Although realistically Arsenal have a solid chance of securing a win over Manchester United early on Saturday, the Gunners have seen some massive defeats at the hand of their rivals. It goes the same way for the Red Devils whose 3-0 demolition at the Emirates Stadium last season is still fresh in their memory. Manchester United have played 94 games against Arsenal in the league and have won 39 losing 29.
Ahead of their big clash on Saturday, we looks at the 3 one-sided matches between Manchester United and Arsenal in the recent past.
Manchester United 8-2 Arsenal
It was quite the opposite situation when Arsenal were plagued with injuries and suspensions. Arsenal had been hit hard ahead of the toughest trip of their domestic campaign. First team players Gervinho, Alex Song and Emmanuel Frimpong were all suspended for the match. Following that encouraging victory at Udinese in the midweek, Thomas Vermaelen had also picked up a thigh injury and right-back Bacary Sagna had also fallen ill.
The scoring was initiated by Danny Welbeck and soon after that, Robin Van Persie’s penalty was saved. Ashley Young contributed the first of two cracking curlers of the match and Wayne Rooney grabbed a dead-ball hat-trick, which included two free-kicks and a penalty. Between that treble, Ji-Sung Park and Nani also added goals while Theo Walcott and Van Persie scored goals that were not even close to a consolation.
Arsenal 3-0 Manchester United
The result had left Arsenal two points behind Manchester City then, the margin of victory was enough to take them above United into the second place. Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil had scored within a span of 33 seconds. It was after that the Chilean had belted an absolute stunner for the third from outside the United D-box that left United three-down inside 20 minutes for the first time in the Premier League era,
It also needs mentioning that Arsenal had two very composed players in Peter Cech and Santiago Cazorla in that match who successfully brought the Gunners out of many tight situations.
Manchester United 4-0 Arsenal
Arsenal had one of the worst FA Cup defeats against United in 2008 when the visitors were thumped 4-0. There was no real threat at either end as the Gunners had Nicklas Bendtner up front and Senderos partnering William Gallas at the back. Both the teams had decided to rest their key players but Arsenal’s second team had a disastrous outing.
Wayne Rooney had a brilliant game and was unstoppable. He had opened the score sheet with a header which was then capitalised upon by Darren Fletcher’s brace and Nani scored another.
