Arsenal 2-3 Manchester U
nitedby Layth Yousif 
at the Arsenal Stadium

A LATE winner by Matheus Cunha stunned the Premier League leaders to ensure Michael Carrick’s resurgent Manchester United beat a jittery Arsenal 3-2.

A coherent and unified Red Devils side posted their second impressive win under their interim head coach, following on from their evisceration of Pep Guardiola’s team in the Manchester derby last weekend.

After the chaos and wretched tactical incoherence under the woeful Ruben Amorim, Carrick appears to have revived United by insisting the club’s attacking DNA is at the forefront of all they do.

Rather than demand such pointlessly restrictive tactics as the now departed Portuguese’s bafflingly incompetent vow regarding three at the back, Carrick has bolstered his side by allowing his players to thrive in a more nuanced 4-2-3-1 formation. A tactic that quite simply allows freedom in attack, and solidity at the back.

In a breathless clash in N5 on Sunday afternoon, the Gunners went ahead through a Lisandro Martinez own goal on 29 minutes.

Bryan Mbeumo levelled on 37 minutes after appallingly sloppy play between William Saliba and Martin Zubimendi, prior to Patrick Dorgu putting the visitors ahead five minutes after the interval.

Stung, Gunners boss Mikel Merino rang the changes with a quadruple substitution just before the hour mark, with Mikel Merino levelling at 2-2 with six minutes remaining.

Just as the home support in the 60,296 crowd were gearing up for a grandstand finish, up popped former Wolves striker Cunha with three minutes remaining to grab all three points for Carrick’s side with an excellent finish, for what was only his fifth goal in a challenging season.

Speaking after the match, with United now in fourth spot, modest Carrick said: “You’ve got to be humble enough to understand how we could just achieve these two big results. It doesn’t just come easy, so we need to continue that and bottle it and use it again.”

Was this a blip, a wounding wobble, or a hugely damaging result for Arsenal?

On social media the reaction was predictable. Excitable cretins pathetically screamed for the manager’s head in a bid to ramp up their revenue.

Never mind, the Gunners still remain top of the Premier League, albeit by four points and not more, given the stuttering nature of Manchester City’s title tilt this term. Nor the fact Arsenal lead the 36-team Champions League group stage, or are 90 minutes away from a League Cup Wembley final, and face League One Wigan for a place in the fifth round of the FA Cup.

While old foes such as Roy Keane underlined the high pressure stakes that swirl around the leaders at the summit of the table, stating with the characteristic bluntness that shaped a storied career in the red and black of United that the north Londoners had to “get back to basics, and start embracing this challenge instead of being frightened of it.”

While Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta, after showing dignity in first congratulating United on their victory, looking, it has to be said, ever-so slightly shellshocked during his post-match press conference, attempted to understand where such a high-profile hiccup came from. He offered: “I think we started the game really well, the first half an hour we were very dominant, playing the areas that we wanted, scored a goal, had two fantastic chances to score another one.

“After that we gave them the goal: errors are part of football, very unlike us, but we gave them the goal and hope, and that shifted the energy, because from then to half-time we really struggled.”

Jesus kept his place up front for Arsenal, after his two-goal San Siro salvo against Inter Milan, with the misfiring Viktor Gyokeres dropping to the bench.

Piero Hincapie returned to make it four changes in total by Arteta, from the team that started at the Stadium Giuseppe Meazza in midweek, with Gabriel, Martin Odegaard and Declan Rice also drafted back in the side. With Merino, Myles Lewis-Skelly, Eberechi Eze and Cristhian Mosquera all dropping to the bench, while Kai Havertz and Riccardo Calafiori were still not deemed fit enough to join the matchday squad.

Interim boss Carrick kept faith with the side that beat City last time out, with Mbeumo again picked ahead of Benjamin Sesko up top. While talented teenager Kobbie Mainoo — curiously and consistently sidelined by the befuddled Amorim — kept his place in the maelstrom of midfield, dovetailing excellently alongside the more venerable Casemiro. Such decisions were to prove a masterstroke.

In a lively start in which Arsenal moved, and shielded the ball exceptionally, Bukayo Saka skipped past Dorgu, only to be brought down by the yeoman Luke Shaw.

From the subsequent free kick on 17 minutes, Rice’s elegantly floated ball into the box was met firmly by Zubimendi. Senne Lammens was equal to the task in producing an excellent stop. The save was in keeping with a fine season for United’s first choice keeper, after arriving last summer from Royal Antwerp for £22 million. Amid a raft of dud purchases, the 23-year-old Belgium has been a canny buy.

Yet it was a case of never mind Set Piece FC, that man “own goal” grabbed the Gunners opener to send the home support into raptures, the team’s sixth of the campaign so far. This time it was United’s Martinez, putting through his own net on 29 minutes with Timber lurking, after Odegaard’s perceptively angled low ball into the area.

Just as the home side were threatening to add a second, a mere eight minutes later the score became Arsenal 1-1 Manchester United.

The equaliser came following an awful error along the backline to leave Mbeumo waltzing around David Raya, firing home after a dreadful square ball by Zubimendi. A sloppy mistake from the midfielder, who has had such an excellent season, but the Basque could also point to Saliba failing to play to ball forward, instead opting for the easy option back to Zubimendi.

It was the second time in four games Arsenal have given a goal away in that manner following Gabriel’s clanger at Bournemouth.

There was worse to come for Arteta’s side five minutes after the break, when Dorgu swiped home with aplomb from the edge of the area, to put the visitors 2-1 ahead.

With Arsenal spluttering, boss Arteta had seen enough, and hooked the underwhelming and underperforming Hincapie, Jesus, Odegaard and Zubimendi, in favour of Ben White, Gyokeres, Merino and Eberechie Eze on 58 minutes, in a quadruple switch.

As the clock ticked down Eze tested Semmens, before Merino looked to have gained a point for Arsenal, squeezing the ball into the net to make it 2-2, after a goalmouth scramble with six minutes remaining.

However, that was before United denied a grand finale for the home support when Cunha scored what was to prove a winner for United, their 3,000 travelling support erupting with delight, to seal a pulsating clash on 87 minutes.

What next for United? Surely a top four spot beckons if — and it still remains a big if — they can keep up this level of intensity until May.

Carrick was certainly grounded in the aftermath of victory, adding: “Everything’s in front of us now, nothing’s going to change, but it’s a good start. You’ve just got to keep building.”

Sunday’s victory was United’s first league win at Ashburton Grove since 2017, while also handing Arsenal’s first defeat when scoring first in all competitions this season — the Gunners winning their previous 24 games after they went 1-0 up. The loss was also the first time a team has put three past the Gunners on home soil in the Premier League for nearly three years.

Reflecting on the result, Arteta said after the match in as much of a rallying cry as he could muster: “It’s how we react to [this defeat] — and I am very convinced because I know those players in that dressing room and how much we want it that we’re going to react immediately.”

With Arsenal facing Leeds United in the cauldron that is Elland Road next weekend, the time is now for Arteta’s side to prove they have what it takes to bring a first league title back to north London in 22 long years.