Arsenal handed Ruben Amorim his first defeat as Manchester United’s manager.
The Gunners went into the game as the favourites to pick up all three points, but the Red Devils made it difficult for them in the first half.
The two teams went in at the break without changing the score, but goals from Jurrien Timber and William Saliba sealed the win for the hosts in the second half.
Amorim has now had his say on the game.
What Ruben Amorim noticed about Arsenal in the first half vs Manchester United
Many people expected Arsenal to blow Manchester United away on Wednesday night.
The Gunners usually start very fast at home. When things click, they can be a couple of goals ahead before 15 minutes – we’ve seen that quite a few times over the last two years.
Manchester United, however, stopped that and they deserve a lot of praise for the way they contained Arsenal in the opening 45 minutes.
Amorim’s tactics gave Martin Odegaard no space to work his magic. He couldn’t combine with Bukayo Saka as well as he would’ve wanted to and limited the Gunners to very few opportunities.
Speaking in his press conference after the game, Amorim claimed that he and everyone else at the Emirates Stadium could feel Arsenal being uncomfortable towards the end of the first half.
He said, as relayed on HaytersTV: “I make the evaluation of the game regardless of the result. Like I said, the 4-0 (vs Everton), you can take positive things but we have to improve and we already knew that.
“But, you can feel it in the stadium in the first half, especially at the end of the first half, you can feel that they were not comfortable. You can feel it in the stadium. So you can take that.
“We had one day to put a strategy and they can cope with that. They block especially the right side of Arsenal, they have a lot of players there. We managed to control very well this moment.
“I think the difference today was set-pieces. Because, in set-pieces, you see a goal, then the momentum changes. It’s really hard for us to take full control of the game, but we tried.”
READ MORE: Ruben Amorim admits what Arsenal made it ‘almost impossible’ for Man United to do after 2-0 defeat
Ruben Amorim, Head Coach of Manchester United, applauds the fans as he walks towards the tunnel after the team's victory in the Premier League matc...
Photo by Alex Livesey/Getty Images
Manchester United failed to do one thing vs Arsenal
Amorim deserves a lot of praise for the way he set his side up against Arsenal.
Many people expected to see the visitors get battered, but they contained the Gunners really well and pushed them outside their comfort zone.
That should excite Manchester United fans about the future, but there was still one thing missing on Wednesday night – any attacking threat.
If United were more effective in the final third after limiting Arsenal to almost nothing in the opposite end, they could’ve got something from that game.
We’re sure Amorim will get his players to work on that in the coming weeks.
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