Premier League Round Eight: The good, the bad and the ugly

The Ugly

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Manchester United had a massive opportunity to expand upon their lead at the top of the table when they traveled to the Emirates Stadium to face an Arsenal side coming off a major Champions League disappointment against Olympiacos.

Manchester United could have taken a six-point lead on The Gunners, so you would think they started the match flying, right?

Wrong.

Arsenal played like a side desperate to put the poor taste of the Champions League defeat behind them. Meanwhile, Manchester United played like they were expecting to face a side entirely capable of consistently losing at home.

Arsenal were clearly going to play fast and hard to make amends for their midweek defeat to Olympiacos. There was no way Manchester United were going to come up against an Arsenal side that would play as poorly as it did against the Greek champions and it seems as though the Red Devils believed they could simply show up and enforce their will on the opponent.

This match was largely over before it started. Alexis Sanchez continued his hot streak of goal scoring by putting two past United in the 6^th and 19^th minutes of the match.

Mesut Ozil scored in the 7^th minute to make it 2-0 Arsenal. For the first 20 minutes of the match the Red Devils could not get out of first gear. The Gunners pressed the Manchester United midfielders and defenders and forced turnovers. Once they turned over the Red Devils, the Gunners used their speed to overwhelm Louis van Gaal’s side.

Speaking of van Gaal, what was he thinking by starting the midfield pair of Bastian Schweinsteiger and Michael Carrick? Arsenal is not exactly an ideal side to face when your midfield pair has a combined top speed of a snail.

The Gunners pulled back a bit, which allowed Manchester United more time on the ball as the game went on, but aside from a saved close-range effort from Anthony Martial, the Red Devils did not manage to create many chances.

This match with Arsenal was another notch in the belt of van Gaal’s horrible away form since joining the Red Devils. Manchester United have picked up just 32 out of a possible 69 points away from home under LvG.

Manchester United need to pick themselves up and get past this as fast as possible because they face a road trip to what has become a virtual house of horrors for them in Goodison Park.

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