By Frank Kamuntu
Declan Rice and Gabriel Jesus scored stoppage-time goals to take Arsenal to a famous 3-1 win over Manchester United on Sunday.
In a game packed with drama, United thought they’d won it themselves on 88 minutes when Alejandro Garnacho broke free to score but a close VAR offside call denied him his moment. Erik ten Hag was adamant it should have stood.
Instead it was Arsenal’s £105m man who delivered the decisive goal, brilliantly controlling a corner at the back post before blasting a shot off 35-year-old Jonny Evans and past Andre Onana six minutes into added time.
Evans appealed for a foul from the cross but Rice’s celebrations into the crowd were an iconic moment, adding another remarkable chapter to this Premier League rivalry.
As the visitors desperately pushed for a response, Jesus sealed it, breaking away and leaving Diogo Dalot and United on the floor. Last season it was Eddie Nketiah dealing the injury-time knockout blow to United. This time it was a Rice-Jesus one-two.
In the first half, Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard had come up with an instant response to Marcus Rashford’s counter-attack goal, hitting the net 35 seconds after the restart.
Arsenal thought they’d been handed a chance to go in front on the hour mark when Kai Havertz went down in the box and a penalty was awarded. But replays showed it was the German looking for contact with Aaron Wan-Bissaka and it was overturned by a VAR check.
That capped a personal day to forget for Havertz, who made a hash of an early chance when the goal was at his mercy and then gave away the ball for United to break away for Rashford to score.
But his team-mates would create the comeback in the end – and what a comeback it was.
A thrilling finish to a match which leaves Arsenal with three wins from four and moves Mikel Arteta’s side up to fifth, just two points behind title rivals Manchester City.
As for Manchester United, they are down in 11th, six points behind their neighbours.
It was a cruel finale for them but Erik ten Hag – yet to pick up a point away in the Premier League this season – will spend the international break mulling over a six-point return from their opening batch of games which leaves them already playing catch up on the teams they want to challenge.
