By Frank Dalleres
These are still early days for Erik ten Hag at Manchester United but, after claiming the scalp of Premier League leaders Arsenal on Sunday, the signs are looking good.
A debut goal to ease the weight of Antony’s £85m price tag and the return to form of Marcus Rashford made Sunday afternoon close to perfect for United, who were only pegged back for six minutes by Bukayo Saka’s equaliser.
After a nightmare start to life at Old Trafford, former Ajax manager Ten Hag has reaped the rewards of his scorched earth approach with four wins in a row, over Liverpool, Southampton, Leicester and now Arsenal.
United now lie fifth in the table, ahead of both Chelsea and Liverpool and only three points off the summit. Feverish speculation that the club’s owners, the Glazer family, might be forced to sell amid fan unrest at poor results suddenly seems a long time ago.
Ten Hag’s success has been built on sacrificing previous mainstays Cristiano Ronaldo, Harry Maguire, Fred and Luke Shaw from his starting XI as much as it has been about integrating new players.
It helps when the new faces make an impression, however, as Tyrell Malacia has in previous games and Antony, who Ten Hag pushed hard to recruit from his old club last week, did here.
The Brazil winger started on the right and looked game, getting the home crowd onside with stepovers and the odd speculative attempt.
Antony’s fancy footwork came to little but he did finish clinically when found in space by Rashford in the 35th minute, sweeping into the far corner past Aaron Ramsdale.
Rashford, meanwhile, enjoyed another fruitful afternoon against Arsenal, six and a half years after scoring twice against them on his Premier League debut.
The England forward gobbled up a delicious outside-of-the-boot pass from Bruno Fernandes and fired under Ben White’s lunge to beat Ramsdale to swing the match back in United’s favour in the 66th minute.
Nine minutes later he tapped in from Christian Eriksen as Arsenal’s gung-ho response to going behind blew up in their faces.
For Arsenal, this was a first setback of the new season after winning their first five fixtures but they were outsmarted rather than outplayed.
Mikel Arteta’s side registered 1.67 expected goals to United’s 1.03, according to data from Sporting Risk, and 60 per cent possession.
Where United found cutting edge in the penalty area, Arsenal too often misplayed the final ball or found the hosts to be stubborn defenders.
Some marginal calls also went against them, and Paul Tierney’s decision to chalk off an early Gabriel Martinelli strike after a video assistant referee review for a foul on Eriksen that Sky Sports commentator and staunch Red Gary Neville called “soft” was debatable.
Arteta will, however, have to take some blame for rolling the dice with a triple substitution at 2-1 down that left his side disjointed and vulnerable for United’s almost instant third.
On the positive side, they remain top of the table despite defeat, one point ahead of Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur, and underlined their improvement this season.
The front three of Martinelli, Gabriel Jesus and Saka plus playmaker Martin Odegaard delivered some fluid attacking play, and Saka’s first goal in 15 appearances marked a welcome return to goalscoring form.
Arsenal’s weakness was the absence of Thomas Partey through injury, with understudy Sambi Lokonga unable to patrol the midfield with the same authority yet.
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