Louis Van Gaal Slams 'Worst' Manchester United Performance of His Reign

Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal has lambasted his players for putting in their "worst" performance of his tenure at the club after they were soundly beaten 3-0 by Arsenal on Sunday.

According to the Daily Star's Colin Harvey, the Dutchman did not mince his words:

"

When you start like that you can never win a game, we lost every duel, every second ball, not tight on their midfielder, and they can play they are a fantastic team when you let them give them that space it is difficult.

That was the worse United have been under me, we were not able to give a normal performance. I have never seen that of my team, that is the question I put to my players.

"

The Red Devils conceded all three goals inside the first 20 minutes as Arsenal roared out of the traps.

Alexis Sanchez, Theo Walcott and Mesut Ozil in particular stood out as they carved through United's helpless defence to hand the Gunners just their second Premier League victory over United since 2008.

Arsenal were especially dominant in the first half, as Squawka Football demonstrate:

Football writer Liam Canning and journalist Ed Malyon led the critics in tearing apart United's performance on Twitter as readily as Arsenal had on the pitch:

Captain Wayne Rooney was a particular target following his abject display, with Canning and Football 365's Daniel Storey pulling no punches in their assessment of the England international:

Matteo Darmian was also culpable for Sanchez's two goals, allowing the Chilean to ghost in front of him for the first and cut inside him with ease for the second.

However, Van Gaal refused to pinpoint individual performances as the majority of his team were just as poor. He said: "I could not change anything, if it was just one player then I can take measure but it was more than half of my team who were not doing what we had agreed in our game plan."

While United have been far from vintage this season, such a comprehensive defeat even to Arsenal was something of a shock.

The Red Devils are still only two points behind league leaders Manchester City though so they are still well and truly in the title race, but the match served as a timely reminder they are still a long way from where they should be.

Everton and City await United after the international break, and with both teams looking good the Red Devils will need to dramatically improve if they're to collect even three points from the two matches.