If anything new can be thrown at Manchester United this early season then it is that they have tried hard to fix some problems over the summer while ignoring another quite obvious one. Here at Old Trafford, that conversation was played out quite plainly and painfully in the sunshine of a summer’s day.
United have invested in attacking talent to the tune of £200m since last season ended so impotently and desperately in Europa League final defeat to Tottenham in Bilbao.
The early evidence of this game suggests they have bought good players. Bryan Mbeumo, recruited from Brentford, was terrific down the right in a game that saw Ruben Amorim’s team play much of the good football. Matheus Cunha had his moments too while the big forward Benjamin Sesko came off the bench as United went a little more direct late on.
For reasons unknown, however, United have not sought to fix their goalkeeping problem and here that decision bit them and bit them hard.
United’s number one Andre Onana was dropped for this game and that tells its own story. The problem was that his replacement Altay Bayindir threw the winning goal in to his own net in only the fifteenth minute. It was a setback from which United – manfully as they tried – could not recover.
At times Arsenal’s physical approach to set pieces borders on the unlawful. Mikel Arteta’s team drew much praise for the detail and precision of their routines last season but that should not detract from the fact that pushing and shoving and blocking at corners and the like is not within the rules of the game.
Riccardo Calafiori was the beneficiary for the visitors, nodding in from close range at the far post
Manchester United’s Altay Bayindir failed to deal with Arsenal’s inswinging corner in the first half
This one was comfortably the right side of the line, however. The delivery from Declan Rice from the left side at the Stretford End was a good one and Bayindir simply couldn’t cope with a legitimate challenge for the ball from Arsenal defender William Saliba.
Indeed the United goalkeeper hardly got off the ground, managing only to paw the ball back towards goal where Arsenal defender Riccardo Calafiori headed it over the line from a couple of inches. The truth is that ball was going in anyway.
So United were undone in a fashion not unfamiliar and one wonders whey the Old Trafford recruitment team have not addressed the issue. Maybe now they will. The transfer window closes in a fortnight.
It was a shame for Amorim and his team, too. Arsenal managed the game out reasonably well. Their own goalkeeper David Raya was not called upon to do anything particularly heroic. United were the better team, though, and showed themselves to be rather better than they have previously been under their Portuguese coach.
After an hour, for example, they had enjoyed more than 65 per cent of the possession and much of the territory. That’s the way it used to be here at Old Trafford, in the days before authority and confidence gave way to fear.
They weren’t perfect. Far from it. The opening goal was a disaster, both in the way that Bruno Fernandes gave the ball away to eventually concede a corner than indeed the manner in which the United goalkeeper collapsed under a hint of physical pressure. Teams who do things like that don’t tend to win things.
On the whole, though, United were more fluent and fluid and carried a threat from wide areas. Mbeumo was particularly dangerous and on several occasions United managed to get him one on one against his immediate opponent, goal scorer Califiori.
Another new signing, Sesko, did not start and indeed did not appear until more than 60 minutes had been played. Arsenal’s new striker Viktor Gyokeres did play from the get-go, on the other hand, and was largely dreadful until he was hauled off in the second half. With Arsenal under pressure for long periods, Gyokeres couldn’t get hold the ball well enough to give his team an outlet. When he was replaced by Kai Havertz, Arsenal improved.
Amorim made the shock decision to hand Bayindir the start after dropping No 1 Andre Onana from the squad
Matheus Cunha impressed for the Red Devils as he was forced to play in an unfamiliar centre forward position
Arteta will doubtless have been pleased with his team’s goal when it arrived. A stray Fernades pass inside his own penalty area at the Stretford End led to a corner and when it was delivered on to the six-yard line Bayindir showed himself unable to cope.
United could have retreated after that disappointment but they didn’t. They were the prominent attacking force throughout. With Sesko on the bench, United operated without a centre forward as Mbuemo, Cunha and Mason Mount fanned out across the top of a 4-3-3 formation.
Mbuemo carried the greatest threat and United fed him well. When they went long to one of the other two – too often through the air – it didn’t work. Raya in the Arsenal goal wasn’t called upon to make any fabulous saves and Amorim will have noticed that. Indeed not until he dived to palm away an Mbeumo header in in the 73rd minute did the Spaniard really do anything out of the ordinary.
Both Mbuemo and Cunha did bring routine saves from Raya in the opening half while left wing-back Patrick Dorgu struck the outside of the far post with a low drive across goal from the left hand flank and Cunha beat Declan Rice to the byline to cross low.
Arsenal, for their part, rarely threatened. The London club, pretty much at full strength, were far from recognisable. Gyokeres was poor, Bukayo Saka was anonymous and Rice and new partner Martin Zubimendi could not get a grip on the midfield. It was unlike them. They have played much better than this here in recent seasons. But they had the lead early and they managed to hang on to it.
The second half saw United threaten once again through Mbeumo. Raya saved an overhead kick in the 65th minute and then the header. Soon after that, Sesko nodded goalwards but had no power.
Into the latter stages and United did start to flag a little. It was a hot day and they had put a lot into this game with no reward. Amorim had made what appeared to be reasonable substitutions – Sesko, Amad, Manue Ugarte and Harry Maguire coming on – but they hadn’t really have an impact on the game.
If anything, Arsenal started to look a little more comfortable and Havertz’s influence brought them a little more calm and structure in the United half. Indeed Rice thought he had crept a free-kick in at Bayindir’s left post late on only for the ball to strike the side netting.
It was a frustrating debut for Viktor Gyokeres, who failed to make his mark on the heavyweight clash
Benjamin Sekso came on for his Manchester United debut but was unable to affect the game
Amorim will be disappointed by another Old Trafford defeat but he will be encouraged by his team’s performance against one of the title favourites
There were flurries from United at the death. Saliba challenged Cunha from behind on the six-yard line late on and didn’t seem to take the ball. No offence was spotted by referee Simon Hooper. Arsenal then worried United with another low ball into the area. Pressure was once again building.
Hooper gave the home team six added minutes, too. Reason for hope. Two late free-kicks were pumped into the Arsenal penalty area and the second one – with 90 seconds left – won them a corner. Predictably, Arsenal were strong in a way that United had not been earlier on.
