Preview: Arsenal should be thinking about what they could face on Samba Sunday at Old Trafford

The trio of Fred, Casemiro and Antony could help ignite United, especially in terms of creativity and scoring goals

Manchester United -v- Arsenal

Premier League

Old Trafford, Manchester

Sunday 4 September 2022, KO 16:30 BST

Manchester United welcome Arsenal to the Theatre of Dreams in the Premier League on Sunday afternoon. Erik ten Hag’s side will be full of confidence ahead of the clash, turning their fortunes around from two opening defeats to winning the last three matches.

At the time of writing, United moved up to fifth in the Premier League after beating Leicester City on Thursday evening with nine points and Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal sitting at the top of the league with 15 points. A victory for United will damage this Arsenal side and improve United’s season.

Only a few weeks ago, United were sat at the bottom of the Premier League after two losses in which they had conceded six goals, scoring one. Now they have won the last three matches, scoring four goals, conceding one and keeping two clean sheets. Ten Hag’s United must continue this way.

Manchester United – Form, Goals Scored & Assists

Leicester City 1-0 W, Southampton 1-0 W, Liverpool 2-1 W, Brentford 4-0 L, Brighton and Hove Albion 2-1 L, Rayo Vallecano 1-1 D

Goals: 2 – Jadon Sancho, 1 – Bruno Fernandes, Own Goal, Marcus Rashford

Assists: 1 – Diogo Dalot, Anthony Elanga, Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford

Arsenal – Form, Goals Scored & Assists

Aston Villa 2-1 W, Fulham 2-1 W, Bournemouth 3-0 W, Leicester City 4-2 W, Crystal Palace 2-0 W, Sevilla 6-0 W

Goals: 3 – Gabriel Jesus, Gabriel Martinelli, Martin Ødegaard, 1 – Own Goal, Gabriel Magalhães, William Saliba, Granit Xhaka

Assists: 3 – Gabriel Jesus, 2 – Bukayo Saka, Granit Xhaka, 1 – William Saliba, Oleksandr Zinchenko

Previous Meetings & Connections

United and Arsenal have met 60 times in the Premier League with United winning 25 matches, drawing 18 matches and Arsenal winning 17. United have scored 82 goals, winning eight penalties, scoring five. Arsenal have scored 66 goals, winning five penalties, scoring three.

United have kept 17 clean sheets with Arsenal keeping 19. Discipline has been an issue in this fixture with United players shown 124 yellow cards and five red cards and Arsenal players shown 127 yellow cards and four red cards. Arsenal need to be shown that they are nothing special at the moment.

Paddy Sloan, David Herd, Ian Ure, George Graham, Jimmy Rimmer, Brian Kidd, Frank Stapleton, Viv Anderson, Jim Leighton, David Platt, Andy Cole, Mikael Silvestre, Robin van Persie, Danny Welbeck, Henrikh Mkhitarayan and Alexis Sanchez have all played for both United and Arsenal.

Team News

Brandon Williams, Anthony Martial and Facundo Pellistri have all been ruled out of the clash against Arsenal. Phil Jones and Axel Tuanzebe have not been involved in training with the first team due to injury. Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Luke Shaw both have a 25% change of being involved this weekend.

This match could see Casemiro make his full debut for the club, being used from the bench in the victories over Southampton and Leicester City. Antony and Martin Dubravka could also be involved for the first time too, which will be an interesting time for both players.

Mohamed Elneny, Thomas Partey and Reiss Nelson have all been ruled out of the visit to United. There are doubts though with Aaron Ramsdale, Martin Odegaard and Oleksandr Zinchenko all subject to fitness tests ahead of this match, which could be a blow for Arsenal.

Predicted Manchester United Starting XI – 4-2-3-1

De Gea;

Dalot, Varane, Martinez, Malacia;

Fred, Casemiro;

Antony, Eriksen, Sancho;

Ronaldo

Predicted Arsenal Starting XI – 4-2-3-1

Ramsdale;

White, Saliba, Gabriel, Tierney;

Lokonga, Xhaka;

Saka, Ødegaard, Martinelli;

Jesus

Match Prediction

This will be a tough match for United. The toughest since the 4-0 defeat to Brentford back in August. United, however, have turned their poor form around and managed three victories in the last three matches, beating Liverpool, Southampton and Leicester City.

Arsenal are unbeaten in their first five matches in the Premier League this season but they have only played Crystal Palace, Leicester City, Bournemouth, Fulham and Aston Villa. United will be the first top six Premier League side to have faced them this summer – a big test if you will.

The North London club seem to be entombed in their own greatness having beaten five teams in their first five matches this season. It is typical for their supporters getting carried away. Some talk like they have won countless trophies in the last few matches. Typical Arsenal.

Manchester United 3-1 Arsenal

Written by John Walker

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I support Manchester United, the greatest English football team to have ever existed. Bruno Fernandes is the latest in a long line of players with great ability to play for the club. I idolised Bryan Robson, David Beckham, Paul Scholes, and Eric Cantona growing up.