Man United 0-1 Arsenal Player Ratings and Match Reaction

[KSE Comedy Club]

Saw most of this one and think you've actually been pretty generous on Odegaard. He was playing the wrong pass all day - or playing the right one poorly. I like him, but he wasn't at the races today.
It was a poor performance but an excellent result. As you say we've had plenty of games at Old Trafford where the reverse has happened so I'll take it.
The goal was a mess from the Utd point of view. I don't think we set out to defend a 1-0 lead for as long as we did, I was quite pleased with the way we were going forward today - it seemed we were doing so more quickly. But we were never able to play the final pass to unlock things.
At the back, a few shaky moments but overall we dealt with them well. Raya made two very good saves and we were a bit fortunate with the one that hit the post. But given all their possession they didn't really create that much. Utd dominated but they weren't that good.

Hard to draw conclusions from opening day fixtures. Some definite alarm bells but in a game like that you just want to get the hell out of there with the 3 points. We did, so that's fine with me.

Except he hasn't been at the races since he came back from injury.

[HCZ_Reborn]

As I said to Letters earlier, and I’d say this for any player….what will piss me off with them is not so much getting things wrong but not trying. A lot of the passes Odegaard fucked up yesterday were passes he wasn’t even attempting to make last season, he was being a coward. What he was trying to do didn’t work yesterday and that is partly because Arteta has him drift right to accommodate Rice as LCM, and partly as I say the weight on the passing wasn’t there.
But he got a 6.5 because he put himself about and pressed well. If the passing continues to be off, of course there needs to be serious consideration given to dropping him but I saw yesterday a lot of things he often never even tried to do a lot of last season,

[IBK]

First game of the season and all that - but rarely have I felt more deflated after a rare win at a very difficult ground for us.

This is an emotional rather than a measured reaction, but IMO we were awful. For me only 2 players - Raya and Timber come out of that game with any credit. Our captain was not at his best, but at least he showed some intent. Arseblog summed up my feelings about him today with this link https://www.reddit.com/r/Gunners/com...025/?rdt=39357

Every one of our other senior players was off the pace. Saka and Rice in particular exemplifying our sub-par performance. Manure looked much hungrier; industrious; creative and organised. I disagree that we showed much desire to get the ball forwards. This was for me largely the lowlights of many of our performances last season. Balls given away; second best to loose balls; ponderous in the final third, with Manure having time to get into defensive shape (their conceded goal being an exception). All three of our new players were anonymous, and Madueke looked a liability defensively. For me - going forwards we were caught in 2 minds as to whether to commit numbers to attack, or being conservative defensively, and the result was the worst of all worlds - lack of movement and invention, and our defenders too high up the pitch and vulnerable to the counter.

We have better defenders than them, and again set piece FC leaned to heavily into this. Yes it worked eventually owing to United's profligacy/lack of cutting edge. But unless Arteta sorts this out quickly I fear for us this season.

Can I add that the referee was shocking. The unpunished arm in Zubi's face early on set the tone, and the homer ref seemed to react almost exclusively to the howls from the home crowd, while penalising us and disrupting our play at every opportunity.

[Marc Overmars]

I am of the opinion that we stink but I do not want to wish away this ruggedness that has helped get us these results in the big games. Once upon a time we’d go into these games almost certain of a defeat, so that is where Arteta’s work has paid dividends.

Just quite concerned that in putting everything into defending, we’ve become so disjointed as an attacking force and it’s not easy to watch. Yesterday was a huge win on paper but the eye test does not compute.

Expecting a big performance on the weekend against Leeds.

[HCZ_Reborn]

I don’t think the defending was actually that great, United got off 22 shots on goal, that over two thirds of them were off target was more on them. There was also far too much space for Cunha and Mbeumo to operate in.

The problem as I see it was that Rice was playing a creative role further up the pitch that he isn’t suited to and Zubimendi left to protect the back four by himself which given this is England and not Spain isn’t going to work. When the two play together Rice needs to sit much deeper (otherwise will get punished).

If Odegaard continues not to be able to operate as the central focus of attack, the solution as I see it would be to drop him and play Saka there with Madueke or Nwaneri on the right

[21_GOONER_SALUTE]

[Letters]

I don’t think the defending was actually that great, United got off 22 shots on goal, that over two thirds of them were off target was more on them.

There's shots and shots though.
I don't remember them having many clear cut chances, their xG was 1.59.
I always think that's a bit of a bullshit stat, but an xG that low doesn't imply a load of really good chances and they were just wasteful. With a few notable counter examples they were mostly pretty speculative shots from distance.