Arsenal 1-3 Manchester United: Petr Cech insists efficiency in front of goal decided the game

Arsenal goalkeeper Petr Cech has revealed that Manchester United's efficiency in front of the goal was the deciding factor in Saturday night's big game as the visitors emerged 3-1 victors. The Gunners gave it their all and if not for David de Gea's heroics and their own profligacy in the attacking third, they could have come away with at least a point.

Antonio Valencia and Jesse Lingard gave a 2-0 advantage to United inside 11 minutes after punishing defensive mistakes by Laurent Koscielny and Shkodran Mustafi. The Gunners came back in the early minutes of the second half as Aaron Ramsey teed up Alexandre Lacazette, who made no mistake in putting the ball into the net.

However, it was all for nothing as Lingard sealed the game with a third goal, which put the result beyond doubt for the visitors. Cech believes if the north London club were as efficient in front of the goal, the scorecard could have read quite different. Arsenal had more than 10 shots on target but failed to find the back of the net more than once.

"It is an unlucky game, but we need to make sure that when we create chances in a big game we score and don't make mistakes, which the game was decided by at the start with our two mistakes and they scored. At the half-time we were sure after having so many chances that if we scored it would be on, and I thought after 2-1 they missed a big chance and we had a few chances to equalise," Cech told Arsenal's official website.

"We thought it would be the turning point but unfortunately they scored a third goal and the efficiency in front of goal decided the game. There are not many times you play United and you dominate the whole game, having so many chances, so this is positive, but we are disappointed," he added.