Manchester United's season seems virtually over after a 3-1 loss to Arsenal, which now sees them six points adrift of fourth. The Gunners and Tottenham both have a game in hand so it seems highly unlikely they will close the gap before the end of the season.
With the defeat coming straight after United's 4-0 loss to Liverpool, questions have been raised about the state of the defence. Harry Maguire has been blamed by many fans as the main reason for the team's struggles this season, but Ralf Rangnick chose to drop him to the bench on Saturday — meaning that when the same errors arose against Arsenal, new conclusions had to be drawn.
Rangnick said after the game: “I said we were at least unlucky with those three or four moments, but again we have to get better at defending in the box. The way we did that until five, six weeks ago we were on a higher level.
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"Even in the pressing moments, whenever we pressed, Arsenal we were causing problems but we just didn’t press often enough. We should do it more often with more intensity and more players involved. If all the players sprint against the ball it has an even higher effect than it has today.”
It's clear United don't defend well enough as a unit, however, there are individual mistakes occurring as well, and over the past few weeks, Alex Telles' performances have come under scrutiny. Both the Brazilian and Raphael Varane were in some ways culpable for the first goal, with their substandard positioning meaning they didn't deal with the cross. Telles then barrelled into the back of Bukayo Saka after being caught flat-footed to give away a penalty for Arsenal's second.
The defender looked lost about what to do when out of possession, constantly leaving large amounts of space for Arsenal to work in and then in possession he seemed to refuse to overlap and support his winger, which handicapped United's attack.
And it seems United fans are struggling with the fact that Telles will likely start till the end of the season now with Shaw recovering from surgery to remove metal pins from his leg. This is a selection of comments from social media:
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