Louis Van Gaal’s tenure at Manchester United looks set to end soon, as the Dutchman’s side lost its fourth straight match in the early fixture on Saturday.
First-half goals from Bojan Krkic and Marko Arnautovic handed Stoke City a 2-0 victory at home over the Manchester giants. Louis Van Gaal suggested post-game that it might even be his own decision to quit, rather than the Board of Directors’.
Southampton welcomed Arsenal to St. Mary’s in the late game this Boxing Day, with the Gunners looking to take first place with three points. Ronald Koeman’s men had other plans, though. A brace from Shane Long, a cracking strike from Cuco Martina and a tally from Jose Fonte kept Arsene Wenger’s side from surging to the top of the table, even though Arsenal held 65 percent possession in the game.
Title challengers Leicester City lost only its second English Premier League match this season when Liverpool beat it 1-0 at Anfield. Christian Benteke scored the game-winner in Jurgen Klopp’s first win from his last five matches.
Guus Hiddink began his second stint as Chelsea interim manager with a 2-2 draw at home against Watford. Diego Costa scored twice in the match, apparently returning to full form after having little impact under Mourinho this season.
Here are all the scores from around the EPL today:
Stoke City 2-0 Man Utd
Liverpool 1-0 Leicester City
Chelsea 2-2 Watford
Man City 4-1 Sunderland
Bournemouth 0-0 Crystal Palace
Tottenham 3-0 Norwich City
Aston Villa 1-1 West Ham
Swansea City 1-0 West Brom
Newcastle United 0-1 Everton
Southampton 4-0 Arsenal
Ugh – Mancusian
Unless United just got bought by Chinese businessmen, it’s Mancusion… not Manchurian 🙂
Mancunian, not manchurian.
Why is a Manchester United loss surprising these days? They overachieved under the old Scottish vampire for decades. Now, they have entered the wilderness; van gaal, mourinho, or elvis as a coach. The occasional FA cup her and there perhaps, but that’s about it.
The player pool is horrendous. Give me a united player from the current roster who can start on arsenal, Manchester city, I am not even mentioning bayern, barca, or real Madrid here…de gea, perhaps on last season form…that’s about it…smalling, jones, young, martial, blind, all are below average players.
Ivan , I could not have said it better myself.
Schneiderlin. No clue y he isn’t playing. Not a manu fan here
I think you’re being a little too hyperbolic with the last statement, but I agree with the overall premise. I said it last year, and I’ll say it this year: The fault is not with Moyes or Van Gaal, and will not be solved with Mourniho, Giggs, etc.
Fergie was an EXTREMELY talented manager, that with World-Class talent was nearly unstoppable (I say nearly because even at their height, Arsenal gave them a run for their money, and they were played off the field by Barca in the CL final); and even with above-average talent he had at the tail-end of his career, he could push them to be EPL champions.
Very few, if any managers exist that could offer the proper tactical approach and man-management that was required to keep Man United as title-contenders after the ’10-’11 season.