Erik ten Hag explains how Cristiano Ronaldo substitution helped Manchester United beat Arsenal

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag felt Cristiano Ronaldo's introduction gave them more flexibility in attack as they inflicted a first defeat of the season on Premier League leaders Arsenal.

Ronaldo replaced Jadon Sancho in the 58th minute with United 1-0 up and two minutes later Bukayo Saka drew level. However, Arsenal were only level for six minutes as Marcus Rashford was played in by Bruno Fernandes to regain United's lead and the academy graduate struck again in the 75th minute. Also read: United player ratings vs Arsenal Rashford was relocated to the left wing to accommodate Ronaldo, who had his most productive outing of the season as the centre forward.

When asked what the thinking was behind moving Rashford, Ten Hag said: "It can also do it from the right, you bring in Cristiano Ronaldo as a frontman. "Marcus did as a nine and from the wing, he played like Christian Eriksen, a pressing game, he transferred really good, but we expect from him a way of playing as a striker to be the target, drop in, play over, linking, arriving in the box and scoring goals. "I'm really happy with his performance, it shows his development and room for improvement, but he’s got such great capabilities, I’m happy with him in the team." United have won four consecutive games for the first time since April 2021 and are now only three points off the Premier League summit.

Their European programme begins on Thursday with the visit of Real Sociedad before the trek to Crystal Palace next Sunday. "We have to keep pushing," Ten Hag added. "The attitude and mentality, set high standards every day, we have to do better, there’s a lot of room for improvement from the start of the season, we have to work hard every day and everyone has to