Manchester United put a dent in Arsenal’s title ambitions, snatching a 3-2 win at the Emirates thanks to stunning strikes from Patrick Dorgu and Matheus Cunha. The Brazilian curled home with three minutes remaining, moments after the Gunners had hauled themselves level through Mikel Merino’s scruffy equaliser.
Arsenal had taken the lead on the half-hour mark when Lisandro Martinez turned the ball into his own net, but Bryan Mbeumo drew United level before the break, capitalising on a dreadful mistake from Martin Zubimendi. That error proved a turning point, setting the tone for a below-par second-half performance from the hosts.
Here’s what the managers, players, pundits and stattos made of the action…
Mikel Arteta on Arsenal making life hard for themselves…
In the first 30 minutes, we were in total control, scoring a goal, but after that, so many times we gave the ball away in important areas. We started to lose control and dominance, and it became a chaotic game. The players deserve a lot of praise for their consistency. When we lose a game, I take the responsibility, and I have to protect the players. We just gave it away. If you want to win, you have to go through these moments, and you can’t expect to win every game; that’s unrealistic. The margins are extremely small, and we made them even smaller.
Source: BBC Match of the Day
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Michael Carrick on his side growing into the game…
We understood the start of the game was going to be like that as much as we tried to turn the momentum in our favour. I think we understood how the game was going to go and the flow of it. I thought we started to take the ball and connections through the pitch, had that composure and a few moments gaining a bit of confidence as well. We were having a decent spell and seemed to be coming into the game when they scored, which was disappointing. Again, we showed the character to come back, and there were stages in the game where you have to defend. They make you defend the box really, and it’s challenging at times, but I thought we had enough in the game to keep believing in the confidence, and I always fancied us to score.
Source: Sky Sports
Odegaard on the defeat and a below-par performance…
It wasn’t good enough from us. We need some time to analyse it now, but it was not good enough, the performance. We should have done better, but now is the time to stick together even more and keep working, be together, and bounce back. In the first half, we were the better team, scored the goal and had control of the game, but we had a lot of giveaways in the game that created dangerous moments and in the second half, the game changed a little bit. We know the quality they have when they get the space to run. In the second half, there were a lot of duels they won that gave them the momentum of the game and let them run, and we never really managed to get into that rhythm of creating chances. We managed to get the 2-2 and could have pushed on to win it, but they scored straightaway. Overall, not good enough from us. But time to stick together, work even harder, push each other even more and bounce back. It was never going to be easy in this league; we know that. Now is the time to be strong. We are still top of the league, so we have to keep going and bounce back straightaway.
Source: Sky Sports
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Matchwinner Matheus Cunha on competing with Arsenal…
I think we showed character and power in the group. We know what to expect, coming here, I think it’s the best team in the world today, honestly. They play with Mikel [Arteta] so long, they know every single tactics, every single thing that he feels, so we know how hard it will to be to come here, but we are United and everything we do is to win the games.
Source: Sky Sports
Bukayo Saka on the need to react to defeat…
The journey’s not always going to be smooth; there’s going to be ups and downs. It’s up to us to show our character next week. That’s all our focus is now; we can’t change the result now. We look forward and onto next week.
Source: Arsenal.com
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Arteta on creating good energy around the team…
In the process of winning, you have to lose or draw. It’s how you react to that. Now we have another opportunity, the best place to talk is on the pitch, in three days’ time, when we play in the Champions League again. And the better the energy is around everybody – around the staff, myself, the players, and especially our supporters, much better, we’ll play freely, we’ll flow, and we’ll continue to win a lot of matches, I’m sure.
Source: Arsenal.com
Patrick Vieira on Arsenal’s [lack of] mental strength…
They’re still four points clear. But there’s still questions about the mental strength of the the team. It’s not just that they lost the game, it’s the way they lost the game. Saka and Trossard didn’t produce enough to worry United. They need a leader to lift the spirit of the team. They need to understand when they are on the pitch they have to play with more energy and more risks. They have the quality. They didn’t play with the freedom to express themselves.
Source: Sky Sports
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Arteta’s reaction to Vieira’s assessment…
That’s fine. We accept every opinion when it comes and where it’s coming from, and they will have the right reasons to say. At the end we have to show the mental strength that we have on the pitch when it comes to matchday and we were absolutely brilliant in Milan and today we weren’t that good – I don’t know if it was mental because of how much they play, but because we were poor, especially technically in certain aspects of the game against a team that when you make those mistakes, they can punish you big time and that was the difference.
Source: Post-game press conference
Matthew Upson on Arsenal failing to capitalise on early dominance…
I don’t think the Arsenal players believe it. It’s a performance that ran out of steam. They almost had to have the game tied up and won in the opening 35 minutes, and they didn’t achieve that. They gave a sloppy goal away and the Manchester United that came out in the second half was very different.
Source: BBC Radio 5 Live
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Gary Neville on a deflating result for Arsenal…
An incredible match and a sobering day for Arsenal. They will have to reset and rethink. For United, what a turn around for Carrick’s men.
Source: Sky Sports
Roy Keane on Arsenal feeling the pressure…
Pressure was on Arsenal today. They saw the other results; they have everything going for them in all competitions. That is pressure; they are feeling the pressure. It is how they deal with it. That’s what has cost them over the last few years when they have got themselves in good positions. The sign over the last few weeks. The Liverpool game, the Forest game and today. Losing that momentum.
Source: Sky Sports
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Arteta on how he feels hearing boos in the stadium…
It doesn’t matter, we have to do more, so maybe that’s not enough, and we have to do more, there is nothing else. We have to do our very best, when you do that, you can rest in peace, and today we really certainly tried to do our very best, but we weren’t efficient enough against a team that is very well organised, and we got punished because of our own mistakes as well.
Source: Post-game press conference