🏴 No Team has scored more goals from set-pieces than Arsenal (7) in the Premier League so far this season.
🏴 No Team has scored more goals from set-pieces than Arsenal (7) in the Premier League so far this season.
🏴 No side has scored more goals from set-pieces than Arsenal (7) in the Premier League so far this season.
How we score won’t matter at the end of the day ! Mikel Arteta has said it multiple times… win by any means necessary. That’s exactly what Arsenal are doing tonight.
Arsenal rallied with a ruthless second-half performance to end Ruben Amorim’s honeymoon in charge of Manchester United in brutal fashion with a 2-0 win.
Thomas Partey had missed from a corner at point-blank range to warn the Red Devils that Arsenal remained a danger from the set piece despite missing Gabriel through injury, and the visitors had no answers in the second period.
Arsenal hit their stride after half-time and Jurrien Timber’s glancing header set them on course for victory before Partey made amends by heading into William Saliba’s back to double a lead that Manchester United never looked likely to overcome.
A turn of Jurrien Timber’s head, and maybe a first real twist in the title race. Arsenal’s 2-0 win followed enough twists on the night itself. From a position at half-time where it looked like Liverpool would go 11 points clear, Mikel Arteta’s side have instead cut that lead to seven points.
It feels like the first time that the leaders have been stripped back in months, while Arsenal are now building a real momentum.
They look like they can start to fly into one of those long unbeaten runs, even if this victory came from some of their earthier qualities. There weren’t quite the multi-angled attacks of the five-goal wins over Sporting and then West Ham United. Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United wouldn’t allow that, for their part. Arsenal instead beat them with what has become a real weapon of choice, as they scored twice from set-pieces. Amorim insisted that that was the sole “difference”.
Arteta tried to play it down – but that was maybe understandable when his team weren’t as productive in open play. He even made a point of arguing how many goals they’d scored outside of set-pieces last season. Such moments were still the one area where United didn’t defend well, and it was often pitiful.
They were far too easy to get at there, and Marcus Rashford stunted his own recent momentum with the manner he gave away the corner for the clinching William Saliba goal.
As much as this first defeat will now feel like it also stunts Amorim’s momentum, though, there were positives. The one thing that can already be said about Amorim’s United is that opposition sides can no longer just drive a bus to them. And that’s not from, well, parking the bus, either.
They are now very well structured, and Arsenal initially found it very difficult to work through them in open play. United were constantly closing off gaps, with everyone so well drilled. They now have a real tactical base. That led to a lot of tense moments, including one that might end up being seen as significant in the whole season.
