There was something strange going on in the aftermath of defeat to Manchester United on Sunday, something rarely felt in such circumstances – sanguinity.
This was not the sort of defeat that heralded an all-consuming sense of disaster or dread, this was one of those rare occasions when there was more reason to be hopeful than forlorn. I can scarcely remember the last time that happened.
Don’t get me wrong, it was frustrating and annoying to lose a game we so clearly should have won, and the naivety of this maturing team at times was concerning, but defeats are a part of football – they happen every season to all teams.
Sure, the zero points we earned at Old Trafford are the same zero points we would have earned if it were a 5-0 drubbing but there is often more nuance than a scoreline would suggest.
Had it not been for the re-refereeing of the match through VAR, Gabriel Martinelli’s superb run and finish would have been awarded the goal it so richly deserved. But, of course, this is the Premier League were the interpretation of rules varies wildly from one hour to the next.
Alas, there is not much we can do about that.
What we can control is the manner and level of our own performance and, for large parts of this match, we were excellent. We dominated the ball, dominated the duels and dominated United on their own pitch – reducing them to playing counter-attacking football at Old Trafford as the home crowd groaned and grimaced.
United have never lost a game at the Theatre of Dreams when they’ve been leading at half-time so, when we pulled level through Bukayo Saka early in the second half, it felt like a record was about to tumble.
We had continued to dominate the match for the first 20 minutes of the second half and it felt like a matter of time before we took the lead. Martin Odegaard, Saka, Martinelli and Gabriel Jesus were outstanding at the top end of the pitch and, in truth, should have had two or three goals between them even before we’d equalised.
Arguably the turning point of the match came as we went in search of more, though. Some extraordinarily aggressive substitutions from Mikel Arteta, something very much out of character for him, saw three players introduced mid-way through the half and, with them came an unbalancing of the side that ultimately proved our downfall.
As we pushed, pressed and harried in search of a second, United’s smart movement and exploitation of the gaps we were leaving allowed them to break quickly. It was a high-stakes gamble from the manager and, on this occasion, it backfired.
He sensed an opportunity, and I agree with him on that score, but to take such risks with 20 or 25 minutes remaining in the game was arguably unnecessary and played into the one skillset the hosts do possess – breaking at speed.
A 3-1 scoreline was cruel on Arsenal and wildly unrepresentative of the ebb and flow of the game. In truth, though, you have to praise United for their efficiency on the day, a sort of ruthlessness in front of goal that we couldn’t match.
They collected maximum reward from their opportunities and we didn’t. That’s where the points were decided.
All is not lost, however. We will play far worse this season and come away with more. We dominated a game against one of our rivals and, frankly, made them look extremely ordinary. United have far more to worry about in the weeks and months ahead than we do.
If we keep performing with the same intensity, purpose and dynamism that we showed at Old Trafford, we will continue to pick up points and plenty of them. We will also learn valuable lessons from this – against a big six rival you *must* take the chances offered.
So while I won’t call myself happy with the result, I can quite easily file this one away as an unlucky day at the office. The games start coming thick and fast now so we can reorganise and get going again in the league later this week.
We will meet United again this season, perhaps even several more times, and we will be a side much better prepared.
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