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Soccer

Scintillating Arsenal produce fantastic first-half performance to dismantle Manchester United

Arsenal came off the back of a poor performance in midweek in the Champions League, but they show...



Scintillating Arsenal produce...
Soccer

Scintillating Arsenal produce fantastic first-half performance to dismantle Manchester United

Arsenal came off the back of a poor performance in midweek in the Champions League, but they showed no ill effects early on as they sprang into life and shocked Manchester United with some early goals. 

Alexis Sanchez opened the scoring after just five minutes after a low ball was drilled across the box by Mesut Ozil, but it was something that had been coming. The signs were there early on that they Wenger's side were in a good position to play their way out of trouble from a bit of pressing high up the pitch and catch Manchester United out of position as a result. 

Ozil was once again on hand for his side's second goal, and while he supplied the first one he turned scorer for the second, leaving a shell-shocked Manchester United side looking around for people to blame. 

With still only 20 minutes gone in the game, it was Arsenal who once again exerted their dominance on the match and put the gloss on a scoreline that left little doubt about who was the better side.It was Sanchez who scored the third, bringing his personal tally to five goals in the last two league games and marking the end of his slump in no uncertain terms.

The second half saw Louis van Gaal do his best to change things as he brought on Antonio Valencia and Marouane Fellaini, a tactic which he hoped would result in a more direct style of play and cause Arsenal some problems, but truth be told it yielded no results.

It was too little, too late for the Dutchman's side. They were outclassed by Wenger's team, whose style of one-touch passing and intricate football really exposed the weaknesses of a backline that lacks pace and didn't seek to impose themselves physically on the opposition.

The fact that Arsenal can pull a performance like this out of the bag with their manager under a lot of pressure will possible be a bit bittersweet for Wenger. Humiliated during the week by lesser opposition in Olympiakos, he will be asking why his side can't do this type of thing more often.

Van Gaal on the other hand may have to go back to the drawing board, as some of the worries that were present at the start of the season reared their ugly heads again today. They looked toothless up front, unable to get the ball to Martial, their only player who has the type of pace that could hurt Per Mertesacker at the back, and they barely troubled Petr Cech throughout the 90 minutes.

Mata looked lively, but Rooney once again looked a bit lost, misplacing passes and displaying a poor touch. Out of sorts and out of form, there are bigger issues that the Old Trafford side need to sort out, despite having won a few games and climbed up the table in recent weeks.

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