Manchester United's Jadon Sancho says he's been made a ...

MANCHESTER – Manchester United winger Jadon Sancho said he had been unfairly made a “scapegoat” after his manager Erik ten Hag claimed he had been left out of the squad to face Arsenal on Sunday because of poor training performance.

Sancho was a surprise omission for United's dramatic 3-1 stoppage-time Premier League loss to Arsenal that dropped them to 11th in the table.

“On his performance on training we didn’t select him,” ten Hag said, when asked about Sancho’s absence from the travelling squad.

“You have to reach the level every day at Manchester United. You can make choices in the front line, so in this game he wasn’t selected.”

The 23-year-old Sancho wasted little time in responding in a lengthy post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

“Please don’t believe everything you read! I will not allow people saying things that is completely untrue. I have conducted myself in training very well this week,” Sancho wrote.

“I believe there are other reasons for this matter that I won’t go into. I’ve been a scapegoat for a long time, which isn’t fair. All I want to do is play football with a smile on my face and contribute to my team.”

There was no smile on ten Hag’s face at the Emirates on Sunday.

He said the Red Devils were extremely unlucky not to leave north London with a better result, and was left fuming after “everything went against” his team.

The match looked destined to end in a 1-1 draw before Declan Rice and Gabriel Jesus scored for Arsenal deep in injury time.

United had thought they were en route to victory after Alejandro Garnacho found the net in the 88th minute, but it was ruled out by the video assistant referee (VAR) for offside, a decision that had ten Hag seething.

United had taken the lead through Marcus Rashford on 27 minutes, before the Gunners equalised via Martin Odegaard a minute later.

“We have to improve, definitely,” ten Hag told Sky Sports. “But you see, and also what we have seen last year, we can beat everyone.

“It was such small margins today, so it could also have been our side. So when Garna is finishing (for the disallowed goal), it’s a goal that we’re winning this game. So it’s that close.

“We needed a little bit more luck to win the game. (Garnacho’s goal) was not offside. It was the wrong angle,” he added of the VAR review.

Ten Hag zeroed in on what he thought were a few late officiating blunders, including a tackle from Arsenal defender Gabriel Magalhaes that sent newcomer Rasmus Hojlund sprawling that the Dutch manager argued should have been a penalty.

He also said that Gabriel appeared to block Jonny Evans in the penalty area for Rice’s 96th-minute winner. “It’s a penalty on Hojlund,” ten Hag fumed. “And at the end we concede a goal, and it’s a foul on Jonny Evans. It’s so clear and obvious.”

His opposite number Mikel Arteta praised Arsenal’s mentality but said they must find a way to finish teams off earlier in games rather than rely on “magic moments” at the end.

“I love the mentality of the team, the determination, the eagerness to win,” he said. “The team was very dominant and deserved to win the game, but the margins with this team are so small and it could have gone in a different way.”

Arsenal were held by Fulham the previous week after beating Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace by one-goal margins. They return to action on Sept 17 against Everton.

“The margins that we have in the later stages of the games are not big enough,” he added.

“That’s something that we have to improve because you notice a lot of anxiety and you have to wait for a magic moment at the end. We don’t want to rely on that.” REUTERS