Ashley Young has praised Tyler Blackett and Paddy McNair for their performance against on Saturday, singling out the two young defenders for producing a “resilient” performance as United clinched their first win of the season away from home.
Having weathered a torrid first 25 minutes, United gradually grew into the game before scoring twice in the second half, as Arsenal’s tactical naivety was exposed by United’s counterattacking football.
“When you come to the Emirates you know it’s going to be a tough game and you’ve got to be resilient,” Young told MUTV.
“I think (resilience) is going to have to be (the key word). Players like Paddy McNair and Tyler Blackett at the back were fantastic, and Chris Smalling as well.
“It’s new for Tyler and Paddy to come to the Emirates but I thought they were great from the word go and it’s not an easy job.”
United had to withstand some heavy pressure from Arsenal early on, with David De Gea denying Jack Wilshere on a one-on-one chance as the hosts piled on the pressure.
“Every man had to defend at some point and, in truth, we felt we were lucky to go in at half-time at 0-0. We came out in the second half and started to play, we got the goal and I didn’t think Arsenal would score after that,” said Young
Young added that United had specifically set out to soak up Arsenal pressure before hitting them on the break, having done their homework on Arsene Wenger’s side in the build-up to the game.
“We played on the counter-attack and got the second and might have got a third. We set out to get the three points and it’s a great result,” added Young, who replaced Luke Shaw in the first half.
“We watched videos on Arsenal and you can see that you can hit them on the counter attack.”
