Saturday, 22nd November, 2014



Manchester United boss Louis van Gaal has taken a philosophical view of his team's 2-1 win over Arsenal this evening at the Emirates Stadium, believing had the Gunners taken their chances it could have been a different story.

Arsene Wenger's men enjoyed much the better of the first half and were the dominant side, but could not turn that into a breakthrough, meaning both teams went in level at 0-0 at half time.




Then Manchester United were the ones who took the lead, through a Kieran Gibbs own goal in the 56th minute, and against the run of play.

 


The game soon went up a notch, with Arsenal pushing hard for an equaliser and Manchester United starting to look a real threat on the counter attack.

Wenger even brought on striker Olivier Giroud, just back from injury, as Arsenal looked to draw level.

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But Manchester United made a counter attack pay, with Angel di Maria sprinting up the pitch and playing in Wayne Rooney, who slotted home the Red Devils' second.

Giroud pulled one back for Arsenal with a fine long-range strike, but they could not find a leveller.

Van Gaal was delighted with the win, the first away victory of his reign, but keen not to get too carried away.

"I think it is a fantastic victory at the right moment. We have a lot of injuries, but despite of that we win a difficult away match. Arsenal are a good attacking team. At the end I can laugh but you can imagine if they score one of four or five chances in the first half it is a different game", he was quoted as saying by the BBC.

"They have had five big chances yes, but we have also had possibilities at the end of the first half. Not so big but we could also score.

"In the second part of the first half we were coming back. We don't have the confidence in the first half and I said we needed to build up the ball and because of that we got chances. It is no surprise for me that we scored in the second half.

"I was not pleased with the ball possession of our team but after that we improved and in the second half we did very well."

 


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