Manchester United went 2-0 down within the first six minutes at the Emirates against Arsenal on Sunday afternoon. Louis van Gaal made two substitutions at half-time, bringing on Marouane Fellaini and Antonio Valencia, but insists there was nothing he could have done to stop United’s early collapse. If there had been just one player at fault, he could have made changes, but he claims that over half the team were not doing what they had been instructed to do.

“No, because it was not only one player, then I could have taken action,” Van Gaal said. “But it was more than half of my team, I think, that weren’t doing what we agreed in our game plan. Yes, of course [I’m shocked], because you don’t expect it. We were top of the league, we have won all of our last four matches and we had to protect our position. It is possible against Arsenal, I believe, but the way we started it was without emotion, so you can’t expect that. It’s difficult to understand and we have to look for the reasons. The biggest concern is that the players are flying out from London because they have to go to their national teams, so I cannot prepare for our game against Everton, because we have to wait to see if the players are fit enough to play, but also mentally fit enough. We cannot train, because they are coming back on Wednesday and Thursday. It is much better to win like Arsenal and then prepare for the next game. But now I have to wait and see when they come back, and that’s a difficult thing. Before the last international break we lost against Swansea City but then we won against Liverpool, so we can do it, but today it was a shock for me.”