Despite the opportunity to go to the top of the Premier League table, it really was a shocking performance from Louis van Gaal’s Manchester United side.
A dire first twenty minutes left United 3-0 down and without any realistic chance of securing a result. Dominant performances from Santi Cazorla, Mesut Özil and Alexis Sanchez ensured that despite a better showing in the second half the Red Devils were miles off the pace and never really looked like winning.
David de Gea – 6
He may have conceded 3, but he didn’t really have a bad day. He could do very little to prevent any of Arsenal’s goals. Often left wanting of the defence in front of him.
Matteo Darmian – 1
A shockingly bad performance from the Italian. He may not have had much support from the winger in front of him, but that is really no excuse. Sanchez had him on a plate every time. He was weak in the challenges and his marking was almost none existent. Substituted at half-time.
Chris Smalling – 6
Similar to David de Gea there wasn’t really a lot he did wrong tonight. He was strong in the air again tonight, but realistically there isn’t a lot he could do when he had to try and cover the other three defenders around him. He deserved more cover than he got today.
Daley Blind – 3
A poor performance from the Dutch defender. The pace of Walcott and Sanchez exposed him far too often. He wasn’t helped by the poor performance from Ashley Young. Will surely be dropped when Phil Jones is back to full fitness.
Ashley Young – 2
Awful. He only gets a higher rating than Darmian for his sporadic attacking threats. Struggled to make any real impact on the Arsenal attack, exposed by the pace of Bellerin and lacked the tactical knowledge to call Memphis and Schweinsteiger back into position.
Michael Carrick – 4
It pains me to do this as I’m a big Michael Carrick fan but today he simply wasn’t good enough. He showed no real pace, no desire and certainly no defensive mindset. His vision and passing ability looked down on what it used to be and he simply didn’t look up to the contest today.
Bastian Schweinsteiger – 1
A really poor showing today from the German. He may have countless years of footballing experience, but he didn’t show it tonight. He was dragged out of position far too often, looked slow getting back and unfortunately, his poor performance left Young struggling.
Memphis Depay – 4
A truly shocking performance from the young Dutchman. He offered absolutely no threat going forward and his Berbatov-esque work rate meant that he gave Ashley Young no coverage or help defensively.
Wayne Rooney – 3
Yet again a poor performance from the United skipper. He looked slow, off the pace, his touch was extremely poor as was his vision and passing range. Unfortunately, he looked a mere shadow of his former self.
Juan Mata- 5
He has been impressive recently, but today was a major exception. The Spaniard’s tendency to come inside left United with a lack of presence on the right flank and similar to Memphis, his sheer lack of effort meant Darmian in the first half and Valencia in the second half received no support defensively.
Anthony Martial- 7
A shining light in an otherwise dismal display. The French wonderkid looked dangerous on the ball and was only denied by a stunning save from Petr Cech. Unfortunately, the poor midfield performance meant he was living on scraps and never got the true service he deserved.
Substitutes:
Marouane Fellaini – 6
Fellaini replaced the shocking Memphis at half-time. Not a great performance from the big Belgian, but not an awful one either. Didn’t really create many chances but didn’t give away possession either. A solid 45 minutes for Fellaini.
Antonio Valencia – 6
The Ecuadorian replaced the struggling Darmian at half-time. However by the second half United were back on top of the game as Arsenal sat off happy to hold onto their lead. Due to this lack of Arsenal threat he made no real impact on the game.
James Wilson – 6
The Englishman replaced Juan Mata after 82 minutes as a last throw of the dice move from van Gaal. He was only on the pitch for about 10 minutes and because of this he never really got a chance to change the course of the match. Always nice to see an academy graduate getting game time though.
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