Courtesy: Manchester United
On Wednesday, December 4, Manchester United suffered a tough defeat against Arsenal by 0-2 in the Premier League at the Emirates Stadium in London after two second half goals from Jurrien Timber and William Saliba. After suffering his first loss as Manchester United manager, a disappointed Ruben Amorim remarked that it was really hard for his players to defend the set pieces of Arsenal, which ultimately led to his team’s downfall.
Notably, Manchester United were quite good in keeping possession of the ball in the first half, not allowing Arsenal to play their free flowing football, which didn’t sit well with their fans at the Emirates Stadium. But in the second half, Arsenal players upped the tempo of the contest, and ultimately in the 54th minute, the hosts took the lead with a exquisite flick-on from the near post from Jurrien Timber off a Declan Rice corner.
The set pieces change everything, change the momentum: Ruben Amorim
The set piece routine from Arsenal came back to haunt Manchester United once again as they conceded their second goal of the night in the 73rd minute. Thomas Partey, who was at the back post, managed to head the corner from Bukayo Saka into the danger area, where it ricocheted into the goal from the back of William Saliba, giving a 2-0 lead to Arsenal.
Manchester United had a couple of scoring chances of their own with the first one from Diogo Dalot going across the face of goal, while Matthijs de Ligt’s towering header was saved by David Raya just in the nick of time. In the post-match press conference, Ruben Amorin was quoted as saying, as per Goal.com, “Tough game. We tried to play our game, especially in the first half. We need more trainings.”
The Manchester United manager singled-out the corners from Arsenal, which were different for his players to cope with. He remarked, “The set pieces change everything, change the momentum. It was really hard for them. We tried, but we had two set pieces and didn’t score. They scored. We have to understand that they have years of doing that [set pieces]. Even when you are here for so long, you can see how their set-pieces can change that. We tried to defend them in the space of two days to train.”
