Man United loses 3-1 at Arsenal, further damages top-4 hopes

LONDON (AP) — Erik ten Hag seems to be prone to be taking up a Manchester United crew lacking from the Champions League.

Regardless of Cristiano Ronaldo making an emotional scoring return, United was crushed 3-1 by Arsenal within the Premier League on Saturday and dropped six factors off its rival within the race for a top-four end.

Granit Xhaka’s long-range, Seventieth-minute strike clinched victory for Arsenal in a wild recreation at Emirates Stadium that noticed the house crew lead 2-0 after 32 minutes — via targets by Nuno Tavares and Bukayo Saka — earlier than withstanding a United fightback launched by Ronaldo’s one centesimal Premier League aim.

The Portugal celebrity, who missed the 4-0 loss to Liverpool on Tuesday whereas grieving the dying of his new child son, raised his left arm and pointed to the sky after scoring within the thirty fourth minute.

United was awarded a penalty within the fifty fifth however Bruno Fernandes and struck the submit after his trademark stuttering run-up.

To make issues worse for Fernandes, it was his miscontrol that gave Xhaka the chance to take goal and declare the essential third aim for Arsenal, which climbed into fourth place above north London rival Tottenham.

As for sixth-place United, it has 4 video games left of a depressing season that may finish with no trophies — for the fifth straight 12 months — and see Ten Hag take over from Ralf Rangnick, the second of two interim managers put in by the membership since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was fired in November.

Ten Hag has a serious job on his palms to rebuild United into the trophy-winning power of outdated — Rangnick mentioned Friday that the crew wanted open coronary heart surgical procedure versus beauty adjustments — and this was one other worrying show, particularly defensively after United’s mauling by Liverpool.

Membership captain Harry Maguire was overlooked by Rangnick, due to a mixture of the England defender’s poor current type and the very fact he obtained a bomb menace at his residence throughout the week.

Saka went off injured halfway via the second half however he had already performed his injury by then. It was his curling shot that was palmed out by David De Gea straight to the toes of Tavares, who turned the ball residence from shut vary within the third minute.

Then Saka scored a penalty for the second straight recreation — after doing so within the 4-2 win over Chelsea on Wednesday — after he was bundled over by Alex Telles.

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