Surprisingly, or perhaps not at all, the Red Devils lost 2-0 to a revitalised, feisty Arsenal.
The visitors to the Emirates, again minus a certain Paul Pogba, started off with a firm footing. Alas, this was not to be the tone that would dictate the rest of the match when in the eighth minute, Sead Kolasinac’s cross was deflected to a waiting Nicolas Pepe who subsequently pounced on it and slammed in the Gunners’ first goal, and Pepe’s fifth of the season.
From then on, it was the Gunners who took command all the way to extend their lead to 2-0 when Pepe’s corner kick was bludgeoned in from point blank range by a vigilant Sokratis.
Despite picking up the pace and dominating play for the better part of the second half, Solskjaer’s side never managed to inflict the damage they were desperately looking for to Arsenal’s defense. It was truly lamentable to see the once-invincible Devils running helter skelter trying to net the ball but to no avail the entire match. And this from the team that conceded only one loss in their previous nine games!
“We were too slow in the first half”, voiced Solskjaer with the temerity and demeanour of a Doomsday prophet after the final outcome. He was absolutely correct, of course, although one needn’t be a flaming genius to deduce that. The damage had all been done in the first half when United were only a pathetic shadow of their usual well-composed selves whilst the Gunners’ midfield was brimming with newfound, unabated energy and fervour for the duration of the entire match. Apart from Bernd Leno being put to the test in the first minute by Marcus Rashford, the Arsenal goalkeeper was barely tested after that. The few times he was, he rose to the occasion with splendid saves, hence salvaging some redemption for his infamous, costly blunder in the match against Chelsea.
Jesse Lingard’s return to the line-up made had no impact at all and hardly made a difference. Truth be told, United did have an adrenaline surge right after Lingard’s substitution, and replacement Andreas Pereira’s side-swipe almost made it but, alas, found the side netting instead. Although Fred and Greenwood had chances, creativity in midfield, or more pertinently, the lack thereof, made it an impossible mission for the Devils. What is also worthy of mention was the noticeable fact that Ozil, Torreira and Xhaka seemed to always be one step ahead of Nemanja Matic, successfully eluding him. The noticeable absence of the injured Scott McTominay, not to mention the elusive, ever-missing, Pogba, also spoke volumes. It was conceded by Solskjaer later that the French midfielder had sustained a knee injury that would leave him in the cold for another few weeks. So what’s new?
Whilst Arsenal finally succeded in ending a run of seven win-less home games in all competitions and scrambled to 10th place, United’s loss sees them tottering in fifth place at five points behind Chelsea.
C’mon United, BUCK UP, will ya??