Arsene Wenger says that it’s a mystery how Arsenal didn’t score more goals against Man Utd in tonight’s 3-1 defeat, but admits his team’s defeat is made all the more frustrating by the quality of the Gunners overall performance.
Arsenal had 33 shots on goal, 15 of them on target, and were denied more than once by an incredible performance from David de Gea, but errors for all three goals proved costly, leading to the end of a 100% home record this season.
Speaking afterwards, the manager said, “I think we didn’t start well at all at the back and we are guilty of that.
“Despite being 2-0 down we should have come back – we had enough chances. We produced excellent quality, but were not decisive enough.
“Psychologically it was a big blow to go 2-0 down so early on, especially at home. We were too on the edge mentally maybe, you cannot be in a game like that.”
As for not making more of the multitude of chances created, Wenger was asked if he had an explanation as to why his side didn’t score more.
“It was a mystery, yes,” he said, “but David de Gea was man of the match by a clear mile.
“We played well but there is nothing more frustrating when you have that quality of performance and nothing to show for it at the end.
“The attitude was impeccable until the end, but you cannot make the mistakes we made at the beginning.”
De Gea by a clear mile, everyone could see that apart from Steve McMoronman
Such a penis
trust arsenal defenders to make such mistakes. kolasinac committing with no one to cover him and mustafi playing a one-two with an opponent!
our response was immense after going down 2-0 in the first 12 minutes. gives me hope.
So true. I haven’t see us fight and attack in a big game like that since the invincibles era. How often at 2-0 down against UTD do we respond like that. Don’t lose that desire fellas. That was good to see.
We really hammered them, the two defensive errors cost us.
The media are creaming themselves over Mourinho’s victory and De gea’s performance but they hung on by the goal keepers’ finger nails!
So 4-4-2 from now on?
Kos really let the side down today. Terrible at the back but always dangerous. Ozil was fantastic.
i can’t be the only one who thinks that mourinho does not mind conceding corners to us. it was the same when he was at chelsea. with players taller than ours and probably only koscielny as a dangerous header of the ball, it’s not hard to see why
I thought United was completely unconvincing in clearing corners, especially in the first half. We got two or more touches inside the area from a corner several times. Maybe Mourinho doesn’t mind it, but Chris Smalling (and David De Gea) surely do.
Played great, dominated possession, let down by individual errors. There’s a surprise.
We made the exact same mistakes against Huddersfield, difference being United’s players are good enough to capitalize.
Was watching it and it’s all I could think. Huddersfield missed a bit of killer instinct. We played better tonight than Wednesday. We were punished tonight.
We can and we did!
Think we should just move on and absolutely hammer Southampton.
Well leaving aside all this, How impressive has laca been since last 2 weeks…We have our very own aguero..if only we had kompany
If only we had Fernandinho…or Kante…..or any really, really good DM in the last decade. It’s hard to be still be amazed by Arsene not addressing the biggest positional issue in his squad after this amount of time but it is still incredible to behold every season.
Applaud the lads for their efforts today. Hopefully they can take the positives into next week.
Or even a ‘Matic’ but Wenger stubbornly refuses to fix this
. . . and a De Gea
One thing for sure today, can’t fault Wenger on the team selection… Just a bad day on the job for the boys. Any other day, we would have walked away with a point at least today.
I can’t get over this lose. What I fear the most is how the team will mentally respond to it. Goddammit our xG was 4.6 and United 1.9!
This is why I’m still very sceptical of statistics. I’m sure our xg’s, big chances and all the rest will point to us being the better team today but United leave with three points. They did a job on us and yes their keeper played well but you could sort of feel that they had us where they wanted us. Not sure how that can be explained in a statistic.
In this case, I think statistics will support what you could see with your eyes: apart from a couple of terrible mistakes, Arsenal were the better side by far. Those mistakes, and a brilliant display by De Gea made the difference. I have never seen Man United defending so desperately for such a long time in a match.
The difference was that United converted expected goals into real goals. We didn’t. Though de Gea was at times brilliant and his defenders determined, too many times we missed great chances or shot straight at de Gea. Simply not clinical.
Lacazette is the exception, when he gets a chance he knows where to put it. Alexis can score goals too, he’s just terrible at passing the ball.
At the end of the game goals are the only statistic that matters
We played really well at times.That is encouraging. Laca looked really up for it from the word go. That is also encouraging, he looks hungry for goals.
As for the goals they scored, we have been making errors like that for a while now, only difference is they had a bit more quality to punish us.
We tend to switch off all over the pitch, I was expecting it to happen, just not that early and not twice.
Have not felt sorry for Wenger for a while. You can’t legislate two mares from such experienced players. Team played played fantastically well and he will get destroyed in the media/fans. They say we got done on the counter..The first two were early christmas gifts..The third was sanchez AGAIN losing possesion..Kos gets left one vs one somehow and does terribly and the just watch Xhaxa in the box as Lingard creeps behind him. Maybe could have brought on WIlshere instead of Giroud as that just cluttered up the middle even more. If we can move on quickly this will be… Read more »
We were 2completely different sides in the 2 halves of the pitch. In our half, we were terrible but our attacking side was amazing and a pleasure to watch. All the 4 goal scoring moves were started by one side and as usual we ran into a keeper in his top form – which I don’t think is a coincidence anyway! Ozil, Ramsey & Lacazette were too good today, Iwobi isn’t really ready for the big games but he did try his heart out. Xhaka’s Brain freeze for 3rd goal is inexplicable- I don’t know what grips this man and… Read more »
For me arsenal still showed the quality and I’m proud to be a gooner…
Bigup!!
Though we lost I still know deep down…our guys did really a good job apart from a few mistakes .I still believe we have quality
shocking, poor, poor result for arsenal, don’t know what else to say, its a sad, sad day for the club.
Excuses, excuses. You’re subs were poor as well. Should’ve brought on Jack instead of Giroud. I’ve never been this frustrated. Out of 5 losses this season, we played well to get a win in 3 and probably a draw in the other.
I’m getting the feeling Ozil is really going to man united next summer. Keep him at all costs and let Alexis leave.
Very disappointed. We need a new CB or even 2. Kos has been impressive, but he keeps making these mistakes in big games which mostly go unnoticed.
Let them both leave, flat track ponies both of them.
I don’t know how it was in person, but watching on TV the support was great, the stadium was loud! That energy is important.
Well that was disappointing. Iron out the errors and go again. We are not getting the title this season. I’d rather not obsess over it. Aim for fourth and a cup and restructure the club. I’ll enjoy the good performances as they come.
Man it really hurts to lose at home to utd and that guy
That result was on the cards are we’ve been giving the ball away far too often even against lower teams – Huddersfield an obvious example – difference today was the quality of opposition. Totally careless performance. Ok we battered them and could/should have still won but we suffered our 5th loss of the season already. Also up against the best goalkeeper in the world, he was outstanding. Xhaka – can’t take to that player at all