OLE SALUTES TROOPS
...but draw hands neighbours City the advantage in title race
MANCHESTER UNITED boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer saluted his players after setting a club record of 18 successive Premier League away games without defeat.
“That’s a great achievement by these players,” he said.
“They are working hard, they travel, we are in hotels, the mood is very good and we prepare well – it shows how far we have come.
“Eighteen games is a long, long run and long may it continue.
“But we’d like to get some more wins, of course.”
United should really have had one here given the two second-half chances that fell to Edinson Cavani – both from close range.
The first was good work from Bernd Leno and Cedric Soares to deny him but the scissor-kick second late on should have been converted by a player of his quality.
The fact that he missed them meant United have dropped four points in their last two games after losing to bottom club Sheffield United in midweek.
And as a result they have handed neighbours Manchester City the advantage in the title race.
Not that Solskjaer is overly concerned about that at this stage of the campaign.
He added: “We don’t think about the title race or title now — we’re in January.”
Worryingly though, this result also means United have scored just one goal this season against the traditional big six — Bruno Fernandes’ consolation in the 6-1 defeat by Tottenham.
Solskjaer (right) said: “We need to take our chances. We know we have players to do that.”
United defender Luke Shaw was far more damning of the performance and result than his manager.
He said: “It was two points dropped.
“I felt we were in control. Arsenal had a spell but we were comfortable and had countless
massive chances we have not taken. It would have been a brilliant result winning here. We have to be winning these games.
“The chances we had, I don’t think it’s acceptable to come away with just a point — I haven’t been in the changing room yet but I’m sure the lads will be disappointed.
“At times we were too slow. In the second half we were sloppy and gave the ball away.
“We did not look like we wanted to play.
“We created the chances and failed to score again and it cost us two points.
We dropped points in midweek and again here.
“If we want to be in the title race we have to be winning these games. I don’t know what more to say.”
That just about covered it, to be fair, and it was more in line with ex-United captain Roy Keane’s claim that his old club look frightened to be in the
title race. Despite the lack of goals though, this was a decent game, particularly the second half.
Both sides had opportunities, with Alex Lacazette crashing a free-kick against the bar and Emile Smith Rowe forcing a good save from David de Gea.
Paul Pogba was arguably United’s most creative player, carving out chances for Fernandes, while Rob Holding was superb at the back for Arsenal, who gave their new boy Martin Odegaard, on loan from Real Madrid, a late cameo off the bench.
The best chance of the first half fell to Fred, who dinked a lovely, curling
We don’t think about the title race, it’s January. We need to take our chances effort goalwards, only to see Leno stretch to get his fingertips to it and send it wide.
While at the other end Lacazette’s long-range drive was straight at De Gea.
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta said: “It was a fair result. Both managers probably think they should have won it.
“The fact we have three of our best players out probably has an impact but I’m really happy with the players who played.
“We made some changes to be more efficient in the second half, to be much closer to them.
“We had a better structure to attack and stopped giving the ball back to the opponent.”