Result: Arsenal 2-0 Manchester United
Date: 01 January 2020
Venue: Emirates Stadium
Mikel Arteta secured his first win as Arsenal manager at the third time of asking as the Gunners defeated Manchester United 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday night.
The Gunners made four changes to the side that narrowly lost to Chelsea, as Sead Kolasinac and Sokratis Papastathopoulos took the places of Bukayo Saka and the injured Calum Chambers, while Granit Xhaka and Nicolas Pepe started ahead of Matteo Guendouzi and Reiss Nelson.
On the other side, United coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made three alterations from their win over Burnley, as Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Luke Shaw returned in place of Ashley Young and Brandon Williams, while Jesse Lingard was preferred over Andreas Pereira.
Mikel Arteta's charges had a bright start as Pepe broke the deadlock in the eighth minute with a curling strike from close range after latching onto Kolasinac's deflected cross.
Arsenal came close to grabbing the second goal just after the half-hour mark, as Alexandre Lacazette toe-poked a close-range strike wide while Lucas Torreira curled a low shot just wide from the centre of the box moments.
The hosts were unlucky not to add a second with seven minutes remaining of the first stanza after United goalkeeper David De Gea half-cleared a dangerous ball to the on-rushing Pepe, who rattled the upright with a curling strike from distance.
However, the Gunners eventually doubled their lead two minutes before the break after Papastathopoulos blasted into the roof of the net from point-blank range after De Gea had saved Lacazette's initial flick-on.
The Red Devils were struggling to create clear chances early in the second stanza but Pereira almost reduced the deficit shortly after coming on for Lingard, but he fired his shot into the side-netting.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's army were gaining momentum in the last quarter of an hour, with Arsenal playing on a counter-attack and the hosts had a chance to kill add a third after Lacazette combined with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang just outside the box but the latter's effort sailed over the bar as the encounter finished 2-0 to the hosts.
