ARSENAL 1, MANCHESTER UNITED 3
- Early goals by Antonio Valencia (4) and Jesse Lingard (11)
- Shkodran Mustafi limps off injured (15)
- David De Gea saves keep United in the game
- Petr Cech deflects Lingard shot onto the post
- Alexandre Lacazette pulls one back (49)
- Paul Pogba cross for Lingard tap-in (63)
- Pogba sent off for late lunge on the back of Hector Bellerin’s knee (74)
- United hang on for win
Manchester United kept the heat up on their title rivals Manchester City by winning handsomely at Arsenal to reduce Pep Guardiola’s side to a five point lead ahead of City’s home game against West Ham on Sunday.
It was a stylish win which should silence some of the criticism of Jose Mourinho’s ‘defensive’ tactics in the way that his United side applied three killer blows from just 4 shots on targets while David De Gea kept out a barrage of Arsenal attacks.
Both sides were unchanged from their last matches but this match didn’t seem to suffer from any perceived tiredness.
United delivered sucker punches through Antonio Valencia and a Jesse Lingard double while the Gunners only had Alexandre Lacazette’s goal to show for their stream of attacks even after Paul Pogba was sent off late on to reduce United to ten men to deliver Mourinho yet another win over Arsene Wenger.
Early goals by Antonio Valencia (who exchanged passes with Paul Pogba after United had stolen a loose ball by Laurent Koscielny) and Jesse Lingard (who scored off the post after running onto a lay off by Anthony Martial) put the Gunners on the back foot from the 11th minute.
Arsenal also suffered a massive blow in the early loss of Shkodran Mustafi to injury after just 15 minutes before pulling a goal back early in the second half through Alexandre Lacazette.
The game was finely poised with Arsenal pummelling the Reds – ending the game with a massive 76% of the possession, with 33 shots on goal, 14 of them on target against United’s paltry eight shots on goal and just four on target.
They reckoned without the heroics of David De Gea in the United goal, keeping the home side at bay with a succession of saves (a record 14 for a single Premier League match) to keep out the likes of Alex Iwobi, Lacazette and Alexis Sanchez for what surely should have been an equaliser in the second half.
Lacazette had already seen a shot diverted onto the bar by the Spaniard, with Granit Xhaka followed up by hitting the post, and De Gea also reacted quickly after a shot by Sanchez had come off Romelu Lukaku.
Lacazette finally got his goal shortly after the break after a Sanchez cross was controlled into into the path of the Frenchman by Aaron Ramsey and the game was on but United had different ideas.
Lingard – who had also hit the woodwork in the second half after his shot blocked by Petr Cech but bounced against the post – added his second goal of the game to hand United a towering advantage thanks to a fine cross by Paul Pogba which the home side could not pull back.
The one blot in the copybook for United was a late red card for Paul Pogba who will now miss next week’s derby after a poorly timed lunge at Hector Bellerin which saw him tread on the back of the Arsenal full back’s knee.
The Reds stood firm for the last 16 minutes without the Frenchman but Old Trafford will have to stage the derby without the sight of Pogba adding his muscle and guile to the United midfield.
Arsenal got away with a late sending off after Koscielny clumsily brought down Lukaku as he tried to go round him for a clear run at goal 40 yards out while Arsenal had a late penalty turned down after Danny Welbeck was brought down by Matteo Darmian.