Cleverley: Draw Was Fair

Tom Cleverley believes a draw was the right result on Wednesday, following Manchester United's 0-0 stalemate with Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.

The Gunners had an effort cleared off the line and United owed a small debt to David De Gea for a handful of smart saves, while Robin van Persie twice went close to breaking the deadlock against his former club.

In the end, though, both teams had to settle for a point, even though Cleverley believes his side probably did enough to earn victory.

“I think it was a pretty fair result,” Cleverley told MUTV. “We feel like we could have won the game, but their goalkeeper made a couple of good saves. It could have swung either way but in the end it’s a fair result.

“We need to win every game from now on and Liverpool getting a last-minute winner [at Fulham] is disappointing for us. Our result isn’t the worst in the world but we need to start winning games fast.”

Cleverley admitted Robin van Persie could have given the Reds a dream start – the Dutchman blasted straight at Gunners goalkeeper Szczesny when gifted the ball by Mikel Arteta – but the midfielder wasn’t about to point fingers.

“Nobody’s blaming Robin for missing chances because he’s scored so many goals for us this year. On another day they might have gone in. If either of [his chances] had gone in it would have changed the dynamic of the game as we could have hit them on the counter.”

United’s clean sheet - only the Reds’ third in 10 games since the turn of the year - pleased Cleverley immensely, especially against a Gunners side renowned for scoring goals.

“I never once felt like we were going to concede, except for a five or 10-minute spell in the second half,” Tom said. “[Rio and Vidic] were fantastic. The clearances, their experience… it makes it a lot easier because they talk to us from behind and that’s something the other players can learn from as well.”