Alexis Sanchez came back to haunt Arsenal as the Chilean on Friday opened the scoring in Manchester United’s 3-1 FA Cup fourth-round win to maintain Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s perfect record as caretaker manager.
United’s winning run under the Norwegian is now eight games in all competitions and his decision to make five changes was vindicated as Sanchez and the returning Romelu Lukaku had a huge impact.
Lukaku set up both Sanchez’s opener and Jesse Lingard’s second for the visitors in a two-minute spell just after the half-hour mark.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang reduced Arsenal’s arrears just before halftime and the Gunners had plenty of chances to force a replay, but were denied by Sergio Romero as the rested David de Gea was not missed.
Substitute Anthony Martial then eight minutes from time sealed United’s place in the last 16.
De Gea was the hero when United won 1-0 at Tottenham two weeks ago with a similar counter-attacking style, but Solksjaer believes his side have made progress even from that victory.
“A massive step forward for us performance-wise. The structure of the team was miles better compared to Tottenham when we hung in there and David saved us,” Solskjaer said. “Sergio made a fantastic save just after halftime, but our structure was miles better. We’ve worked on that because we need to defend better against better teams.”
Sanchez was roundly booed on his first visit to the Emirates since moving to Old Trafford just more than a year ago after running down his contract at Arsenal into its final six months.
The move bagged him a highly lucrative deal, but Sanchez has failed to deliver on that investment with a loss of form and injuries contributing to a return of just four goals in 32 appearances before kickoff.
However, handed only a second start since Solskjaer took charge, Sanchez showed why he was once in such high demand as he latched onto Lukaku’s pass before rounding Cech and finishing from a narrow angle for just his second goal of the season.
Solskjaer used Lingard in the middle of a front three with Marcus Rashford and Martial on either side as threats at Tottenham.
A similar tactic with Lukaku and Sanchez this time in the wider areas worked a treat for United’s second as Lukaku broke forward before his low cross was expertly dispatched by Lingard.
Arsenal were also exploiting the space behind Lukaku at will and finally made United pay two minutes before the break.
Aaron Ramsey burrowed into the penalty area and his cross was eventually turned home by Aubameyang.
History is repeating itself for Arsenal with Ramsey also set to leave in the summer after failing to reach an agreement over a new deal, and the Welsh international again proved what a miss he will be as Romero made a brilliant save from point-blank range to deny him an equalizer early in the second period.
“There are two negative things today, the result and the injuries,” Emery said. “When it was 1-2 at that moment we had the possibility to draw.”
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