Arsene Wenger branded his players as naive after they failed to take most of the chances against Manchester United and ended up losing the game 2-1. Arsenal enjoyed the better of chances throughout the 90 minutes, while United had only two shots on target.
However, goals from Wayne Rooney and an own goal from Kieran Gibbs meant that Arsenal once again ended up being disappointed in the match. Their recent record against Manchester United has been extremely poor, but Arsenal set out to change this from the start.
The likes of Jack Wilshere and Danny Welbeck had numerous opportunities to put the home team in front. As witnessed numerous times, Arsenal failed to convert their chances and lost the game on the counter-attack. This was the third match without a win in all competitions for the gunners. It has put them eighth in the table. This defeat raised more questions about Arsene Wenger’s ability to get Arsenal back to the elite level. The manager signed a new three-year contract after helping the club in the FA Cup in the summer, but they have managed only four wins this campaign. Such poor run of form threatens to cost a top four place, which has been the foundation for Arsenal in the last decade.
“It’s a game that we dominated for 80% of the time and we haven’t dominated a game like that against Manchester United for a long time. At the end of the day we were not efficient enough in the final third, defensively, and we made a mistake at the back which they took advantage of. That’s the story of the game. We had plenty of chances and their goalkeeper is man of the match. That tells you the story. But defensively we were a bit naïve,” said Wenger, who continues to miss Mesut Ozil.