Arsenal manager Arteta reacts to Man Utd's physical approach in pre-season clash

Mikel Arteta did not appear to have a problem with Manchester United’s physical approach during the friendly win over Arsenal this weekend, although did call on the referee to protect his players.

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The Red Devils downed the Gunners 2-0 during the pre-season tour of America on Saturday night, thanks to goals from Bruno Fernandes and Jadon Sancho.

United also got under the skin of their opponents as they got stuck in, not treating the contest much like a friendly at all.

There was a particularly aggressive challenge from Lisandro Martinez on Bukayo Saka which caused a flashpoint as Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard reacted angrily to the Argentine scything down the England international.

Arteta did not want to accuse his opponents of any wrongdoing after the match, but did call on officials to keep his players safe.

‘They are here to compete and to win, as we are, and that’s the job of the referee to stop it,’ Arteta said of Manchester United’s physicality.

Saka was not holding a grudge either, but was disappointed with the result, despite the result counting for little or nothing.

‘It’s obviously tough to take, whether it’s a friendly or not against United,’ he said. ‘We’ll learn from it and you can’t really give two goals away like that against a team like this because then it’s really hard to come back. We just need to learn from it.’

United manager Erik ten Hag had said in a press conference on Friday that his side ‘don’t play friendly games’ and he was encouraged by his team’s performance.

‘The way we played, I was really pleased, how active we were in and out of possession,’ said the Dutchman.

‘That is the way we want to play and that is the only period of the year you can really work in training and translate it to games without it having consequences.

‘But still, we want to win, and I think the lads showed we played a good game.’

On Manchester United’s intense pressing, he added: ‘I think we did well, and we want to be like that: we want to be a pressing machine, so then you have to do everything in togetherness. That is so important, and today, we did it in both halves.’

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