Arsenal and Manchester United will clash in what can be described as a clash of heritage in the Premier League. The two sides, with more than 30 league titles, will meet at the Emirates Stadium for another exciting fixture in early December.
The North London side have been superb all through the past three seasons and they are one of the sides challenging for the Premier League titles. As for United, they have been very inconsistent over the past two seasons.
As of the time of writing, Arsenal are third on the Premier League log with 17 points, while the Red Devils have 11 points from eight games and are placed 12th. Mikel Arteta’s side are strong at home, and they will be keen to keep that form going against one of the sides they have beaten at home in five of the past six meetings.
One thing Arteta’s side has done this present season is their ability to adapt in difficult situations. The team showed character to take all three points at Tottenham and were denied a late goal at Manchester City. They also have wins against the likes of Aston Villa, Southampton, Leicester City, and Wolves in their opening eight games of the campaign. The only defeat, as of the time of writing, came against Bournemouth in mid-October. It has been a great start even without talisman Martin Odegaard. Arteta did well in praising his team for the adaptation back in late September.
“If you put me in this scenario before I started this season with the calendar that we were given, the fixtures that we had, the three away games that we had the amount of injuries that we had to deal with, and how we got out of that, I would be very, very pleased,” Arteta said in his pre-Leicester press conference back then.
“It’s not just Martin, obviously he’s one of our best players and a player that has more impact on the team in many ways, but there were many others as well and the team has coped extremely well because we have an exceptional group.
“We have to adapt,” he added. “The influence that Martin had in our attacking phase is enormous, we cannot question that. When you look at every metric, the way we plan the games to try to do things to get him in the spaces where he can be very dangerous for the opponent is key. It’s always to him.
“We don’t have it so we have to adapt our way of playing and find other ways to do it that are very efficient. It won’t be the same. It will be different, but hopefully very efficient as well,” Arteta concluded.
On the other hand, it has been one struggle to the other for Manchester United since the season began. We have seen new additions to the technical crew, changes to infrastructure and even Sir Alex Ferguson was not left out. The situation around the club needs serious attention and it has been getting all of that since the new owners came on board. However, results on the pitch have not been excellent, as Erik Ten Hag’s side have shown lack of consistency over time.
During the transfer window, a lot of players left the club including Anthony Martial, Raphael Varane(now retired), Willy Kambwala (Villarreal), Omari Forson (Monza), and Mason Greenwood (Marseille). Meanwhile, Jadon Sancho left for Chelsea on deadline day to end another long transfer window for the winger. In a bid to strengthen the squad, United made the signings of Leny Yoro (Lille), Joshua Zirkzee (Bologna), Noussair Mazraoui and Matthijs de Ligt arrived in a double swoop from Bayern Munich, and Manuel Ugarte was snapped up from PSG. Not much can be said about the additions due to United’s poor run of form at the time of writing this article.
The Red Devils lost three of their opening eight games of the season with just seven goals scored. This sort of form does not inspire confidence in the hearts of the management and their fans. Meanwhile, Erik Ten Hag continues to lead the club but pressure is mounting for him to be shown the door, and if the current state of things does not improve, he might eventually get the boot.
Arsenal and Manchester United’s head-to-head record shows that in the 70 meetings since 1995, Arsenal have won 23 times and Manchester United have won 31 times. Just 16 of those fixtures ended in a draw.
Match tickets
This match at The Emirates in London kicks off on Wednesday 4th December 2024, at 20:15 GMT.
The 60,704-capacity stadium is the place for this clash between two former Champions of the Premier League.
Getting Arsenal v Manchester United tickets could take a lot of work given the standard of this game. Hence, you are advised to search ticket reselling sites should they be expectedly sold out on each club’s channels.
Team news
Line-ups
Mikel Arteta and his team are quite strong at home and the manager has a good number of his stars available. Utility Ghanaian midfielder Thomas Partey, and Dutch defender Jurrien Timber could feature in this game. This match might come too soon for skipper Martin Odegaard, while Bukayo Saka should again retain his spot on the wing and Kai Havertz leading the line.
Arsenal XI: David Raya; Jurien Timber, Gabriel, William Saliba, Riccardo Calafiori; Kai Havertz, Declan Rice, Thomas Partey; Gabriel Martinelli, Leandro Trossard, Bukayo Saka.
Andre Onana, who picked up the Premier League’s save of the month in September, has been the undisputed number one under Ten Hag and should start against Everton here. Luke Shaw, Tyrell Malacia are all long-term absentees. All players with minor injuries should be available for this trip to the Emirates. .
Manchester United XI: Andre Onana; Matthijs de Ligt, Lisandro Martinez, Diogo Dalot, Noussair Mazraoui; Bruno Fernandes, Kobbie Mainoo, Manuel Ugarte; Alejandro Garnacho, Rasmus Hojlund, Marcus Rashford.
Prediction
Arsenal have set high standards for themselves in the past couple of seasons and they know that there is no time for slip-ups. At the Emirates, they are difficult to play against and this Shaky Manchester United side should be beaten at the end of 90 minutes.
United have lacked character in some games. Having lost in five of their past six visits to the Emirates, United will be low in confidence as they head into this encounter.
With the amount of firepower in Arsenal’s attack, this should be an easy win.
Arsenal 3-0 Manchester United