Premier League: Lingard is the difference as Manchester United punish wasteful Gunners

David De Gea's saves kept Arsenal at bay as they only converted one of their 15 shots on goal.

A Jesse Lingard brace helped Manchester United to a 3–1 win against Arsenal, in a match where Paul Pogba showed both sides of his coin and Arsenal lost many chances to score.

United’s captain on the night, Antonio Valencia opened the scoring in the 5th minute. The full-back overlapped on the counter, latching on to a pass from Paul Pogba and putting the ball through Peter Cech’s legs for United’s first.

Anthony Martial’s run left the Arsenal defence in shambles as Lingard opened his account on the night in the 11th minute.

Romelu Lukaku held off a challenge from a lacklustre Shkodran Mustafi before threading a pass to meet Martial’s run.

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The French forward deftly turned Koscielny before leaving it off in the middle of the area for Lingard to stroke home for United’s second.

Despite the goals, it was Arsenal who were doing the most attacking. Alex Iwobi, Alexis Sanchez and Granit Xhaka all had clear chances in the opening 30 minutes, but David De Gea, a Mourinho lesson in how to park the bus and sheer luck kept the Gunners out of goal.

Lukaku almost put the ball through his own goal but De Gea was on hand to punch away as the first half came to an end.

The second half began on a high note. After several blocked shots, Alexis Sanchez got the ball on the edge of the box and lifted a cross that left the Manchester United defence off guard.

Ramsey passed to Lacazette who gladly smashed in to pull one back for Arsenal.

Alex Iwobi and Jesse Lingard had chances to score on either end in the 52nd minute.

Arsenal remained the most likely to score. The Gunners would end the game with 75% of possession and 15 goals on target to United’s four.

It was not all to be in the end. Manchester United rounded off their victory with a third goal and Lingard’s second in the 65th minute.

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The England forward got onto a Paul Pogba pass after the France midfielder had left Koscielny for dead. Lingard coolly slotted home to seal the game for Manchester United.

Pogba then put a giant blot on what was a good showing by getting sent off. The midfielder stretched his right leg out and stamped on Hector Bellerin, getting a straight red card for his lapse in concentration.

 

He will miss the Manchester Derby as a result.

Arsenal continued to attack, but the match was done by then. Arsene Wenger’s side will wonder what happened as their dominance in goal attempts was not converted.

Elsewhere, Chelsea came from behind to beat Newcastle 3–1, Liverpool took a walk at Huddersfield with a 5 goal stroll. Tottenham were held 1–1 by a hard-fighting Watford side with Carlos Sanchez getting sent off.