Ruben Amorim’s first trip to Arsenal as a Premier League manager ended with his first Premier League loss, as Arsenal fell 2-0 to Manchester United at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday.
Arsenal’s corner kick mastery continued, and Amorim will surely be going over his set piece defense after conceding twice off corners.
“The difference today was the set pieces,” Amorim said. “You see the goal and how the momentum changed. We could’ve taken full control of the game. We tried, but it was the set pieces.”
Amorim had overseen a draw at Ipswich Town before wins over Bodo/Glimt in the Europa League and Everton in the Premier League led him to North London. Now he’s got a loss on his record.
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It’s not a surprise that Amorim cited the set piece defense as one of the top things his team needs to fix, but he also noted that minutes limits for Mason Mount, Harry Maguire, and Leny Yoro limit his pre- and in-game decisions.
United looked bright early but Arsenal’s experience took over after halftime. Amorim’s spoken plenty about how much work there is to do to fix the Red Devils, and Wednesday saw it laid bare.
So how did he see it?
Ruben Amorim reaction — What did Man United boss say after loss at Arsenal?
Here’s what Ruben Amorim said after the 2-0 loss.
“Tough game. We tried to play our game, especially in the first half. We need more trainings. The set pieces change everything, change the momentum. It was really hard them. We tried, but we had two set pieces and didn’t score. They scored.”
On Arsenal’s corner kick prowess: “We have to understand that they have years of doing that. Even when you are here for so long, you can see how their set pieces can change that. We tried to defend them in the space of two days to train.”
On the moment Matthijs de Ligt hit the cross bar “It could be different if [De Ligt] scores. Also Antony on the free kick but it is what it is. We will try to do it in the next games.”
What he learned about his players today: “I learned that we are smart when we have the strategy. We are finding the way to press and the way to block. We will be better in time.”
“We have to improve in every minute. We have to use every minute to try to improve and fight for the games.”
