Mourinho’s unbeaten run with Red Devils comes to an end at the Emirates
QUICK-FIRE goals from Granit Xhaka and Danny Welbeck saw Arsenal secure a deserved 2-0 win to shatter Jose Mourinho’s ultra-defensive tactics and boost their own chances of a top four finish.
United had not lost any of their last 25 matches following October’s 4-0 defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, although half of those results were draws. Yet they were on the backfoot from the whistle as Mourinho made eight changes to the side which edged past Celta Vigo in the Europa League semi-finals on Thursday. Axel Tuanzebe made his debut at rightback but was not afforded the luxury of charging forward like Antonio Valencia, effectively rendering United blunt in attack. Wingers Juan Mata and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were at times deeper than their full-backs, allowing Arsenal to quickly take control and fire off a number of shots at David De Gea. But despite both sides going in level at the break, it was the Gunners who found the breakthrough after 54 minutes. Granit Xhaka unleashed a rocket of a shot from 30 yards out, and a wicked deflection by Ander Herrera saw the ball loop over De Gea even though he was stood on the line of his goalmouth.
However, Arsenal did not let up and managed to double their lead within two minutes when ex-red Devil Wel- beck headed home from a fine Alex Oxlade-chamberlain cross. Mourinho responded by throwing on Jesse Lingard and Marcus Rashford despite their midweek European heroics, with youngster Scott Mctominay also making his firstever appearance. But United could not get on the scoresheet as their winless league run extended to three matches.
It means they remain four points behind fourth-place Manchester City and just two ahead of Arsenal, with the Londoners still with a game in-hand.
Mourinho said in the build-up to the match that victory in the Europa League was United’s best chance of qualifying for the Champions League. PATIALA: Devender Singh became the second javelin thrower from the country to book a ticket for World championships in London with a stunning throw of 84.57m which won him a gold medal at the Indian Grand Prix Athletics meet, here on Sunday.
The Army Havaldar, already holding the Inter-services meet record, entered the first leg of Indian Grand Prix (IGP) this evening with a personal best of 80.21m which he achieved during last year’s IGP at Bengaluru.
World junior champion and record-holder Neeraj Chopra was the first Indian javelin thrower to qualify for the London Worlds during his outing for Asian Grand Prix in Jiaxing 10 days ago with an 83.32m mark. The qualifying norms for the global meet stands at 83.00 metres. With on Sunday’s performance Devender Singh became the 15th Indian to qualify for this year’s World championships. As much as 10 men and 4 women have already made it through a complex qualification system that was in force from last year onwards.