Manchester United Handed a Title Reality Check with Heavy Defeat to Arsenal

At the end of a depressing 90 minutes at the Emirates Stadium, Louis van Gaal encroached on to the pitch clasping his clipboard to implore his players to trudge back over to the club’s travelling fans and acknowledge their support.

Having lost 3-0 to Arsenal and produced the most-insipid and spineless performance of his 15-month reign, the United manager was forcing his players to face the very fans they had so spectacularly let down. 

United did not look like themselves, and not only because they wore black; they were slow, uncertain and utterly outplayed by Arsenal.

And yet, only two days earlier, with United perched on top of the Premier League table, Van Gaal had confidently predicted both a win at Arsenal and an ensuing title challenge.

“I think you have to believe always in this [ability to win the title],” Van Gaal had said, as reported by the Daily Telegraph, before adding, “And when we win at Arsenal, then the belief shall raise a lot, I believe.”

Rather than rise, that belief has instead plummeted in the wake of such a dispiriting and comprehensive defeat.

Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images

Of course, losing is a part of the game but not like this, and the truth is 3-0 has a sheen of respectability about it, whereas if Arsenal had take their chances and asserted their authority more in the second half, it could have been so much worse for United.

It had taken 28 months for United to haul themselves back up to the summit of the table, and yet, gripped by a strange complacency, they meekly stepped aside after a week.

Van Gaal even admitted his team had played without something that has always been in the club’s DNA: “A will to win.”

Any talk of the title now from the United camp looks hopelessly premature, and just a little foolish.

United had risen to the top of the table with wins over Tottenham, Aston Villa, Liverpool, Southampton and Sunderland, but even among that there had not been a completely convincing display.

As soon as they faced a title rival in Arsenal, they imploded and conceded three goals in the first 20 minutes of a game for the first time in the Premier League.

United simply couldn’t cope with Arsenal’s movement and running from midfield, and they were completely overrun.

Julian Finney/Getty Images

At the end of the game, as I walked out of the Emirates, I stepped over a copy of that day’s Sunday Times folded over to show an article in which Graeme Souness had said in bold type, “Daley Blind is not quick and is no good in the air. He’s going to get exposed at some stage.”

Souness’ dire prediction on Blind had just come to life in the previous 90 minutes right in front of me.

The Dutchman is a fine, fine player, and his passing has been a feature of United’s success this season, but he is not a central defender.

At the Emirates, he looked like a makeshift defender, bewildered by the movement of Arsenal’s attack.

United’s other league defeat of this season had come at Swansea when the opposition honed in on Blind’s weaknesses and were able to outmuscle him to score twice late in the game.

United’s performance at the Emirates provided further evidence that Van Gaal seriously erred when he chose not to sign an established central defender during the summer.

JUSTIN TALLIS/Getty Images

It meant United completed the game on Sunday with only one recognised defender, Chris Smalling, in their back four alongside Blind, Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia.

After spending around £250 million in 15 months, this is a faintly ridiculous situation to find themselves in.

But the defeat went far beyond the United defence.

United’s midfield was slow and out of ideas, and all Van Gaal could do was bring on the equally slow Marouane Fellaini at half-time.

The position of Wayne Rooney is becoming an increasingly difficult one for United as he continues to look ineffective and peripheral.

One goal in his last 1,135 minutes in the Premier League is a damning statistic on its own, but he is currently offering United little else in his new withdrawn role.

In the month he turns 30, it would still be dangerous to dismiss Rooney, but United need more dynamism from a No. 10.

Julian Finney/Getty Images

Just over a month ago, few United fans had actually heard of him, but they have now quickly come to rely on new signing Anthony Martial.

Even amid the defeat at the Emirates, the Frenchman’s pace and direct running was their only hope of breaking Arsenal down. But depending on a raw 19-year-old is never a good plan.

When a team is sitting on top of the table at the start of October, it seems reasonable to consider them title challengers.

But Arsenal ruthlessly exposed how vulnerable United are beneath the surface, and titles are won away at the Emirates and not with home wins over bottom-placed Sunderland.  

It doesn’t augur well for the rest of the campaign that United so completely failed their first real test of the season.