Man Utd could be swamped by Arsenal in FA Cup tie unless they’re ‘sharp’ in one key area | OneFootball

Rasmus Hojlund insists he and his Manchester United teammates are ‘looking forward’ to their FA Cup tie away at Arsenal but has admitted one key area of concern.

The two giants of the English game lock horns in the FA Cup third-round on Sunday in a match that will likely mean very different things for each side.

For United, it’s a chance for some solace away from what has been a wretched Premier League campaign so far that sees them 13th in the table, only seven points clear of the relegation zone and 13 adrift of the top four. New manager Ruben Amorim needs a statement result and they don’t come much bigger than knocking Arsenal out of the cup on their own patch.

Speaking of the Gunners, they currently trail Premier League leaders Liverpool by six points and although that’s not an insurmountable deficit, it’s hard to see Arne Slot’s men slipping up. But Mikel Arteta’s first major honour as a manager was the 2019/20 FA Cup and he’d love to get his hands on it again. Finishing second and lifting a trophy would still represent huge success and progress for Arsenal, even if a third straight runner-up showing in the league would be a source of huge frustration.

Arsenal are, of course, massive favourites. But Hojlund is excited to return to the stadium where he made his Man Utd debut in September 2023 and believes the Red Devils have what it takes to ‘go for it’.

“It’s a tough first opponent and away as well,” he told the Man Utd website. “But we’re going to go for it and try to go for it again this year.

“It’s a good game and the Emirates is a nice stadium. The pitch is very good. I had my debut there as well. So it’s a special place for me and a good opponent. I’m looking forward to it.”

For all the posturing we’re likely to see in the coming days, there is one massive cause for concern for United on Sunday: set-pieces.

Arsenal have been famously ruthless from set-pieces this season, scoring a league-high 10 goals from such situations. Their intricate corner routines have caused havoc for the opposition and as of yet, nobody has really figured out how to truly stop them.

By contrast, United are the Premier League’s third-worst team when it comes to defending set-pieces, conceding the same number of goals that Arsenal have scored — and only scoring five themselves — with only Wolves (15) and Southampton (11) performing worse.

“I think we need to be sharp at set-pieces, they have been very good on that, and they scored twice from that last time around,” Hojlund admitted.

As the Denmark international says, Jurrien Timber and William Saliba both converted second-half corners to inflict Ruben Amorim’s first defeat as Manchester United manager the last time these two sides met back in March.

“We already knew that it would be a tough game. I think the corners changed the game, the set-pieces,” Amorim said after that match.

He added: “They are very good because they have a lot of time working on that. Especially on that, they have big players for that, so it is a strategy, and we had two weeks to work on that. We tried to do it but we know every team in the Premier League is suffering with set-pieces. It was a shame because we were not playing very well but also Arsenal was not playing very well.”

Rather than two weeks, Amorim will have had two months to work on Man Utd’s set-piece defending by the time this game kicks off.

The very fact that Hojlund has mentioned it suggests it’s something playing on their minds. Indeed, it’s pretty much the first thing Manchester United have to get right if they’re to stand a chance of stunning Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday and continuing the defence of their FA Cup crown.