This is an extract of The Score. Click the sign-up box below to receive the newsletter every Monday morning this season for Daniel Storey’s verdict on all 20 Premier League clubs
For roughly 90 minutes, the Emirates witnessed baking sunshine and an even, tense and occasionally feisty contest between two flawed teams.
One was not quite what it recently was, the other not quite where it wants to be. But Arsenal signed Declan Rice this summer and Manchester United signed Jonny Evans. So perhaps, though the margins were infinitesimal, it was always going to fall this way.
On the touchline, after the defining moment of the game, both managers offered stereotypical, hyperbolic glimpses of their own psyche. Mikel Arteta danced and jumped and span on the spot as Declan Rice’s shot hit a Manchester United leg, a Manchester United glove and then a Manchester United net, like a lottery winner who has found out the news in the street on his own.
Arsenal will rejoice because that is their right. For much of the first half this fixture simmered and flashed and threatened to prove little more than why Manchester City will probably win the league at a canter. But last season they broke Manchester United in stoppage time and this season they did it twice. Given Southampton, Aston Villa, and Bournemouth were all foiled after the 90th minute, all also in 2023, perhaps Erik ten Hag should have expected the extra pressure.
Ten Hag, for his part, stood motionless with his “This is the last thing we wanted to happen” thousand-yard stare, before stomping back to his bench. After the game, Manchester United’s manager railed against a series of perceived injustices that nobody bar the foolishly partisan could agree with. That reflects his anger at losing on a coin toss, but also on the lack of progress and control at the start of this season.
In flickers, you can see what Ten Hag wants this team to be. Andre Onana has enjoyed an odd few weeks of shot-stopping, twice sat on the floor by onrushing forwards, but there may be no modern goalkeeper more different to David de Gea. The passing under pressure is almost always spot on.
And yet – and this may draw deep frowns from those more tactically astute than yours truly – United were at their best when playing on the counter. That is where the goal came from, Christian Eriksen intercepting Kai Havertz’s pass and setting Marcus Rashford free. That is how the offside goal happened too, United undone by a centimetre or two.
So why is it, if United are so effective on the counter, have two rapid wide forwards, have one central midfielder who excels at winning the ball (Casemiro) and another who excels at springing passes forward (Eriksen), they spend so long playing the ball slowly around their penalty box and have so much possession? If this is simply a trick to lull teams into a false sense of security, it seems a remarkably proactive strategy for a starting XI that cost the best part of half a billion pounds.
Well, this has been a turn of events
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) September 3, 2023
Gabriel Jesus makes it THREE! pic.twitter.com/NL5tgeHxq7
If this is the plan, particularly away from home, those who travel England’s length and breadth must be looking forward to it clicking.
Manchester United have won three away league games in 2023. Two of them were against clubs enjoying their first season after promotion from the Championship. The other was against a club quickly heading back there.
By no measure is that good enough. You don’t get to blame everyone else for that.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/fRm0W5c
Post a Comment