By Daily Sports on January 1, 1970

There is no getting away from the fact that fixtures between Arsenal and Manchester United are a far cry from their heyday, but in Mikel Arteta and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer there are now two men in charge who know all about this contest.

Solskjaer played when the rivalry was at its fiercest and most ferocious, while Arteta faced United more often than he did any other club during his playing career, not to mention his more recent ties with their local rivals Manchester City.

Arteta is now in the position of having to mastermind victory against the foe he knows so well, and there would be few sweeter opponents for him to get his first win as Arsenal boss against.

The Spaniard has certainly brought about an improvement from the Gunners since his appointment, at least in terms of performances if not results.

Just one point from his opening two games is not the return he would have wanted, but the displays have been encouraging and the players appear to have bought into his demand for a greater work ethic and structure.

It looked for a long time as though he would pick up a maiden victory in his first home game at the helm, with Arsenal the better side for much of Sunday's London derby with Chelsea, only for a howler from Bernd Leno to gift the Blues a route back into the match as they pulled off a dramatic late turnaround to win 2-1.

United have at least been better than Arsenal this season, and they ended 2019 in promising fashion with wins over Newcastle United and Burnley helping to make up for their shock defeat at Watford just before Christmas.

Consistency has been a major issue for the Red Devils and they have not won three consecutive league games for almost a year, but they have also only lost one of their last nine matches and have been beaten the same number of times as champions Manchester City this term.

Indeed, only Liverpool picked up more points than United over the last six games of 2019, helping them to close the gap on the Champions League places to four points. (Sports Mole)

•PHOTO: Arsenal and Man Utd players 

Source Daily Sports

Posted January 1, 2020

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