Onana is a problem for Ten Hag
Erik ten Hag can point to injuries and clearly this is not his strongest side, with Manchester United trying to come up with a temporary solution at left-back. But the appetite for excuses at Old Trafford is fading when the manager’s goalkeeper is creating such uncertainty.
He was not well supported by his defence in Tuesday’s 3-2 Champions League defeat by Galatasaray. Diogo Dalot could have done better for the first goal, Victor Lindelof was caught out of position for the second and Raphael Varane was nowhere to be seen for the third. Sofyan Amrabat struggled badly in that second half.
But while doubts over Dalot and Lindelof are hardly new, and Amrabat is playing out of position on the left, Onana was supposed to be the goalkeeper to help usher in a new era at Manchester United, a man capable of bringing calm to the team in possession.
Sanny Rudravajhala and Adam Bate discuss what went wrong for Manchester United in their Champions League defeat to Galatasaray.
He has already found himself involved in a number of hairy incidents. Against Galatasaray, he might have been more assertive for Wilfried Zaha’s goal and there was another hapless attempt to collect a cross in the second half. That seemed to affect his coconfidenc
was not long afterwards that his poor pass out from the back directly led to Casemiro being sent off, shifting the momentum of the match. If David De Gea had made a mistake like that it would have been produced as evidence of his inability to play with his feet.
Onana can do it, he has demonstrated that ability, something that Ten Hag was keen to stress in the press conference after the game. But the United boss is up against it right now and needs his big players to deliver. His goalkeeper failed to do that and it proved costly.
Adam Bate
If there is one positive to take from Manchester United’s latest disappointment, it’s the performance of Rasmus Hojlund.
The 20-year-old was a shining light on another dismal evening for Erik ten Hag’s side. United have been missing a No 9 like him. Strength, power, pace, determination, terrific hold-up play and clinical finishing, Hojlund put on an impressive individual show at Old Trafford.
this summer, Hojlund made a surging run to head home Marcus Rashford’s cross early in the game and then ran from inside his own half before applying a delicate finish to give United the lead again after the break. He could have had a hat-trick but saw another composed strike correctly disallowed for offside.
The Denmark international became the youngest player to score in his first two Champions League appearances since Erling Haaland in 2019. He is also just the fourth man to find the net at least three times in his first two Champions League matches for United after Romelu Lukaku, Dimitar Berbatov and Wayne Rooney.
Hojlund played with maturity beyond his years against Galatasaray and if his side defended properly, this game would have been all about him. His future is bright, even if United’s immediate one is not.
Dan Sansom
Almost everyone else can be replaced: Arsenal cannot afford to lose Bukayo Saka to injury.
Exactly why the England winger is so indispensable to Arsenal was seen in their defeat at Lens. As soon as Saka came off, the Gunners had a flat tyre.
Saka is the player with the most one-on-ones in the Premier League this season – he relentlessly explores those individual duels with the full-back, and averages 14 per Premier League game.
But on Tuesday night, his replacement, Fabio Vieira, attempted to get around his man only once.
It is the same on the other side: Gabriel Martinelli has similar numbers to Saka. Leandro Trossard is an adequate replacement for the Brazilian, but Sunday’s visit of Manchester City demands more than just adequate.
Mikel Arteta knows it too. “The two wingers that we are missing, they give us a lot of threat,” he said after the defeat to Lens. “And it’s different to other qualities we have in the squad.”
It feels that Arsenal’s hopes of beating Man City on Sunday could be determined by the team news…
Sam Blitz
No Champions League games are easy, especially away from home. That’s something you hear every year and Arsenal found out the hard way against Lens at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis.
With the French side playing their first Champions league home game in more than 20 years, the atmosphere was hostile and raucous, but Arsenal did well to see off the early Lens storm before taking the lead through Gabriel Jesus’ strike.
The Gunners were in full control of the game and keeping the home fans quiet. That was until David Raya’s loose pass allowed Lens back into the game through Adrien Thomasson’s fine find
When asked what he can do to help his side cut out costly mistakes, Arteta said: “We want to stop everything and produce big possibilities for the team to win the game. But mistakes are part of it and errors happen in football constantly, every three or four seconds an error will happen, yours or the opponent, and we have to adapt to that.”
In the end, it proved really costly as Lens completed a superb comeback to inflict a first defeat of the season on Mikel Arteta’s side after Elye Wahi’s winning goal. An individual error also cost Arsenal in the north London derby when Jorginho was caught in possession for Heung-min Son’s equaliser, which saw Spurs rescue a point at the Emirates Stadium.
The Gunners, who haven’t found the fluency of last season so far this campaign, cannot afford errors. They will know they will need a near-perfect performance when the league leaders Man City come to town on Sunday.
Oliver Yew