Arsenal may have lost three games in a row before their amazing victory over Chelsea in midweek, but Man United have hardly been setting the world on fire either. They have lost their last three away games at Man City, Everton and Liverpool, conceding nine goals on the way.
Now they have to travel to the Emirates, where they have also lost on their last three visits without scoring even once. So it is no wonder that Rangnick doesn’t sound very confident about getting anything from the game. This is what he said about Arsenal on the official United website yesterday: “Well they have an extremely young and hungry team. They’re very technical, a lot of fast and technical players up front who try to press and counter-press pretty high. This makes them dangerous. We have to be aware of that and be prepared for that. This has also changed since the first encounter that we had with them. On the other hand, they still concede quite a few goals but, for us, it’s about the balance. We need to get back to the basics and be aggressive ourselves: on the front foot and challenge them at their back. But, at the same time, we need to be aware of their offensive weapons that they have.”
If Arsenal win this match, United will be six points behind the Gunners, but he doesn’t want to put the pressure on by saying it’s a must-win, especially after their last two dismal defeats away from home. “I wouldn’t say this is a must-win game, bearing in mind how we played in the last two away games at Everton and Liverpool, but we want to win that game.” he continued. “This is why we travel there and what we owe to our supporters and ourselves. We know that this was not going to be easy but, if we raise our level and play as we’ve played in quite a few away games before that, I still believe we have a chance to get three points there. In order to do that, we have to play far better than we did in the last two away games.”
Well, I don’t think I have ever heard a Man United manager be so downbeat before ahead of a game with Arsenal. Perhaps it was not such a good time to announce the new manager before the old one had finished doing his job?
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