Ruben Amorim claims the £38million Manchester United star could have changed the game against Arsenal

However, Manchester United almost beat Arsenal on their own just after the hour mark. Moments after Jurrien Timber had put the Gunners ahead – the former Ajax defender was heavily linked with Man United before his move to north London – Arteta had to bring David Raya to his best to keep out a high-flying header from Matthijs de Ligt.

De Ligt has already proven his strengths on dead balls. De Ligt scored the opening goal in a 3-0 win at Southampton at the start of the season.

And after the game, Ruben Amorim couldn’t help but wonder how different things would have turned out if Raya’s wingspan had been a few inches smaller.

Matthijs de Ligt played as Arsenal beat Manchester United

“We competed against each other during the game,” Amorim said in his post-match press conference. “If Matthijs can score at this moment, the dynamic would be different. But we tried to play.

“They are a very organized team and it is very difficult to score when they have the advantage.”

Arsenal were without Gabriel Magalhaes at the Emirates; The Brazil international has scored four goals from set pieces this season.

But even with Gabriel unavailable, the home team simply had too much for a rather small Manchester United team. William Saliba directed the decisive goal into the net just before the goal line.

Ruben Amorim highlights Arsenal’s threat from set pieces

“We already knew it was going to be a tough game,” added Amorim, who suffered his first defeat as Man United manager in his fourth game as manager. “I think the corners changed the game, the set pieces.

“Then we lost momentum. We then tried everything to get the game back under control. You can feel it in the first half, around the stadium, that we caused problems. We need to improve in many areas of our game, but we controlled the game.

“They are very good because they have a lot of time to work on set pieces. They have big players for it, so it’s a strategy and we had two weeks to work on it. We tried to stop Arsenal, but we know that every team in the Premier League suffers from set pieces.

“It was a shame because we didn’t play very well, but Arsenal didn’t play very well either.”

The good news, of course, is that Manchester United played with a control and organization that was so often lacking in the Erik ten Hag era. In open play, the Red Devils restricted Arsenal to half chances, while Leny Yoro made a very impressive debut as a substitute in the second half.

The lack of threat at the other end – Rasmus Hojlund, Alejandro Garnacho and Mason Mount as the front three struggling to make an impact on the game – will be a concern. But still, there is a lot to build on and a lot of positives.

Related posts