Ten Hag claims Man Utd ‘deserved’ to beat Arsenal and insists there has been ‘big progression’

Erik ten Hag thought that his Manchester United side did enough to beat Arsenal, despite being on the wrong end of the result.

The Red Devils managed to take the lead against the run of play as Marcus Rashford latched onto Christian Eriksen’s through-ball to give the away side the lead.

Martin Odegaard soon levelled things up and the game looked to be heading towards a draw until the game exploded into life in the final 10 minutes.

Alejandro Garnacho thought he’d won the game for Man Utd, but his goal was ruled out by VAR due to a marginal offside call.

Arsenal soon found their stride after that late scare as goals from Declan Rice and Gabriel Jesus wrapped up all three points for the home side.

However, despite the late show that Arsenal put on, Ten Hag believes that his side “deserved” to win the game.

“I think we deserved to win this game but you don’t always get what you deserve,” Ten Hag told BBC Sport.

“I look more at how we step up and if you see from the Wolves game to this game there is big progression. Tonight was a team, I am really happy with this performance and the progress of our performance.

“We did well, we make progress, stick to the plan and believe and in the future we will win games like this.”

Bruno Fernandes also spoke to the media after the game and gave his assessment on the defeat.

“It is always tough to lose the way we lost. We conceded the late goal after trying to get the draw,” Fernandes told Sky Sports.

“They are a good team, they created a lot of problems for us. It was a good game for both teams but they got the points in the end.

“I felt the game was balanced. They had some spells on the ball but we wanted them to have that, we knew we could create the danger on the counters.

“It is what it is, if it is an offside we can’t get on that. It was a good game, I am disappointed by the result, but the performance of the team, the passion was there. If we keep doing this consistently we will get results.

“It is 11 v 11, home or away doesn’t change anything. We had a really good game, it wasn’t perfect as we didn’t get the win but the spirit was right, the mentality, the desire, everyone doing the job the manager asked for.

“Sometimes the details change the game. It is not perfect to lose but I think we can take a lot of positives from this game.”

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