Erik ten Hag watched his Manchester United side suffer a 2-1 defeat to Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal in a pre-season friendly in the USA on Sunday.
The two Premier League giants locked horns at the SoFi Stadium in California and put some much-needed minutes into their legs ahead of the new Premier League season.
Rasmus Hojlund opened the scoring for Manchester United after ten minutes when he charged down a ball over the top, shrugged off his man and managed to scramble the ball home from a tight angle.
But ten Hag didn’t have a smile on his face for too long because Arsenal struck back when Gabriel Jesus levelled the scores after 26 minutes – Arteta hailed Jesus’ transformation.
The Manchester United manager made it clear that Jesus was ‘offside’ for that goal, with no VAR in use because it’s only a pre-season friendly.
But the matter was still brought up, with the Dutchman not being able to complain about Arsenal’s winner, which was scored by Gabriel Martinelli four minutes from time – there was a penalty shootout after normal time, which Manchester United won.
Arsenal beat Manchester United, home and away, during the last campaign and the signs are still positive for the London club.
Even though they went 1-0 down, they continued to change forward and were probably the better team as the game wore on.
But ten Hag had other ideas, as he first of all highlighted that it was a ‘very intense’ game ‘for the third week of pre-season’ and how the FA Cup winners were the ‘better team’, as he told Manchester United’s website.
Gabriel Jesus’ goal deemed ‘offside’ by Erik ten Hag
“I think it was a very intense game, in a good level for the third week in pre-season, both sides,” said ten Hag.
“But I thought, in the first half, we were the better team and we scored a very good goal. A very good ball in behind for Rashford and Hojlund with a very good move, run and finish.
“I was very pleased. We created some more chances, we conceded the goal and it’s offside.”
Arsenal and Manchester United next season
It seems as though the same old, same old pattern repeated themselves at the SoFi Stadium. From Arsenal winning again to Manchester United’s injuries.
New boy Leny Yoro joined Manchester United this summer, but he was already limping off with an injury, alongside Hojlund.
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As for Arteta, Arsenal missed out on the Premier League title to Manchester City on the last day of the previous campaign and they will be determined to put things right now.
The new signings are about to come in, with sources telling HITC that Riccardo Calafiori is scheduled for a medical ahead of his transfer to Arsenal.
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