United debutant Antony scored and Marcus Rashford netted twice as Manchester United beat a slick Arsenal side in front of a raucous Old Trafford.
Mikel Arteta’s rejuvenated Arsenal dominated possession for long periods and looked favourites to take the lead after their equaliser. But United’s defensive discipline, incisive passing and pace on the counter ultimately proved too much for the Gunners; and they ran out deserving 3-1 winners.
Manager Erik ten Hag was happy with the result and the performance, but still sees room for improvement:
“We are happy and satisfied with the win and also the performance against a really good team…I have to [credit] the spirit from this team; they can deal with setbacks.
We can still do things better; in pressing…also keep more [composure] on the ball; don’t give the ball easily away. But finally I have to [give credit], when we got beaten in the press we fight back, we recovered and on the ball we had good moments and especially on the transition we were good.”
Erik ten Hag speaking after the match
United’s £85m new signing Antony opened the scoring after a competitive 35 minutes; in which both sides created chances and a Martinelli goal was rightly ruled out after a VAR check for a foul on Christian Eriksen. This led to a dominant period for the Gunners. This continued after the break, and they deservedly equalised through Bukayo Saka on the hour-mark.
This seemed to galvanise United, who had brought Cristiano Ronaldo on for goalscorer Antony just before the equaliser. Midfielders Eriksen and Bruno Fernandes combined, with the latter playing a sumptuous, inch-perfect through-ball for Marcus Rashford to latch onto and finish coolly on 66 minutes.
The duo combined again ten minutes later; this time Eriksen bursting forward and picking up another Fernandes through-ball, before unselfishly squaring to Rashford for his second goal of the game.
United then managed the game well; Arsenal were toothless for the remaining fifteen minutes and never really threatened to get back into the game.
Frenki de who?? Eriksen turns in Man of the Match performance
Christian Eriksen is quickly becoming ‘undroppable’ for Manchester United. Signed on a free from Brentford; the deal looked like a shrewd one but was not the big-money, marquee midfield signing that United fans craved to replace the host of midfielders that left the club.
However, against Arsenal, Eriksen was unplayable. Instrumental in all three goals; he continually picked the ball up in the deep-lying midfield position and played incisive passes forward with tempo and accuracy.
Time will tell whether the 30-year-old – who did start to tire against Leicester City on Thursday – can sustain this level over the entirety of the season.
Marcus smiling again
In the Leicester City match review we said that the time for Marcus to deliver was now; and to the delight of the fanbase – he delivered.
Whilst it wasn’t a perfect performance; two goals and an assist against the league leaders, when played out of position, is an excellent return by anyone’s standards. Clearly, Rashford’s style of play is more suited to the games where United are set up to play on the counter; i.e. against the better teams in the league. Whether he can influence games and score goals against the smaller teams that set up a low block; and against whom United are expected to dominate possession, remains to be seen.
For now though, let’s just bask in the glory of ‘one of our own’ bagging a brace against a very good Arsenal side; and looking like he’s enjoying his football again!
Old Trafford has a new hero
Stepovers, backheels, scoring the opening goal, kissing the badge and winding up the away fans on your debut. It’s the stuff dreams are made of – but it was the reality for £85 million man Antony yesterday.
In all honesty, it wasn’t the greatest all-round performance and he was brought off just before the hour mark. But, for a player who has only had a couple of training sessions with the team and understandably is expected to hit the ground running; this was a brilliant debut.
Antony showed flashes of the trickery, pace and guile that helped Ajax win back-to-back Eredivisie titles. His chopped backheel pass helped set up a great chance for Christian Eriksen. However, his debut will rightly be remembered for the opening goal he scored, showing composure and quality for his one-touch finish from Rashford’s pass.
The future is bright for Antony. He looks to have the mentality and fighting spirit that Ten Hag praises so highly in his players.
Credit to the Manager
Three weeks ago, United had just been beaten 4-0 away at Brentford. Even the most optimistic of fans would have struggled to predict four wins and just two goals conceded in the next four games.
Erik ten Hag has to take the credit for this. He has made big decisions, which would leave him open to criticism had they not worked out, both in terms of transfers and first-team selection.
Aside from that, and arguably a bigger achievement; he has changed the mentality of the squad.
He has swiftly cracked down on those performances devoid of fight, effort and quality in our opening games, and players that simply aren’t up to the job have been removed and replaced. What we’re seeing now is a team that believe in its quality and its philosophy, and has the ability to win different types of football matches.
There’s someone else sitting on the bench that hasn’t started a game yet too. Anyone heard of this lad Casemiro? I’ve heard he’s supposed to be half-decent…