Online Reporter
Outside Old Trafford a photo of Alejandro Garnacho had been vandalised with an X drawn across his face.
On the back of the matchday programme Jadon Sancho’s name sat at the bottom of a long list of 38 Manchester United players. He was the only one not to be allocated a squad number.
Rasmus Hojlund, so often given the thankless task of spearheading the United attack last season, found himself dropped from the squad in a not-so-subtle message to pack his bags and leave before the end of the transfer window.
Marcus Rashford was pushed out to Barcelona on loan and Antony has become an afterthought in these parts now.
And so here was a Manchester United in Ruben Amorim’s vision. Ripped up and started again to the tune of £200million. What was produced over the course of 96 minutes in defeat to Arsenal — that can’t go on too much longer, granted — was an underlining of why he was right to start over.
United scored a paltry 32 league goals from 27 league games last season under Amorim. Over the course of the campaign only four teams scored fewer league goals than United (and three of them went down!)
Factor in, too, that even when they did create chances they wasted them, boasting — if that can even be an appropriate word here – the second lowest shot conversion rate in the league, both in total and from ‘‘Big Chances’’.
Too often Manchester United’s attackers sucked the life out of a stadium that was already a bag of nerves.
So, to see the electrifying displays of Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha getting fans off their feet time after time after time was to underline to supporters just how much the previous iteration of this Amorim side had had them starving.
Mbeumo was so dynamic in the role of right No 10, a thorn in the side of Arsenal left back Riccardo Calafiori all game.
In a relentless first half he completed 100 per cent of his dribbles from 13 sprints. Eight completed passes, four crosses, two shots and a created chance had some inside Old Trafford in disbelief. One particular one-on-one deserved a better finish than the fatigued one it ended up with.
As far as first impressions go, this was a great one, even if no goal arrived as the cherry on top.
Cunha, too, thriving in a role that allowed him space to break from deep and switch between being a false No 9 and a wide player as one of the No 10s.
It took two spectacular saves from David Raya, one down low to his left with mere fingertips to deny Cunha in the first half, and a brilliant reflex stop to keep out an Mbeumo header in the second, to deny both attackers goals their performances deserved.
By the time Simon Hooper blew his whistle to put Arsenal out of their misery as they clung on for a huge three points, Cunha and Mbeumo had taken nine shots between them. That was as many as the entire Arsenal team managed combined.
The retort here is that United lost again. They did that a lot last season and, take Cunha as one example, stats show he had the least touches (35) of any outfield player to play 90 minutes and lost the most duels (12) in the match.
That is why the eye test is important. Old Trafford felt like a place attackers could thrive again after previously looking like a graveyard where promising players’ careers to die. — Daily Mail
Online Reporter