Mikel Arteta was left rueing his side’s cutting edge in the final third following our 1-1 draw against Manchester United.
Having seen his side tear PSV Eindhoven apart in midweek with some excellent attacking interplay, the boss was left frustrating that we didn’t se the same sort of display at Old Trafford, in a game that saw us boss the opening 45 minutes but go in behind to a United side that recorded an expected goals total of 0.11 thanks to Bruno Fernandes’ free-kick.
That changed the complexion of the game with the hosts then boosted by holding the lead, and even though Declan Rice grabbed us a fine equaliser, the points were shared, much to Mikel’s disappointment.
“I’m very frustrated that we didn't win the game because that's how we prepared for it,” he said. “I think we were really good in the first half in terms of dominance, in our high press, dealing with direct play, getting out of the press and arriving to the last 20 metres. Then we lacked to put the knife through with more decisive actions, more accuracy in that ball to threaten more.
“We had two or three big moments without giving them nothing, then in one long ball we don't manage the recovery ball in the right way. We make a foul and you have to rely on the quality of the position. They have one chance, they score and from there, it's game on. That gives them momentum, belief and energy.”
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We missed out on the chance of ending a 46-year wait for successive league wins at Old Trafford, an the boss pointed to last season’s 1-0 win as a blueprint for how we need to perform to get the result we want at some of English football’s biggest grounds.
“If you want to win here, you have to do what we did last year,” he added. “In those simple things, you have to be ruthless, and the way we have to defend certain actions the same. And then we need more efficiency in the final third.
“In the second half we managed to score the goal and created some chances, but at the same time we opened the door to lose the game because we did a lot of simple things very poorly and they have three moments when they could have punished us.”
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