A bit of pre-match Unai. He’s asked about the absence of Mesut Ozil. “Not today!” he says of the Germany midfielder, which is as goos an answer as any I suppose.
The teams
Manchester United (4-2-3-1): De Gea; Tuanzebe, Lindelof, Maguire, Young; McTominay, Pogba; Andreas Pereira, Lingard, James; Rashford. Subs: Romero, Rojo, Williams, Fred, Mata, Matic, Greenwood.
Arsenal (4-3-3): Leno; Chambers, Sokratis, David Luiz, Kolasinac; Guendouzi, Xhaka, Torreira; Pepe, Aubameyang, Saka. Subs: Martinez, Maitland-Niles, Holding, Ceballos, Willock, Nelson, Martinelli
Referee: Kevin Friend
So two changes for Arsenal – Chambers and Torreira for Maitland-Niles and Ceballos (who are both on the bench). As expected, Rashford and Pogba are both passed fit for United, which means Mason Greenwood drops to the bench. No Wan-Bissaka for United, so Axel Tuanzebe is in at right-back.
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A bit of pre-match reading:
Here’s Jonathan Wilson on the malaise at Manchester United: “It may be that a squad this piecemeal, patched together from the remnants of four very different managers’ inclinations under a board that has demonstrated little in the way of football expertise, makes the act of management almost impossible …”
And here’s Nick Ames on tonight’s game: “Anyone still tuning in for the spit and snarl of the 1990s and 2000s – the bust-ups involving Schmeichel, Wright, Keane, Vieira, Keown, Van Nistelrooy, Fàbregas, a pizza buffet, Wenger and Ferguson – will be short-changed.”
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Preamble
Hello all. And welcome to what could be a wet and wild night in Manchester and this clash between perhaps the two most interesting teams in the Premier League right now.
Of course, being interesting isn’t necessarily a good thing. There are strains of fungal infection that are presumably extremely interesting (to some) but that doesn’t mean you want to get intimately involved with them. Or follow their progress through thick and thin over nine months.
Manchester United have won one in five Premier League games since the opening day of the season. Indeed since that stunning win over PSG in Paris back in March, their league record reads: P15 W4 D4 L7 Pts16 which is in many ways, I’m sure you’ll agree, a far more interesting record than when they were winning all those titles in the 90s. Perhaps only Marco Silva at Everton looks on thinner ice than Ole Gunnar Solskjær, who is hamstrung by injuries this evening.
Unai Emery’s Arsenal, meanwhile, are something of a footballing fruit machine at the moment, at times paying out gloriously, at times so frustrating you just want to pour your pint over them and find something else to do.
Kick-off is 8pm BST.
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