Manchester United's 'brutal' defeat to Spurs was stark wake-up call, says Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer believes Manchester United’s “brutal” defeat to Tottenham served as a stark wake-up to his players and says the reaction since has given him hope the club can still challenge for the title this season.

United face Arsenal at Old Trafford on Sunday in what will be Solskjaer’s 100th game in charge, having won three and drawn one of their four matches since the 6-1 capitulation at home to Spurs, including outstanding victories over Paris Saint-Germain and RB Leipzig in the Champions League.

Solskjaer is understood to have told his players after the Tottenham debacle that he would not be playing that starting XI again and has made a number of changes on and off the pitch in addition to seeing fitness levels improve markedly.

Paul Pogba and Bruno Fernandes have yet to start a game together in the four weeks since, with Solskjaer strengthening the defensive foundations by opting to employ two more disciplined, defensive-minded midfielders, whether in a 3-4-1-2 or 4-2-3-1 system, or the midfield diamond that helped United crush Leipzig 5-0 on Wednesday.

Solskjaer has also made good use of split strikers and, given their impressive form on the road this year, the United manager has been keen to try to mirror some of their away game arrangements for home matches in a bid to improve results at Old Trafford.

“I think any result as brutal as a 6-1 would have to get a response and, of course, it has been dealt with internally,” said Solskjaer. “We’ve tweaked a couple of things, we’ve got players fit and I think the manner of defeat wasn’t something that we should ever have to be confronted with again.

“Then again things happen in football these days but the response has been fantastic, that’s what I’m concerned about, because we wanted to finish that off as soon as we could and just move forward.”

Despite the upturn, United’s goalless draw against Chelsea at Old Trafford last Saturday has left the club languishing in 15th position in the Premier League with seven points from their first five games and increased the need for a win over Arsenal.

Manchester City and Liverpool have dominated the Premier League over the past three campaigns but Solskjaer thinks the turbulent nature of this season could play into the hands of the chasing pack and believes United have the strength in depth they have lacked previously.

“I think football has developed and so many clubs have developed strength in depth and the ability to challenge for the trophies so, even though the last two seasons you’ve had two teams running away with it, I think this season a lot of us just underneath them would hope to put up a challenge,” he said.

“Back then [when I was a United player] we felt it was either us or Arsenal, and then Chelsea came through as well. For me now it’s probably more exciting and interesting, for the fans as well that just don’t really have, ‘It’s going to be one of these two’. It’s shown this season - anything can happen this season [with] what’s happening around the world.

“I’ve been very pleased with the response after what we did early on in the season. We knew we had to hang in and try to get points on the board because we were far behind but now we feel fit and strong and competitive in every game.

“At the moment, we are looking like a Man Utd squad. I’ve got opportunities, I’ve got competition for places. Any successful team in the modern era of football have had that option to rest players, to rotate and that is probably the only way you can last in the most intense league in the world for me and also with Champions League involved, and you want go for the trophies.

“I’m surprised it's 100 [games already], it’s gone really quickly even though a lot has happened so let’s hope I can celebrate No 100 with a good performance and a good result.”