Arsenal 1 Manchester United 2: match report

Valencia had reacted quickest to the situation, sprinting inside thomas Vermaelen to head past Szczesny. Arsene Wenger reacted at half-time to Djourou’s dreadful performance by replacing him with Nico Yennaris, an 18-year-old product of the Arsenal academy. Arsenal also emerged with far more urgency in their attacking play. Tomas Rosicky pounced on a mistake by Chris Smalling and, when he cleverly squared the ball for Robin van Persie, a goal looked certain. Van Persie, though, blazed his shot wide of Anders Lindegaard’s right-hand post. Ramsey, Rosikcy and Oxlade-Chamberlain all also then went close. At the other end, Per Mertesacker lost Welbeck but recovered sufficiently to make a goal-line clearance.