With the season coming to a close, Erik ten Hag took one last opportunity to talk about Manchester United’s September defeat to Arsenal this week.
More than eight months after Manchester United’s defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, Erik ten Hag is still going on about the result like it explains his team’s season.
“In this season we almost didn’t get the turning point where you say ‘now we can make a step through’,” ten Hag said in midweek.
“I remember the Arsenal game, where we played very good, and in the 87th minute I thought we won the game, with a goal from Garnacho.
“That could have given a big lift to the team, and with that belief and confidence you build on in the next games. But we never got this.”
This is one of many, many times that ten Hag has talked about United’s defeat to Arsenal, claiming in February that they “deserved” to win that game.
Before last week’s match against the Gunners, ten Hag said of Garnacho’s goal: “That was one of the moments that our season could have gotten into a turnaround.”
Back in September, ten Hag said the offside decision was “not offside”, claiming the VAR officials used “the wrong angle”.
The Premier League’s independent Key Match Incidents panel reviewed all the incidents in the Manchester United game, and it was revealed that the officials did make one mistake – by failing to award the Gunners a penalty.
Arsenal were initially awarded a spot-kick for a foul on Kai Havertz, but VAR overturned the decision, despite replays showing contact on the German international.
The KMI panel have admitted this was one of three wrong decisions this season where VAR intervened and it shouldn’t have.
Of course, Manchester United had another chance to beat Arsenal fair and square, playing them at home last week.
They lost, again, and ten Hag continued to talk about the September match instead of addressing the game that just happened.
United go into the final day of the season looking to jump into seventh place ahead of Newcastle United, though their negative goal difference means they need a favour from Newcastle’s opponents Brentford.