Manchester United are a mess no one wants to take responsibility for | Jonathan Wilson

Even if Erik Ten Hag’s men had burgled a win on Sunday, it could not have disguised the issues of investment, personnel and tactical structure

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There is a world, not too far removed from the one we live in, in which Alejandro Garnacho was not ruled offside, in which Gabriel Magalhães did not manage, like Catherine Zeta-Jones evading the infrared security beams in Entrapment, to contort his body around the VAR lines, and Manchester United stole a late winner at the Emirates on Sunday. We’d now be talking about the fine margins, about a finely executed smash-and-grab, about Erik ten Hag finally beating a major rival away from home. But in our world, Garnacho was offside and Arsenal scored twice in injury-time.

Results can be great deceivers – take United’s 1-0 win over Wolves this season, in which the West Midlands club had dominated the match. But Sunday was part of a pattern. The only away point United picked up last season against teams who finished in the top nine of the Premier League was at Tottenham, where they have already lost this season. And nobody could claim, surely, that United had played well on Sunday.

This is an extract from Soccer With Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look at the game in Europe. To subscribe, just visit this page and follow the instructions.

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