There’s very rarely any love lost between Man United and Arsenal, and one former Red Devils legend hasn’t wasted the opportunity to denigrate the Gunners once more.
On Wednesday night, a youthful Arsenal side swept aside Bolton Wanderers in the Carabao Cup, landing a fourth round tie against Preston North End as a reward.
The 5-1 scoreline was an accurate reflection of the Gunners dominance, and that performance followed another brilliant showing at the Etihad Stadium.
After Leandro Trossard was sent off against Man City, it was backs-against-the-wall for the entirety of the second half, and conceding so late will have taken the edge of what was, in truth, a magnificent effort from Mikel Arteta’s charges.
Though Paul Scholes offered a positive comment on that particular performance, it was tempered by a withering put down.
Scholes’ withering put down of Arsenal
“Arsenal, at some point, have got to beat them [Manchester City at the Etihad]. They nearly did it, and it was a great effort,” he said on Sky Sports’ The Overlap podcast.
“I sat here at the start of the season and thought Arsenal might win the league, but I’ve been a little bit disappointed with their start to the season.
“Arsenal have been poor going forward this season. You look at all the goals they scored last year, and everyone was talking about getting a centre-forward in the summer and you thought they probably didn’t need it. But five or six games in, it feels like Arsenal are struggling – it’s not quite clicking.”
There’s likely to be plenty of push back from Arsenal fans who will look to the respective starts to the season for both clubs.
The Gunners remain unbeaten and are still only two points behind Man City after the draw at the weekend, whilst United are down in 11th position having only won two of their five games.
An insipid draw at home to Twente on Wednesday in the Europa League was yet another example of just how poor the Red Devils are under Erik ten Hag.
Top photo courtesy of Sky Sports/YouTube