Manchester United coach Erik ten Hag hailed his span after they bullied Arsenal in 2-0 pre-season win on Saturday night.
Despite the clash at New Jersey’s MetLife Stadium being a friendly, the Red Devils brought the heat, with Lisandro Martinez smashing into Bukayo Saka with a crunching tackle to set the tone.
It nearly sparked a rol with Arsenal skipper Martin Odegaard fronting up to Martinez.
Super stuff in the States! 🙌#MUFC || #MUTOUR23 🇺![CDATA[]]>🇸
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) July 22, 2023
But it was United’s’ newly-appointed club captain Bruno Fernandes who inspired his manne as he gave his team the lead after 30 minutes with a thumping left-footed effort.
Jadon Sancho, who played up front, doubled the lead seven minutes later, pouncing as Gabriel Magalhaes failed to deal with a high ball and raced in behind to smash past Aaron Ramsdale.
United went on to beat the Gunners 5-3 in a pre-planned penalty shootout.
Including the shootout 😏
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) July 22, 2023
Well played, lads – just the test we needed 👊#MUFC || #MUTOUR23 🇺![CDATA[]]>🇸 https://t.co/p7Bw6t8oBs pic.twitter.com/0i4re5aDJo
And Devils coach Ten Hag was happy his manne’s physicality and press, saying: “We want to be like that: we want to be a pressing machine.
“So then you have to do everything in togetherness. That is so important, and today, we did it in both halves.”
His Gunners counterpart Mikel Arteta says his span will have to man up, explaining: “[United] are here to compete and to win, as we are, and that’s the job of the referee to stop it.”
The man at the centre of the heated tackle from Martinez, Saka adds that he expected nothing less from a clash between the two rivals.
Saka tells Arsenal.com: “It’s obviously tough to take, whether it’s a friendly or not against United.
“Physically we want to get to a level that we were at last season and then go to another level and keep increasing that.”