Arsenal and Man Utd in title race showdown

Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho

(Image credit: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

published 1 December 2017

Arsenal host Manchester United on Saturday evening in a match that will have serious implications for the club’s Premier League aspirations. With Manchester City eight points clear of their neighbours and twelve ahead of the fourth-placed Gunners, defeat for either club at the Emirates could be a fatal blow if City maintain their unbeaten start to the season with victory at home to West Ham on Sunday.

Arsenal and United scored nine goals between them this week, the Gunners romping to a 5-0 win against Huddersfield and Jose Mourinho’s side seeing off Watford 4-2. Four points and two places separate the fierce rivals but, despite their lowlier league position, Arsenal are favourites given their home advantage and the fact they haven’t lost to United during Mourinho’s reign. In fact, should the north London club triumph it would be the first time in Premier League history that they have won three consecutive home matches against United.

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Asked if he was expecting Mourinho to “park the bus” at the Emirates, Wenger replied: “No, I don’t expect anything special. I just expect us to be ready to recover now. Man Utd is a strong team and I expect us just to cope with the problems they will give us. They will attack as well. They will not only defend… I just want to focus and to prepare well my team, and give my team a good chance to win the game.”

Victory over Arsenal – unbeaten at home in the Premier League since losing to Watford in January – would not only be another humiliation for Wenger but for Mourinho it would be United’s first away win in eight attempts against top-six opposition. Since taking over at Old Trafford in the summer of last year, he has seen his side draw three and lose four of their matches on the road against the Premier League’s big boys. Most alarmingly, in those seven matches United have managed just one goal.

Meanwhile, the Daily Mail provides more impressive statistics, claiming that Saturday’s match will be the Premier League’s first “billion-pound game”. Taking its cue from the financial analysts Vysyble, the Mail explains that the report is based on the combined turnover of the two rivals, with Arsenal achieving a revenue of £424m in the 2016-17 season while in the same period United posted a record £581m, taking the clubs’ total to £1.05bn. The Mail helpfully puts some perspective on those figures, saying “it is enough cash to run the National Health Service for three days or pay for 22 new secondary schools”.

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