Arsenal Vs Manchester United: Arsene Wenger nails the missing trait

Arsene Wenger has stated that Arsenal lacked efficiency in their loss to Manchester United on Saturday. He nails the Gunners’ missing trait that cost them the defeat.

Arsenal dominated Manchester United on Saturday. They may have proceeded to lose 3-1, in somewhat frustrating circumstances, but there is no denying the pattern of the game, one that saw the home side take full control for long periods, only to be denied by some miraculously unfortunate moments.

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The Gunners had 33 shots, in contrast to United’s eight. They had 15 shots on target, in contrast to four, forced David de Gea to make 14 saves, in contrast to Petr Cech’s two. They had 75% possession, made 365 final third passes, in contrast to just 86, and had, for what it’s worth, an expected goals of 5.01, per Opta.

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Arsene Wenger cannot bemoan the performance of his players. Well, he cannot bemoan much of the performance of his players. But he did choose to highlight one very specific trait that he felt was lacking: Efficiency. Here is what he had to say in his post-match press conference:

"“Today I am very angry because the team produced a quality performance with desire, they were strong mentally and overall in a game of that stature to have 33 shots on goal and nothing to show for it. I tell you tonight that I am absolutely angry <…> We could have finished better and at the end of the day we haven’t been efficient enough in the two boxes and that’s why we lost the game <…> Football is about efficiency in both boxes and at the back and front we weren’t efficient enough.”"

And Wenger is absolutely spot on. For all of Arsenal’s statistical dominance in many different areas of the match, as the old cliche goes, there is only one stat that counts, and for Wenger, it is not a pretty one to read.

The reason for the loss came down to the superior clinical edge that United had, both in their defending and attacking work. They had just four shots on target all game, and didn’t really engineer any more openings other than that. They scored four goals.

The triumvirate of Anthony Martial, Jesse Lingard and Romelu Lukaku, supported by a surging Paul Pogba, carved open Arsenal when they had the chance to, even if the number of chances to do so was somewhat limited. The Gunners, meanwhile, scored just one goal from 33 shots. That is incredibly wasteful and inefficient. They cannot expect to win the big games with a goalscoring rate as poor as that.

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Wenger is right. This was an inefficient performance. Not a bad one. But a wasteful one. Thankfully, it is clear where they must improve. Wenger must now enact that improvement.