By the time Wayne Rooney traipsed his way over to Manchester United’s travelling fans at the final whistle, his team had been ripped to shreds.
This was a mauling, a savaging on a grand scale.
‘I have players going away for the international break who are leaving from London City airport,’ moaned Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal, who has no time for an inquest.
It was tempting to send Van Gaal with the players after this, to jettison this fabled coach back to Holland. When the United boss sends out a team as vapid as this for a fixture this big, it would be easy to pass him off as a tired old has-been.
As Alexis Sanchez scored twice and Mesut Ozil grabbed the other, United’s demeanour was alarming. Collectively, their team stunk the place out. ‘I didn’t expect that — I was surprised because we didn’t perform to our gameplan,’ said Van Gaal.
‘We didn’t have the will to win and when you are top of the league, I was surprised — amazed even. When you give a team like Arsenal so much space to play football then you know you will lose. We prepared ourselves to be compact and not to lose our aggression, so I am very disappointed.’
United’s left winger Ashley Young was embarrassed at left back and Rooney looks shot to bits. Whatever is going on with him needs to be addressed, sharpish.
‘I had the same question about Morgan Schneiderlin, but I can’t answer because when I say it was not good, or in a negative way, then the headlines say I was not satisfied with the performance of Rooney,’ added Van Gaal.
United were outplayed by the 11 warriors sent out by Arsene Wenger to put right everything that was wrong about their performance when losing to Olympiacos on Tuesday evening.
They sparkled here, putting United away with football that belonged to the Invincibles era. At times, they really were that good.
‘We won our last league game at Leicester 5-2 and this was another convincing performance,’ declared Wenger. ‘It was a strong and united response to our disappointment, but it shows a lot about the group. That’s what you want.’
His only concern was Sanchez limping off with a groin injury late on. He will be assessed by Chile before their World Cup qualifiers against Brazil and Peru. – Daily Mail