In Sunday’s highly anticipated Premier League showdown, Arsenal will play host to Manchester United at the Emirates Stadium. These two football giants, both with less-than-ideal starts to their current campaign, are set to clash.
Last weekend, Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal team experienced their first point drop of the season in a 2-2 draw against Fulham. Meanwhile, Manchester United pulled off a thrilling comeback to defeat Nottingham Forest 3-2.
Mikel Arteta expressed confidence in Arsenal’s performance against Fulham, stating it was “10 times better” than their 2-1 win against the same team at the same point in the previous year. However, some disappointed Arsenal fans might have had a different perspective by the end of the match.
Despite unconvincing wins over Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest, Arsenal conceded an early goal, with Andreas Pereira finding the net for Fulham. Bukayo Saka, who had earlier assisted Pereira, redeemed himself by converting a penalty. Eddie Nketiah seemed to secure victory for the Gunners. However, Joao Palhinha’s expertly executed goal for Fulham, while they were a man down, resulted in an unlikely draw, pushing Arsenal down to fifth place in the Premier League table.
Although Arsenal has managed to secure seven points from the nine available, their early-season experiments led by Arteta have sparked both confusion and criticism, failing to resolve their persistent defensive issues at home. Arsenal has kept just one clean sheet in their last nine Premier League home matches, but their attacking prowess has compensated for defensive shortcomings, with the team scoring at least twice in nine of their last 10 top-flight games in North London.
Nottingham Forest made Premier League history at Old Trafford last weekend by becoming the first team to score twice in the opening four minutes against Manchester United. Despite Taiwo Awoniyi and Willy Boly’s early goals, Christian Eriksen, Casemiro, and Bruno Fernandes orchestrated an impressive comeback for Manchester United, resulting in a 3-2 victory.
Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United is back on track after a disappointing 2-0 loss to Tottenham Hotspur. They currently occupy eighth place in the league, having also secured a narrow 1-0 win against Wolverhampton Wanderers at home.
While Manchester United has demonstrated resilience at home, their away record is less impressive, with just three wins in their last 11 Premier League away games and only one goal scored in their last four such matches.
Arsenal avenged their previous loss to Manchester United with a thrilling 3-2 victory at the Emirates in January, and it has been nearly four years since Manchester United last won a Premier League match at the Emirates Stadium, with Jesse Lingard’s standout performance in December 2017 being the last memorable occasion.