United had a host of chances at the Emirates but came away with nothing, leaving their goalkeeper ruing his role in Granit Xhaka’s first-half goal
After so often being bailed out by David de Gea over the years, Manchester United just couldn’t find a way to reciprocate on Sunday as they missed a mountain of chances in going down 2-0 to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
The defeat brought to an end their unbeaten domestic run under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in the Norwegian’s 16th such game in charge, with De Gea’s failure to read the flight of Granit Xhaka’s speculative effort putting United behind the eight-ball from early in the game.
On first sight it looked like a horrible one for a top-class goalkeeper to concede but perhaps the Spaniard was too quick for his own good, anticipating the initial shot to his left only for it to deviate massively to his right.
Arsenal had other chances to get at United after going ahead, but once Solskjaer switched his formation to a 3-5-2 the visitors got a greater foothold in the midfield battle and looked the more dominant outfit as a result.
Just before half-time United showed the very best of their counter-attacking instincts when Paul Pogba’s long, looping pass was taken down brilliantly by Lukaku but Diogo Dalot’s clever cut-back from the Belgian’s feed was cut out superbly by Xhaka.
Solskjaer tinkered with his formation again, but no change of shape was about to make United more likely to take gilt-edged opportunities.
Alexandre Lacazette went down under slight contact from Fred to give Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang the chance to double the advantage from the penalty spot. The former Borussia Dortmund man was cool and calm, slotting his effort straight down the middle as De Gea forlornly went left.
On came Anthony Martial, and Mason Greenwood was given a league debut later on as Solskjaer looked for his side to pile on the pressure in the latter stages but this just wasn’t to be their day.
