‘Certain’ Manchester United players knew they would expose an ‘awful’ Arsenal defence on Friday.
United beat Arsenal 3-1 in the fourth round of the FA Cup to maintain their excellent run under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
The visitors opened the scoring through Alexis Sanchez before a fine counter-attack helped them Jesse Lingard double their lead.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang pulled one goal back but Anthony Martial secured the victory in the second half.
The Manchester Evening News claims that ‘certain’ United players ‘were confident’ they could beat the Gunners due to their porous defence.
The inimitable Samuel Luckhurst writes:
‘Manchester United players were confident of winning their FA Cup fourth round tie since they felt Arsenal’s defensive set-up had not changed under Unai Emery.
‘Dressing room sources have told the MEN the United players felt Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s gameplan ‘worked a treat’ as United scored twice on the counter-attack in the 3-1 win.
‘Certain players concluded that, despite Arsenal’s managerial change from Arsene Wenger to Emery last year, the Gunners ‘won’t ever change’ after United exposed their porous defending on the counter again.
‘Although Solskjaer innovatively positioned Romelu Lukaku on the right wing, United’s tactical approach was to defend well and counter-attack against what was described as an ‘awful’ Arsenal defence.
‘Lukaku endured a quiet first 30 minutes but flickered into life by creating goals for Alexis Sanchez and Jesse Lingard in quick succession and it did not go unnoticed among United players Lukaku began to thrive after Sokratis Papastathopoulos was replaced by Shkodran Mustafi, a defender Lukaku bullied in the corresponding fixture last season.’