DAVID DE GEA levelled a Premier League record by making 14 saves as Manchester United won 3-1 at Arsenal this evening.
The Spain international was in inspirational form as a Jesse Lingard brace saw United narrow the gap to five points behind league leaders and rivals Manchester City ahead of next weekend’s derby at Old Trafford.
De Gea reacted superbly to stop Romelu Lukaku turning into his own goal in stoppage time at the end of the first half, but even more brilliance was to come after the interval with a sensational double save.
United’s goalkeeper got down sharply to his right to keep out an Alexandre Lacazette snapshot and immediately leapt up and used his right boot to block the rebound from Alexis Sanchez, who could not believe he had failed to score.
The 14 saves made by de Gea equals the record jointly held by Tim Krul, set in a game for Newcastle United against Tottenham in November 2013, and Vito Mannone — who was playing for Sunderland against Chelsea in April 2014 — since Opta began collecting data in the 2003-04 Premier League season.
“I told him after the match, what I saw today was the best from a goalkeeper in the world,” Jose Mourinho told BT Sport after the game.
“You need the keeper to be there for you when the team needs,” the Portuguese boss added. “All the effort from the players was magnificent.”
As for Paul Pogba’s dismissal, which will rule him out of the Manchester derby, Mourinho said Arsenal had been fortunate not to go a man down as well following a challenge by Laurent Koscielny on Romelu Lukaku.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I leave for you the Lukaku situation with Koscielny, I leave for you the Arsenal players on the grass. The grass is absolutely beautiful — I think there is a desire to go onto the grass.”
There was no hiding former Chelsea manager Mourinho’s joy, however, at an impressive all-round United display.
“I loved the way my team played and fought,” he said. “Arsenal played in some periods amazing attacking football — creating difficulties for us.
“But I have to say that my players deserve all the great words. I don’t know so many in English but amazing, phenomenal, fantastic. They deserved three points.”
For Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who has had an often fractious relationship with Mourinho, there was pride in the way his side recovered from a horror start but ultimately a sense of frustration at their failure to take anything out of the game.
“I think we didn’t start well at all at the back and we are guilty of that,” Wenger told the BBC.
“Despite being 2-0 down we should have come back — we had enough chances. We produced excellent quality, but were not decisive enough,” the veteran French boss added.
“It was a mystery yes (not scoring more goals), but David de Gea was man-of-the-match by a clear mile.
“We played well but there is nothing more frustrating when you have that quality of performance and nothing to show for it at the end.
“The attitude was impeccable until the end. But you cannot make the mistakes we made at the beginning.”
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BT giving lingard man of the match was the usual British favourism despite the fact de gea was the best player on the pitch by a mile
De Gea has been class for the last 4 seasons running. Would love to see them play like that every week with Bailly and Jones fully fit. Still need a recognised left back though.
@Pj Windgap: best keeper in the world ,no question
Even though Utd won. They were terrible. God help us against City next week
@Noel Barnes: If they can play terrible against a top 6 club and still score 3 goals that’s fine by me!
@David Mc Nally: you’re getting hockeyed!
@Stephen Lyons: unless city have suddenly signed Mustafi and Koscielny you haven’t a hope in hell and if you play like that yesterday, City won’t be as wasteful as us.
@Noel Barnes: if United play like that next week it will be double figures. So easy to get at. Only for Arsenal are so vulnerable to a counter attack which City won’t be. It could be embarrassing for them.
@Goo_nerd: United played with their worst centre backs possible and arsenal still couldn’t hurt them.. hahahahahaha
@Noel Barnes: down to 10 men , world class goal keeping performance , only conceding one goal – scoring 3 – entertaining match – easily one of the better ones this season – and you can only define as terrible – what exactly do you want / expect in game of football ? that they go out against a top 6 club , piss all over them and win 10 nil ?? Go to FIFA on your playstation , put the settings onto beginner and play away ya fking fool.
Only for DeGea The Arsenal would have won 6-3
@Whatshisname: yeah… but they do have em…
@Whatshisname: Only for Lacazette the game would have ended 3-0
@Whatshisname: that’s like saying, if it wasn’t for the rain it would’ve been a fine day :-). Lot of bitter ABUs on here comparing money spent by United compared with City. Who cares, that’s what it’s like in football, not just nowadays, but for quite sometime. Get over it. Real Madrid have been doing it for years and look at PSG now, more than doubled the world record transfer fee within a year of the previous record being set.
@Whatshisname: yep and if my auntie had balls she’d be my uncle….oh and it would have been specifically 6 -3 yeah ? and this is based on what brilliant magic rules for football that you can share ??? Sour grapes mate – I suppose if united had kept 11 players on the pitch you’d be saying they could have won 6-1 ?? NO ??? BS logic.
He must be on the cans!
David McNally, as for your claim about city being s**m, what do you think of Pogba saying that he hopes City’s players get injured?
@William Boland: oh my god what a deplorable human. No wait fans are saying the same thing and worse every week. He’s just saying what other players are thinking. The world has gone too PC.
@William Boland: Wilhelmina Boreland Utd were devastating going forward and world class at the back
@powerfix: if you actually believe that, God help United next week.
@William Boland: he said …. biting his nails and asking mommy to make sure there would be extra clean undies for nest week
Saved United today .. weird match, Arsenal could have been easily 4 up at HT
BT g
Mourinho wouldn’t want to be relying on another performance like that. Last seen in
TOTTENHAM -v- newcastle and
CHELSEA -v- Sunderland
ie a top 4 team v a side that was relegated!
@Goo_nerd: You really still hurting this morning? Not taking yesterday’s defeat too well are ya.
@Goo_nerd: if arsenal went 2 nil up at old Trafford you know it would be one way traffic the rest of the game. Was that your first football match?
I’m enjoying the bitterness of the childish arsenal fans. Possibly the worst fans going. I’ll get to the united fans this day next week, about 6pm….
@Brian: so your admitting that you’re an attention seeking troll then