Arsenal Vs Manchester United: Positives for Unai Emery

Arsenal fell to Manchester United in the fourth round of the FA Cup on Friday night. But there are some positives for Unai Emery to draw from the performance, if not the result.

It was frustrating when Romelu Lukaku slid in you-know-who to put Manchester United one goal to the good; it was even worse when, just a few moments later, Lukaku surged down the right flank and squared a pass to the wide-open Jesse Lingard who duly slotted home for the essentially game-ending second goal.

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For Arsenal, that was game over. Yes, they rallied with a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang goal late in the first half. But those two goals would kill off the Gunners, with the final twist of the knife coming through Anthony Martial on another blistering counter-attack.

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It would be easy to end it there. Manchester United score three on the counter-attack. Arsenal couldn’t break down a stubborn defence at the other end. But, really, that would be selling short the control and the command that Unai Emery’s side exerted over their visitors.

Okay, they did not carve open the chances that a team with 63% should. And yes, Manchester United were allowed free rein on the counter-attack at times. But these are fine-margin errors. There were plenty of counter-attacking opportunities that United exploited simply because the bounce of the ball fell their way.

Conversely, the same could be said about some of the crosses that Arsenal put into the box or the brilliant save that Sergio Romero made to deny Aaron Ramsey. The big games are won and lost in the details, and on this occasion, those details did not go the home team’s way.

Now, they are not valid excuses. United were the better team and deserved to win the match. I am not trying to argue otherwise. I am merely pointing out that this performance was not as ghastly as the scoreline — or as some comment on social media — would have you believe.

Alex Iwobi and Aaron Ramsey were excellent, for instance. Alexandre Lacazette was dogged and determined. The organisation at the back was actually quite good before Sokratis went off injured, which is a clear illustration of his communicative qualities at the heart of the defence. The control the midfield showed for large periods of the match was promising. Paul Pogba only came into the game late on when space opened up because Arsenal had to push for the equaliser.

Again, these are not reasons to completely excuse the performance. These are not reasons to absolve Unai Emery and his players of complete blame. Ultimately, in key moments, they were not good enough. But I do not believe there was much difference between this performance and last weekend’s against Chelsea, other than in the details.

There were positives to take from this performance. Unai Emery should not be completely dejected, and neither should the fans.