Manchester United's Pre-Season Performance: Erik ten Hag Reflects on Arsenal Defeat

Erik ten Hag provided his thoughts following Manchester United's narrow 2-1 defeat against Arsenal, during our opening game of Tour 2024, presented by Snapdragon.

Rasmus Hojlund fired the Reds into a first-half lead at SoFi Stadium, showing brilliant pace, power, and strength to muscle off Ayden Heaven before tucking the ball home after just ten minutes played.

Despite our early dominance, Arsenal hit back through Gabriel Jesus in a goal that appeared to be offside, as the Brazilian tapped home from close range to restore parity.

Gabriel Martinelli's late strike settled the game, netting the winning goal with just nine minutes left on the clock in Los Angeles.

A penalty shootout then took place following the encounter, with Jadon Sancho netting the decisive spot-kick as Ten Hag's side emerged 4-3 winners.

Following the encounter, the boss spoke to club reporter Sam Carney about the game and below you can read what Erik made of our loss to Mikel Arteta's side...

A VERY GOOD GAME

"I think [the game] was a very good level for the third week of pre-season, from both sides, but in the first half I thought we were the better team. We scored a very good goal, a very good ball in behind from [Marcus] Rashford and then [Rasmus] Hojlund with a very good move and a finish, I was very pleased. We also created some more good chances and we then conceded the goal which was offside."

HOJLUND'S GOAL

"In such occasions he is very strong and he is a threat for every defence and he has [those] scoring abilities."

HOJLUND AND YORO UPDATE

"Of course it is too short [to know about their injuries] and we have to wait over 24 hours, then we will hopefully know more. We were careful especially with Leny [Yoro] as he only did 50 percent of the [training] sessions. He has to come up but let's be positive and see what comes out."

TEN CHANGES FOR SECOND HALF

"It was different, it was a mixed team and this was the first time they have played together. We had a player playing full-back for the first time in his life [James Scanlon] and then you have to play against experienced Premier League players, that is not easy. I think at the second goal we let him down a little bit and we could help him there by giving him a little bit more support by supporting or covering. Overall I think the team played a good performance and we could have drawn this game."

PENALTY PRACTICE

"It is important, as we know with all the cup competitions we are in. Penalties can be important, I think Andre [Onana] made two good saves, so it is therefore important to always have a goalkeeper who is good in penalty shootouts. He proved it once again and I think the penalties, except one, they were all good."

REAL BETIS NEXT

"It is a short slot and we are there [in San Diego] quickly, so we have to prepare the team, we must be ready and of course we have to recover from this and then go again [on Thursday]."