Arsenal trailed early on and were pegged back in the second half before beating Manchester United in a Premier League thriller on Sunday.
Eddie Nketiah’s 90th-minute winner gave Arsenal a thrilling 3-2 victory over Manchester United to restore a five-point gap to Manchester City at the Premier League summit.
Arsenal kicked off just two points clear at the top, having seen City win twice since they last played, but they reestablished a more comfortable cushion at the end of a gripping Emirates Stadium encounter on Sunday.
United – themselves maintaining remote title hopes – scored first through Marcus Rashford, only to require a scruffy second-half leveller from Lisandro Martinez after goals from Nketiah and Bukayo Saka had turned the game on its head.
Only Arsenal looked capable of providing a further twist, though, and it came through Nketiah with seconds remaining of normal time, giving the Gunners surely their biggest win of the season so far.
Arsenal player ratings (4-2-3-1)
GK: Aaron Ramsdale – 4/10 – Made one top save but followed it up with a huge error that cost his team a goal and almost the win.
RB: Ben White – 4/10 – Struggled to handle Rashford and picked up a yellow before being subbed off at half-time.
CB: William Saliba – 7/10 – Didn’t have too much to do but dealt well with everything that came his way.
CB: Gabriel – 7/10 – Led his backline excellently, dominating in the air and on the ground.
LB: Oleksandr Zinchenko – 8/10 – Didn’t do anything wrong at the back, handling Antony well, and put in the all-important cross for the winning goal as well as a number of other excellent balls.
CM: Thomas Partey – 7/10 – Protected his defence well, winning a number of balls in midfield, but gave it away a lot in possession.
CM: Granit Xhaka – 8/10 – A top performance from the midfielder, who got an assist and created multiple other chances for his team-mates.
RM: Bukayo Saka – 9/10 – Got one excellent goal, so nearly got another, and was a handful for Man Utd all game.
AM: Martin Odegaard – 7/10 – Got a somewhat lucky assist and played a few great through balls.
LM: Gabriel Martinelli – 5/10 – Was able to create a few chances for others but his own finishing was really poor.
CF: Eddie Nketiah – 8/10 – Didn’t offer too much in build-up and missed a huge chance, but scored the other two that fell his way to win his team the game.
Substitutes
SUB: Takehiro Tomiyasu (45′ for White) – 7/10 – Did a much better job dealing with Rashford than White did and got an assist.
SUB: Leandro Trossard (82′ for Martinelli) – N/A
Manager
Mikel Arteta – 8/10 – Would’ve hoped for a more comfortable victory but made some good changes in the second half to ensure his team got the three points.
Man Utd player ratings (4-2-3-1)
GK: David de Gea – 6/10 – Made one good save but wasn’t able to stop any of the three goals.
RB: Aaron Wan-Bissaka – 5/10 – Was generally solid at the back but partly to blame for Arsenal’s winner and quiet going forward.
CB: Raphael Varane – 7/10 – Was typically dependable at the back.
CB: Lisandro Martinez – 8/10 – Defended well, was good on the ball and deserved his well-taken goal.
LB: Luke Shaw – 5/10 – Didn’t have as big an impact on the game as he would have hoped and struggled against Saka.
CM: Scott McTominay- 6/10 – Did a respectable job filling in for Casemiro from a defensive aspect but wasn’t good in possession.
CM: Christian Eriksen – 4/10 – Worked hard but wasn’t the creative force his team needed.
RM: Antony – 4/10 – Had multiple chances to cause Arsenal problems and create chances but couldn’t really do so, severely lacking an end product.
AM: Bruno Fernandes – 6/10 – Got an assist and did decently when on the ball but wasn’t able to get it as much as he would have liked.
LM: Marcus Rashford – 7/10 – Scored an excellent goal and caused White problems but missed a good chance after that and faded as the match went out.
ST: Wout Weghorst – 6/10 – Was largely kept quiet by the Arsenal defence but linked up play well a few times and did some good defensive work.
Substitutes
SUB: Fred (71′ for Antony) – N/A
SUB: Alejandro Garnacho (90′ for Varane) – N/A
Manager
Erik ten Hag – 7/10 – He deserves credit for having his team go for the win, but it’s a surprise that he didn’t make change more in the final stages as his team started to get dominated.
