Manchester United travel to the Emirates Stadium to take on champions-elect Arsenal, seeking to build on a spectacular start to Michael Carrick’s spell as their interim head coach.

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By Ian King

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Can Manchester United’s Carrick bounce throw a spanner into the works of Arsenal’s title charge?

Was that really all it took? Just the application of a formation that wasn’t 3-4-3 and the application of some “vibes”? Old Trafford was transformed last weekend as Manchester United stormed to a very comfortable win in a surprisingly one-sided derby win against City. 

Seasoned Manchester United observers will be fully aware that hope that comes to nothing has been an important part of this club’s plot arc over the last decade or so but, now just a point off a Champions League place and with Liverpool continuing to stutter, this was a win that could end up being their most important of the season.

This, then, is a good time for them to be travelling to North London to play Arsenal, who had a hiccup of their own last weekend with a goalless draw at Nottingham Forest on a weekend when none of the top five could manage a win. Still, they bounced back with a comfortable 3-1 win against Inter in midweek and it remains the case that Mikel Arteta’s team have only lost once in any competition since the end of August. 

The form guide quite clearly favours Arsenal, though United gave it a good go earlier this season

There’s no questioning the fact that the form book in this fixture quite clearly favours Arsenal. Manchester United have only won one of their last seven meetings, while they’ve lost five of them. When they met on the opening weekend of the season, Arsenal won 1-0 at Old Trafford, although the caveat to that is that United played pretty well on that occasion and were a little unfortunate not to come away from it with at least a point. 

Viktor Gyökeres was on target in Milan, and now’s the time for him to ignite his Arsenal career

One minor blot on the Arsenal landscape is that they’ve failed to score in either of their last two Premier League matches. As such – and should he start, which is not guaranteed – now might be a good time for Viktor Gyökeres to really ignite his Arsenal career following a crucial late goal in Milan during the week. He is Arsenal’s joint-top scorer in the Premier League with five alongside Leandro Trossard, but then again, their goals have been coming from all over the team so far this season.

One piece of news to emerge from Old Trafford this week is that Casemiro will be leaving the club at the end of this season. He’s been an excellent performer for Manchester United in recent weeks, and his considerable experience could be crucial, if United are to build on their excellent result last weekend.

It’s quiet on the injuries front for both Arsenal and Manchester United

Both sides will be close to full strength for this match. Max Dowman, Riccardo Calafiori and Piero Hincapié will all be absent for Arsenal, while Joshua Zirkzee and Maathijs de Ligt are both absent for Manchester United. 

The position regarding Nouassir Mazraoui is somewhat more uncertain. He’s now back from AFCON, having lost that remarkable final last weekend for Morocco. But he was given a little extra time off in the week and may make their squad for this one, though it’s far from certain. 

It would be surprising to see too many changes from Michael Carrick following that sensational team performance at Old Trafford last weekend, but with four trophies still to play for and a squad with real depth, Mikel Arteta may make changes for the team that won in the Champions League in midweek. 

One of their bigger question marks for Arsenal hangs over Gabriel Jesus, who’s been largely restricted to cameo appearances since his return from injury but made a case for a more regular starting spot with a brace in midweek. He started at the San Siro, but may find himself back on the bench this weekend.

Manchester United were outstanding against an out-of-sorts City, but Arsenal are a different proposition

This weekend’s fixture is perhaps the ultimate litmus test for whether last weekend’s derby win was yet another flash in the pan for Manchester United, or whether Michael Carrick has instantly unlocked something that could power them back towards the Champions League. 

In a way, this is almost perfect timing for this fixture for Carrick. Few will be expecting them to take much from this match, but their tails are up and, having played in the early fixture last weekend and without a midweek game, they’ve had much more rest than their hosts. 

But Arsenal are the best team in the Premier League at the moment. When your biggest current problem is that you failed to extend your lead at the top of the table to nine points, you know that, in the broad scheme of things, everything’s going well. 

Both Manchester City and Aston Villa will have completed their matches by the time they kick off at The Emirates, and should they both fail to win – something which can’t entirely be ruled out, considering what happened at the top of the table last weekend – Arsenal’s lead could even be double-digit by the end of Sunday afternoon. 

With the home side having conceded just 14 goals in 22 Premier League matches this season, it’s difficult to see how United can take anything from this match without being very tight at the back. And this match has a lengthy history of being somewhat feisty. Both teams seem likely to want to get up in each others’ faces, so this could well be a slightly bad-tempered affair. 

If United can disrupt Arsenal enough, they could take something from this match, but that works both ways and one win, no matter how excellent, is too little to go on to be able to predict an even better result for Michael Carrick’s team this time around. 1-0 to the Arsenal, and that’s just the way they like it. 

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(Cover image from IMAGO)

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