I don't buy this smash and grab storyline.
Yes Pep/Arteta ball is very attractive. But, the enabler for that (other than fouling to prevent counter attacks) is getting players high up the field to win the ball back and maintain possession. That has an obvious flaw: teams are high up the field and can be countered easily.
The xG statistics (2.03 for United vs 1.42 for Arsenal) some what back this up. What it shows is that United, despite having significantly less possession, created better chances. Consider also shots from open play, 8 for United while Arsenal had 11 despite having twice as much possession. Many of these were long shots.
In summary, possession in itself is nonsense.
Yes Pep/Arteta ball is very attractive. But, the enabler for that (other than fouling to prevent counter attacks) is getting players high up the field to win the ball back and maintain possession. That has an obvious flaw: teams are high up the field and can be countered easily.
The xG statistics (2.03 for United vs 1.42 for Arsenal) some what back this up. What it shows is that United, despite having significantly less possession, created better chances. Consider also shots from open play, 8 for United while Arsenal had 11 despite having twice as much possession. Many of these were long shots.
In summary, possession in itself is nonsense.
All accurate. Also the perfect description for "smash and grab".
I think maybe you don't like it because it makes it sound like the losing side was the better side, which was not the case ain my opinion. Both teams had respective gameplans, we didn't finish our chances and we didn't defend the counter attack well. You guys were ruthless on the counter and won the game.
Giving it a title like "smash and grab" doesn't really mean anything.