Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted to Arsenal being simply far superior against them on New Year’s day.
Manchester United failed to take advantage of Chelsea’s slip-up against Brighton And Hove Albion in the top four race.
Goals from Nicolas Pepe and Sokratis Papstathopoulos condemned the Red Devils to a 2-0 defeat against old foes, Arsenal. United fail to create a clear cut chance throughout the 90 minutes and were quite openly bested by Mikel Arteta’s tactics.
“We started decent the first five or six minutes, didn’t capitalise, and then they played really well. They were brighter than us,” Solskjaer told BBC’s MOTD.
“We were too slow in the first half, but that’s credit to them. Some tired heads maybe. In the second half, we put them under pressure but couldn’t get the goal. We kept going but the quality wasn’t good enough.”
This defeat keeps United 5 points behind Chelsea in the fifth spot while Arsenal moved up to tenth. Solskjaer’s men had no answer for Arsenal’s high pressing as both teams worked through a very tiring winter fixture.
Solskjaer also revealed Paul Pogba’s return is to be delayed by several weeks. The Frenchman has not fully recovered from his foot injury.
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