Can a rejuvenated Man United dent Arsenal’s title hopes?

Arsenal welcome Manchester United to the Emirates Stadium for a Premier League blockbuster fixture on Sunday evening.

The Gunners secured a 3-1 victory over Inter Milan at San Siro in the Champions League last time out.

However, Mikel Arteta’s side were held to a goalless stalemate by Nottingham Forest in their last Premier League outing.

Michael Carrick guided United to a 2-0 derby win over Manchester City in his first Premier League game back at the Red Devils’ dugout.

Match preview

Arsenal have won each of their last four Premier League home games against Manchester United, the longest home winning run against them by any side in the competition.

Manchester United are winless in their last six Premier League games against Arsenal (D1 L5) – they’ve never gone seven in a row without a win against the Gunners in their league history.

The Gunners are looking to complete their fifth Premier League double over Manchester United, after 1997/98, 2001/02, 2006/07 and 2023/24. They won 1-0 at Old Trafford in the reverse fixture but have only won both league meetings with the Red Devils without conceding in 1901/02 in the second tier.

The North Londoner’s last two Premier League games have both finished 0-0, with West Ham in December 2015 the last team to have three consecutive goalless draws.

Since the departure of Ruben Amorim, United rank first in the Premier League for xG (4.81), shots attempted (41) and shots on target (17) and have the best xG differential (+4.12) and best shot difference (+27).

Arsenal haven’t faced a single shot on target in any of their last two Premier League matches, the fifth time this season they’ve stopped their opponents from having one. It’s the most times in a season a team has managed this since Chelsea in 2020/21 (5), and since 2003/04 only Man City in both 2017/18 and 2019/20 have done so more often in a season (6 in each).

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has won 67% of his 12 Premier League games against Manchester United (W8 D2 L2), the highest win rate of any manager to face them at least five times.

Michael Carrick’s first and only Premier League victory in his previous stint as Manchester United manager came against Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal – a 3-2 win at Old Trafford in December 2021.

Team news

Arsenal

Riccardo Calafiori and Piero Hincapie both returned to training on Friday, but Sunday’s game might be too early for the pair.

Max Dowman is the only absentee with injury.

Manchester United

Matthijs de Ligt and Joshua Zirkzee are both sidelined with injuries.

Predicted line-ups

Arsenal: David Raya, Ben White, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhães, Jurrien Timber, Martín Zubimendi, Declan Rice, Martin Ødegaard, Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Viktor Gyökeres.

Manchester United: Senne Lammens, Diogo Dalot, Harry Maguire, Lisandro Martínez, Luke Shaw, Casemiro, Kobbie Mainoo, Amad Diallo, Bruno Fernandes, Patrick Dorgu, Bryan Mbeumo.