Manchester United Routinely Defeats Arsenal, 1-3

Manchester United beat Arsenal, in the biggest sports event of the day. The Red Devils were stronger than one of their biggest enemies, and managed to eliminate them from the FA Cup, grabbing a win on the road.

It was 1-3 for United, whose fantastic winning streak extended to 8 games. This run started with the appointment of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at the managerial position, which ended up being one of the best decisions Ed Woodward has made since he arived in Manchester.

The former star of United completely turned the situation in the club, and created fantastic chemistry, which hadn’t been seen under the leadership of Jose Mourinho.

After the game, he spoke about the fact that his team made a big improvement since his first game at the Old Trafford, and added that all his players need to do, is to continue to work in the same manner and think only think about the next game, nothing further than that.

“Today was a big step forward. It was a massive improvement. It’s easy to get excited and talk about the future but we need to just keep working and think about the next game.” the Norwegian manager told the journalists.

United was more direct than the Gunners who held the ball longer in their possession and tried to breach the rock-solid midfield of the guests. The Red Devils relied upon strong swift charges and counter-attacks, something which was Arsenal’s trademark sign over the last few years.

Alexis Sanchez scored the first goal, re-opening the wounds made after his jump to Manchester. The fans didn’t accept this situation very well, and the Chilean international received a lot of insults.

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But that wasn’t important too much, because his team was ahead, and Sanchez quickly forgot everything when Jesse Lingard doubled the lead just two minutes after his hit. Romelu Lukaku, who set up Alexis’ goal, has made another assist, this time to the English youngster who netted a nice goal from the edge of the box.

Arsenal managed to hit back, and cut the lead before the halftime, after Aubameyang’s goal in the 43rd minute. It gave some hope for the home team fans that their team can come back and defeat one of the most hated rivals.

The Gunners had a chance to level the score just one minute into the second half, but Sergio Romer made a fantastic save after Aaron Ramsey’s header from a couple of yards away.

Home team continued to attack, but they didn’t produce a single good chance. We need to say that Unai Emery had a lot of troubles with injuries. Sokratis had to leave the field early, and Laurent Koscielny later got transferred to the hospital, after one reckless hit of Romelu Lukaku, who probably broke Frenchman’s jaw.

“Our injuries changed the possibility to do something different on the pitch. Sokratis hurt his ankle – I hope not a lot. Koscielny is different. It was maybe a break.”

This surely affected the overall performance and the morale of the team from Emirates, who eventually conceded one more goal.

Eight minutes before the end, a quick counter was seen, and Paul Pogba’s strike was denied by Petr Cech. Unfortunately, for the Gunners, the ball went straight to Anthony Martial, who didn’t have any troubles while sending it behind Cech’s back. This pretty much decided the contest and sent United into the next round.

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Solskjaer was happy with the way his players executed the counter-attacks, mentioning that this aspect of play is the signature of the Red Devils when facing Arsenal.

“Counter-attacking is classic Manchester United,” said Solskjaer. “Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo, Ji Sung-park – we’ve scored so many at Arsenal over the years.”

This was another big win for United, who will play their next game at home, against Burnley, next Tuesday. It is the regular, 24th, round of the Premiership. Arsenal faces Cardiff, also at home, and Emery’s crew has a nice chance to instantly bounces back after this loss.