Yesterday’s outcome was very detrimental to Arsenal and their title hopes this season. It was one Arsenal had to win, against a weakened United side full of under-21 players.
18-year-old Marcus Rashford was the star of the show Sunday for Manchester United. He scored two goals while setting up Ander Herrera for United’s third. Four days ago, absolutely no one knew who this guy was after Anthony Martial pulled up in warm ups with a hamstring injury against FC Midtjylland.
(note: this Arsenal article is from The Sports Bank contributor Jeff Gordon)
The last 18-year-old player to score a brace in their Premier League debut was none other than club captain Wayne Rooney.
Instead of Arsene Wenger’s men taking this opportunity to put pressure on Leicester City, with Chelsea struggling and Manchester City not hitting their normal highs, the Gunners yet again replicated their past failures and fell well short when the spotlight was upon them.
Arsenal didn’t start like a team that wanted to seize the opportunity. It’s been a season of opportunities wasted opportunities. Wenger chose Theo Walcott over Olivier Giroud. At the time, this seemed to be a logical decision based on the fact that Daley Blind and Michael Carrick don’t have any pace between them.
When Walcott actually did make the runs behind the two central defenders he didn’t receive any service from his teammates. Which begs the question- if Theo is in the first team, and you’re not going to play those passes to him then why put him in the starting lineup?
During the post match press conference Wenger said that he could not fault his team’s commitment, their spirit and desire.
Fans should be concerned by this. He really should have been raging and screaming with how his team performed. It was a team that lacked intensity against a side that on paper, Arsenal should have beat.
-Jeff Gordon