Manchester United won a breathless bout with Arsenal 3-1 as Jesse Lingard scored twice, David De Gea demonstrated his brilliance and Paul Pogba was sent off.
Antonio Valencia and Lingard pounced on defensive mistakes by Laurent Koscielny and Shkodran Mustafi as Jose Mourinho’s visitors took a 2-0 lead inside 11 minutes at the Emirates Stadium.
Arsenal refused to buckle. Alexandre Lacazatte netted when United’s defence stood still, but De Gea made a string of fine saves to deny the Gunners, who conceded a third to Lingard before Pogba was shown a straight red card for a dangerous tackle on Hector Bellerin to leave him banned for next week’s Manchester derby.
“When you have 33 shots on goal in a game of that stature, it means our dominance was top class. But I’m angry and disappointed because at the end we have nothing to show for it.” Wenger commented after being ask for his view for the match.
Jose Mourinho was quick to agreed that the show was fantastic. “if I was in the stands, If I was at home, I would be sad to see the game finish. In my case it’s different, because I want to win and I want the game to finish.”
With Gunners in the ascendancy having just halved the deficit, De Gea pulled off a superb double save to deny them a 57-minute equaliser. The Spain international initially kept out Lacazatte’s powerful low drive before rising instantly to repel Sanchez’s close-range follow-up to allow United to go on and sea victory.
It was clear to see how much pressure United were under in the second half when Mourinho leapt off the bench in delight to celebrate Lingard’s second. It looked like being a relatively comfortable evening for the visitors when they went 2-0 up but Arsenal deserved credit for battling back and putting United under so much pressure, leaving Arsene Wenger to rue their sloppy start.
