Clouds remain over Ten Hag reign

AFTER a performance as seismic as the one Manchester United delivered at Crystal Palace on Monday, changes were a necessity. Erik ten Hag was never going to play the same team, for the message it would send his players and the message it would portray about his own leadership.

- TYRONE MARSHALL

Despite going down to another defeat - the 14th of this Premier League season - he will be pleased with the response shown at Old Trafford. The Dutchman and his squad were unworthy of the levels of support they got in south London on Monday night but this time the Stretford End raised the decibels because of what they were seeing.

This was a performance with more structure to it than we have seen of late. Arsenal were odds-on to score at least three goals before kick-off but rarely looked like mustering more than the one they got, which came courtesy of a United mistake anyway. They ended the game with just 11 shots, only one more than Sheffield United managed at the end of last month.

The title-chasers looked nervous and that played a part, but they were unsettled by a combative United. The softtouch who have been too easy to play against in recent months were anything but against a team trying to end a 20-year title drought.

Ten Hag's hand was tied to a degree about the changes he could make, so he turned to two players who have been available to him throughout a dire run of two wins in the last 10 Premier League games. While it worked, it also doesn't reflect that well on Ten Hag, the underpressure manager who had the eyes of Sir Jim Ratcliffe on him at Old Trafford.

Sofyan Amrabat added some steel to the midfield and Amad was bright until injury forced him off for the final quarter.