Arsenal v Manchester United: the team and the prognostications

 

 

• Arsenal v Man U: Under tonight’s referee, home wins are virtually unknown
• Arsenal v Man U: while Arsenal have been playing away ManU have been mucking around at home
• Arsenal v Man U: the team that loves playing at home v the team that does not like travelling

By Sir Hardly Anyone

Arsenal v Manchester United

Staying with the Manchester Evening news that we have quoted earlier we also find that they have predicted the Arsenal team

Raya;

Timber, Saliba, Gabriel, Calafiori;

Jorginho, Odegaard, Rice;

Saka, Havertz, Martinelli.

They then use a computer game to predict the match, which seems to give amazing details such as in the first half the best chance “fell to Kai Havertz who somehow missed the target from a few yards out”.  And then Manchester United went ahead!  They even give us full details of the how.

In this strange fantasy world Arsenal responded in the second half in this make-believe event and a goalkeeping error allowed Gabriel Jesus to score.   It ends as a 1-1 draw.  

There are actually a few details such as “Martin Odegaard spotted Jesus’ run in behind the United defence, with the midfielder lifting a pass over the top for the Brazilian to chase. Onana rushed off his line to cut out the pass, but he wasn’t quick enough as Jesus got there first to loop a header over the ‘keeper and into the net.”  And thus EA FC 25 predicted final score: Arsenal 1-1 Man United

The Mirror meanwhile tell us that “Manchester United will face Arsenal in the Premier League on Wednesday without four important players.”  But they don’t tell us who!   Instead, they announced that there are “question marks” concerning Gabriel Magalhaes, Riccardo Calafiori, Thomas Partey and Mikel Merino.

Part of the ManU problem is that Lisandro Martinez and Kobbie Mainoo are suspended and “both Jonny Evans and Victor Lindelof remain sidelined.   Fernandes is said to be fit.”   Meanwhile “Luke Shaw ‘absolutely devastated’ as injury rules him out of Arsenal vs Man Utd” according to the Metro

ManU is another of that select group of clubs that have beaten Arsenal more than the reverse, with Arsenal having won 59 and ManU having won 101 – so it is a huge gap to make up.

But Arsenal can take some consolation out of recent results, for in the last 11 games – all of which have been in the Premier League, Arsenal have won seven, there have been two draws and Manchester United have won just two, once in 2021 and once in 2022, both games being played at Very Old Trafford.

The last three games played have all been Arsenal victories, with a cumulative scoreline of 7-3 to Arsenal.

Sports Mole give a prediction for this one of 2-0 to the Arsenal, with an Arsenal team of

Raya;

Timber, Saliba, Kiwior, Calafiori;

Odegaard, Jorginho, Rice;

Saka, Havertz, Martinelli

The Mirror won’t give us a team, but this morning were running the headline Arsenal “could be missing SIX first-team stars vs Man Utd after double injury setback.”

Sky Sports have a rather interesting approach, opening with “Ruben Amorim has warned difficult days still lie ahead for Manchester United and they will be “found out”.” 

But the BBC as ever have put in a bit of extra work telling us that “Arsenal can win four successive league games against Manchester United for the first time,” as “United have lost seven of their past nine Premier League away games against Arsenal.

Apparently this is the 500^th match at the Arsenal Stadium, although that includes all sorts of games there, although I suspect not the 5-a-side tournament I played in on the pitch after the end of the season many years back (courtesy of our friends at Arsenal Belgium).  (I use the word “played” in its broadest sense – it involved some running around and a few touches of the ball on my part as my fellow players realised that an ability to run a blog did not mean an ability to play football).

But returning to more serious stuff Arsenal have not been unbeaten in the last 15 Premier League games against the rest of the “top six” as we used to call them. 

We are also getting rather good at scoring early on, so it might be worth being there for kick off.  But meanwhile here is another jolly fact from the BBC: apparently Arteta has the best win rate against ManU of all the managers who have managed five or more games against them.

And yet another: only Thierry Henry scored more PL goals for Arsenal against ManU than Bukayo Saka.

And a very last one, again from the BBC, before I start getting ready for the long and tedious journey either down the A1 or the M1 (the decision being made by the satnav).  “Since the start of last season, Arsenal’s 20 goals from corners and Gabriel’s five from corners are the most by a team and a single player in the Premier League.”

So now you know.  Let’s hope we all enjoy it.