as they moved the ball slickly, breaking the opposition’s midfield lines and looked threatening to notch a goal sooner or later.
Fred’s change of position added more steel, creativity and doggedness through the centre for Ole’s side. He won the ball back rapidly and played quick, short passes to keep the opposition on the move.
Then, on one fine occasion, he played a thoroughly an opulent through ball to Lukaku, who took an extra touch on the ball and missed a sitter yet again in the game. Lukaku and Rashford’s inability to finish off attacks hurt United big time as their decision-making took a sudden decline after a period of improvement.
Maybe this was just a one-off odd game for them, but unfortunately, from a team’s perspective, their off day came during a very crucial game. On the flipside though, the Belgian’s holdup play was brilliant, but that could not result into anything substantial for the Red Devils.
#2 Penalty decision goes against United; Arsenal ward off any late panic
Despite being a goal down for almost an hour, many would have still backed United to notch two goals in the final thirty minutes given their tendency to regularly come back triumphant from losing positions. However, a late onslaught from Arsenal ensured that they closed out the game safely.
An attacking move progressed without much turbulence from United’s defenders and within no time Lacazette was in a definite position to square a pass to a teammate inside the box. Fred went for a slight challenge and the French international fell down inside the box, earning a decisive penalty for his team.
On replays, it was clear that there was minimal contact between the two players but the striker had done enough to trick the referee into awarding a decision into his favour. Then, Aubameyang stepped up and sent de Gea the wrong way to double up Arsenal’s lead in the 69th minute of the game.
Beyond this, United made several attempts to create inroads and opportunities, by changing formations and attempting solo runs both diagonally and centrally as well.
However, the Gunners were professional enough to not panic after waves of incessant offensive pressure from their opposition and looked potent enough to score a third goal on certain occasions as well.
United’s players tried several ways to break Arsenal’s resistance but the home team seemed adamant to take all three points from an intensely fought fixture.
#1 The race for the top four slots will go down the wire
This match was crucial from United’s perspective as a victory would have allowed them to go four points clear of Arsenal and on level with Tottenham Hotspur.
Moreover, Arsenal are not supposed to play any of the top six teams in their next eight fixtures and that hands them a probable advantage in the race for the third and fourth Champions League slots.
United, on the other hand, are yet to host Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City in April, which would be a stern test late onto the season too.
Spurs lost their match against Southampton this weekend and hence this match had opened the opportunities for both Ole and Emery’s sides to stake a claim at the third spot in the table too. That would have been some turnaround for the Red Devils, but unfortunately for them, that was not supposed to be.
Meanwhile, Emery sparked an impressive comeback for Arsenal after that shambolic 3-1 defeat to Renness in the Europa League a few days ago.
To be honest, there were no signs of complacency from United in this fixture, as many would like to suggest. The players tried their best but were found wanting when there was a bit of requirement of composure and level-headedness in the final third.
Sometimes, a run of difficult fixtures takes a toll and results into stuff like this for certain players. For example, Rashford and Lukaku have been fulcrums of United’s recent impressive form but they were not up to the mark today.
Arsenal fittingly took full advantage of that and now has a formidable chance of ousting Solksjaer’s team for a Champions League spot. However, if one thing that has been constant throughout Ole’s short tenure so far, it is the fact that his team would never stop believing that they could make it until the final whistle blows.
Game on, ladies and gentlemen!
