On This Day In 2015, Phil Jones Blessed The Premier League With A Truly Heroic Piece Of Defending

On this day in 2015, Manchester United defender Phil Jones gave us one of the most iconic defensive moments in Premier League history during a clash against Arsenal.

It was a far-from-memorable afternoon at Old Trafford in terms of quality on the pitch.

With both sides already guaranteed Champions League football, Ander Herrera's first-half strike gave Louis van Gaal's side a deserved lead but a deflected Theo Walcott cross meant the spoils were shared.

The game was, however, resurrected by a flying 'head-tackle' from Phil Jones in the 21st minute.

After initially slipping in a one-on-one battle with Olivier Giroud, the former Blackburn man made up for his error by heroically throwing himself to the ground before getting a touch to the ball with his head.

For me, this might be one of the most underrated pieces of defending in recent memory.

6 years today since Phil Jones blessed us with this world class piece of defending 👏🤣 #MUFC pic.twitter.com/JvGtbCYG3g

— UnitedReds (@UnitedRedscom) May 17, 2021

The thing people don't like to focus on is that this is still extremely committed defending. Yeah, it looks clumsy, but he did job in the end.

— Shaantanu Singh (@OleBallEnjoyer) May 17, 2021

Why the laughing? Did he literally put the most vulnerable part of his body on the line in the 22nd minute, just to stop a potential goal? Amazing effort not a thing funny about it.

— Stephen Daly (@smdaly37) May 17, 2021

Away from that heroic moment and Jones made several headlines during Louis van Gaal's entertaining, albeit bizarre time at Old Trafford, including the fact he was once United's designated corner taker.

In a 2015 Premier League game at QPR, fans were stunned to see the centre-back whipping one into the box.

Back in 2017, centre-back Jones said Van Gaal didn't believe in him during his spell at Old Trafford.

“The only three (managers to believe in me) were Sam Allardyce, Sir Alex Ferguson and now Jose Mourinho,” he told the Manchester Evening News.

“Jose, this season has just given me so much confidence in training. You make a mistake and it is just a case of ‘so what, get on with it’.

“For whatever reason he (Van Gaal) thought I needed to be fitter. I had no problem with that, I just played the games. I did what I could do to get back in the team and unfortunately it didn’t really work out under him.

“No question there were thoughts about my future. It was in the back of my mind. If you are not playing games that speaks volumes.”