After eight straight victories, including away to Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester United traveled back to London to meet Arsenal in the fourth round of the FA Cup. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team faced an Arsenal side under former Sevilla manager Unai Emery who are ahead of them in the Premier League. The tie represented another test for Manchester United’s revival under their interim manager.
Our analysis will look at how Arsenal’s loss of Sokratis Papastathopoulos in the 21st minute changed the match, why Manchester United were able to attack so efficiently, and how Solskjaer uses Romelu Lukaku more effectively than Jose Mourinho did.
Lineup
Manchester United made four changes from the side that beat Brighton & Hove Albion at home six days earlier. The most important of those changes were Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial, both of whom have been in great form of late, starting on the bench. This allowed a chance for Romelu Lukaku and former Arsenal forward Alexis Sanchez to start, as they hope to force their way into Solskjaer’s match plans.
Unai Emery made only two changes from the side that dispatched Chelsea a week earlier, with Petr Cech getting the start as Bernd Leno dropped to the bench. His only other change was Ainsley Maitland-Niles filling in at right-back in place of Hector Bellerin, who suffered a season-ending knee injury in the game against the Blues.
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