MANCHESTER, England: Manchester United face the risk of failing to qualify for European competition for the second time since the 1989-90 season.
Erik ten Hag’s men are eighth in the Premier League, 32 points behind Arsenal, after a 1-0 defeat to the Gunners at Old Trafford earlier this morning saw their 19th defeat in all competitions this season.
United have at least improved slightly compared to when they were beaten 4-0 at Crystal Palace earlier last week.
Ten Hag once again blamed a long list of injuries for his team’s struggles this season.
Captain Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford, Raphael Varane, Lisandro Martinez, Luke Shaw and Harry Maguire are among those not in action for the United squad.
“It’s like trying to swim with your hands tied behind your back,” Ten Hag said.
“If you want to improve as a team, you need agile players. You saw that in the team we played against today.”
United, who have never finished seventh and below in the EPL era, are three points behind Newcastle and Chelsea with two games remaining.
Failure to finish in the top seven or win the FA Cup final against Manchester City will see United miss out on European action.
“It would be terrible (if we didn’t qualify for Europe) but that’s the situation we’re in now,” said Ten Hag.
“If you analyze the performance you can see we are very competitive.
“It’s not the way we want it to be, United have to win, always! But right now as a club and this team, with the injury list we have, we’re not in that position.”