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What’s the Story?
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was speaking after his first Premier League defeat as Manchester United manager at the hands of Arsenal. He said that United failing to score does not have him scratching his head, as some days strikers take the chances that come to them, while on other days, they miss those chances.
In Case You Didn’t Know…
United were still undefeated in the Premier League under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer when they visited the Emirates to face Arsenal. The Red Devils had recently overturned a 2 goal deficit in the Champions League against PSG to qualify for the quarter-finals, while in the Premier League, Solskjaer had managed to steer them to 4th place, a point above Arsenal.
Everyone expected United to get a win, as they had done in the FA Cup at the end of January. However, the Gunners stunned the away side by taking the lead in the first half through Granit Xhaka, and then doubled the lead in the second half through Aubameyang’s penalty.
United were left to rue their missed chances, as the away side created a lot more opportunities than their FA Cup tie, yet failed to find the back of the net even once. Romelu Lukaku was especially guilty of missing a host of opportunities, while both he and Fred had also hit the frame of the goal in the first half.
In the end, Arsenal won the game, climbed to 4th position and ended Solskjaer’s unbeaten run in the Premier League as United manager. The away side were left pondering over how different things could have been, had they converted at least half of the chances that came their way.
The heart of the matter
At the end of the game, Solskjaer reflected on the area that things went wrong:
We started slow, maybe a bit left from Wednesday, we created chances, when they got the first goal it’s a different game, we created so many more chances today than when we beat them in the cup, but that doesn’t help when you get this result.
He was then asked whether United’s bad luck in front of goal had left him scratching his head:
It’s not scratching your head. Sometimes it happens, we had five very big chances, some days strikers take them, some days they don’t and I can’t remember any saves that David had to make, I think the ref will be disappointed when he sees it I don’t think it is having seen it on tele. They didn’t really carve us.
He also revealed that David De Gea was disappointed with the soft goal he left in, in the first half. He also refused to blame the defeat on injuries:
No, not at all (injuries causing the defeat), today first goal decides how the game goes, they score the first and let us have the ball a bit more than they wanted to I thought we created some great chances but didn’t’ take them, I know as striker more than anyone that you can’t miss chances.
What’s Next?
United travel to the Molineux Stadium to face Wolverhampton Wanderers in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
