Opinion: Don't overlook United's progress

Not that anyone from the first-team camp was claiming differently after the game, with Harry Maguire fronting up to the press not long after full-time, while Ole Gunnar Solskjaer also lamented our lack of vigour in offensive areas.

“We didn’t pass with enough quality, get enough rhythm and tempo and quality in our passes,” the boss said in his post-match press conference.

“We didn't make enough runs in behind when we should have. There were spaces there at times, especially [in the] second half - in the first half it was less so and more difficult.”

Of course, as is always the case at Manchester United, one defeat can feel like a crisis - well, judging by social media anyway.

While Wednesday was certainly an off night for the Reds, it is worth remembering that these sub-par showings are part and parcel of elite football.

Manchester City, Liverpool, Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur have all dropped points at home this season to sides currently residing in the bottom three, and even Sir Alex Ferguson fell to defeat against the division’s basement club - in fact, it happened twice in 2011.

It is also important to remember Wednesday’s loss in the context of our recent form. The defeat to Sheffield United ended an unbeaten run stretching back nearly three months.

Ironically, it was Saturday’s opponents Arsenal who downed the Reds on that occasion, when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s penalty wrapped up three points for the Gunners at the beginning of November.

At the time, that loss meant we dropped to 15th in the table, and we’d failed to win any of our opening four top-flight games at Old Trafford for the first time since 1972.

Fast forward three months and the feeling is very different around the Theatre of Dreams. Following Wednesday’s defeat, there is genuine disappointment among the players that we’re in second place just over halfway through the campaign.

Since that defeat to Arsenal, our summer signings have gelled and become real assets to Ole, while the likes of Maguire, Luke Shaw, Scott McTominay and Paul Pogba have elevated their games to a higher level, with the Reds undefeated in the last 17 away league games.

So, perhaps it’s worth considering the team’s recent development before becoming too melancholy about one league loss.

Of course, it’s against Mikel Arteta’s men that United will hope to immediately respond this weekend when we travel to the capital.

“We’ve got to pick ourselves up,” Maguire acknowledged on Wednesday night. “We are disappointed and it hurts, but Saturday is a big game and we’ve got to bounce back.

“When you get kicked down, it’s how quickly you bounce back. Saturday’s a big one and we’ve got to get three points.”

Bouncing back was the order of the day after the Reds’ last league defeat, and one suspects Solskjaer would happily accept another run of just a single defeat in our next 14. That would certainly set up an interesting end to this most intriguing of Premier League seasons.

The opinions in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of Manchester United Football Club.