Antony celebrates debut goal
Antony celebrates debut goal

Antony scored on his debut and Marcus Rashford netted a brace as Manchester United win 3-1 to hand Arsenal their first defeat of the season.

Erik ten Hag saw his side start well before the Gunners found their rhythm, and the visitors had a goal controversially disallowed after a foul on Christian Eriksen in the build-up to Gabriel Martinelli’s finish.

Arsenal continued to dominate the rest of the half, with Gabriel Jesus in particular a constant threat, but they found themselves behind when Eriksen sparked a slick passing move which was finished off coolly by deadline-day signing Antony.

United sat back in the second half which allowed Mikel Arteta’s side to enjoy most of the possession with Martin Odegaard and Bukayo Saka both spurning good opportunities in the box.

And their play was finally rewarded on the hour mark when Saka scored his first goal of the season from close range after capitalising on Raphael Varane’s poor clearance.

Against the run of play, the home side punished some sloppiness to retake the lead on the counter-attack after Fernandes threaded the ball through to Rashford who scored via a deflection.

Mikel Arteta made a triple change, bringing on Fabio Vieira for his debut, but it backfired as United scored their third – again on the counter – with Eriksen unselfishly squaring it to Rashford to convert from close range and make it four wins in a row for Ten Hag’s developing side.