Manchester United put in an outstanding defensive performance to win against Arsenal after extra-time with 10 men.
A few games ago it looked like Manchester United couldn’t buy a result. The two away trips to Liverpool and Arsenal at the start of 2025 loomed large.
Yet after both games, United are unbeaten. And while this game at Arsenal will show a 1-1 draw and penalty shootout win, underscore that last word, cap it up, because this was a WIN.
United rode their luck at times, as happens in games of this magnitude, also overcoming a botched penalty call, with Altay Bayindir saving from Martin Odegaard, and then doubling up as hero in the shootout.
De Ligt clearance hailed
Altay Bayindir is rightly being hailed as a Manchester United hero, and in the context of his last performance, against Tottenham, he deserves it.
But he was not the only one with a redemption arc, just ask Joshua Zirkzee, who scored the winning penalty in the shootout.
Another more low-key rising hero was Matthijs de Ligt, following up from a couple of unfortunate moments at Anfield a week earlier.
Against Arsenal, De Ligt made a vital intervention that was far tougher than either of Bayindir’s penalty saves.
De Ligt somehow got in front of a cross when it appeared Leandro Trossard was about to tap it into the net from two yards out. It was an improbable piece of defending, immaculately executed with no room for error.
The centre-back’s moment was picked out on MUTV’s post-game coverage, with Wes Brown hailing the former Bayern Munich man.
Brown said: “We weren’t sure who it was, we thought he [Trossard] missed it. But what a tackle!”
“On the line, gets his foot round, and clears it for a throw in. I mean, everybody can see that’s just commitment for you, everybody celebrated.
“What a tackle that is, it should be a tap-in, he was committed to it, and he got it right.”
Matthijs de Ligt is showing his quality
Matthijs de Ligt has come into a rocky situation at Manchester United in his first season, and had to adjust on the fly.
Despite amassing plenty of experience already in his career, De Ligt is still only 25, and his best years are ahead of him.
His challenge to deny Trossard an easy goal was a decisive moment in extra-time that Manchester United would not have recovered from.
Down to 10 men, United needed every player to dig and and do something special, and De Ligt did exactly that.
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