Cunha stunner hands Arsenal first home defeat of the season | OneFootball

Michael Carrick masterminded another victory as Manchester United manager to hand Arsenal a first Premier League home defeat of the season.

A dramatic 88th minute winner from Matheus Cunha, moments after Arsenal had drawn level, reduced the gap at the top of the table to four points ahead of Manchester City. A deserved win for Carrick and co. also lifted United into the top four.

Bryan Mbuemo and Patrick Dorgu scored the potentially pivotal goals earlier on as United came from behind to lead after conceding a Lisandro Martinez own goal.

The breakthrough goal was as scruffy as the match and it was at first unclear whether Jurrien Timber had finished or Martinez had nudged the ball into his own net. Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard combined well on the right before the Arsenal captain slightly mishit a ball into the penalty area. Timber appeared to beat Martinez to the loose ball , but the ball ultimately span into the goal off the United defender’s boot.

The goal brought the best out of Carrick’s side though and they had two or three chances before Mbeumo levelled in the 37th minute with his 50th Premier League goal and only the sixth Arsenal had conceded here all season.

It was more of the same after the break as United still looked the more confident side, taking the lead through a stunning 20-yard half volley from Dorgu in the 49th minute. Now, having conceded twice at home for the first time all season, Arsenal really had it all to do.

Arteta looked to his bench to try to change the game and made a quadruple substitution with only 56 minutes gone.

United remained well organised and hard to break down with an opportunistic shot from Saka their best attempt at levelling, before he took the corner to give substitute Mikel Merino the chance to equalise from the resulting corner.

Then, Arsenal were caught by Cunha’s long range stunner just as they had been optimistically pressing for a winning goal of their own to suffer a setback in their title hopes.