Arsenal 2-3 Manchester United: Premier League – as it happened

That’s all for today. Thanks for your company and emails – goodnight!

First of all you have to congratulate Man Utd for the victory. It happened in a really strange way, to be fair, because we were very dominant in the first half an hour. We scored the goal and had two more brilliant chances to score – and then we gave them the goal, which is very unusual from our side. That changed the momentum and the energy a little bit.

After that we dropped our standard a bit; we have to do much better with the ball. And then they had two magic moments from Dorgu and Cunha – credit to them because in big games you need those moments. We were carrying a little bit of that negativity, and the lack of fluidity we needed.

It’s a really painful one. But now is the time to be very, very close to the players who have given us so much joy and so many [great] performances, and to support them.

They are very dangerous and we knew that. We have to learn from it. Defeats are part of winning, and you have to take them like this because [the team] need to be reminded how good they are.

I hope I don’t have to [send a message to the supporters]. When we win, it’s easy. When we draw or lose, that’s when we have to show togetherness, the unity, the energy to get where we want. Defeats are part of that for us and for any team.

We were brilliant at Stamford Bridge [in the Carabao Cup] and against Inter, one of the best teams in Europe. Sometimes it’s not your day and you don’t do the simple things as well as you need to – and on top of that, look at the goals they scored. Sometimes you have to give credit to the opponents as well.

[Did you think Dorgu handled it?] I haven’t looked at it. It’s fine, it’s gone, we can do nothing about it.

I take responsbility for everything. We move on and in three days we have another game.

[Do the players need to be freed up?] I don’t think so. Four days ago, how free and fluid they looked in Milan. It was unbelievable. No excuses. We accept the defeat, we congratulate the opponent and we move forward.

Roy Keane on Matheus Cunha’s winner

The power and the accuracy in this strike… I call it a Man Utd goal. This is what you want to see from United players. I’d watch that all night. Brilliant goal!

On Patrick Dorgu’s potential handball, the replays aren’t conclusive so the VAR decision to award the goal was correct. At the time I thought it hit his arm. Now, having seen a few replays, my instinct is it came off his hip.

The Emirates Stadium was a sea of anxiety. The Arsenal fans are acutely aware that a first Premier League title since 2004 is within their grasp and when it is so tantalising, it will be fraught. Especially when matches like this become a grind. When the attacking patterns do not work. When the team looks vulnerable.

Arsenal could feel their nearest rivals, Manchester City and Aston Villa, on their backs. Both had both won to cut their lead at the top to four points. Mikel Arteta’s team had drawn their previous two league matches 0-0 – against Liverpool and Nottingham Forest. They were desperate for something here and when Patrick Dorgu put Manchester United 2-1 up with a scorching drive early in the second half, they would have taken anything. They would end with nothing – apart from a thumping headache.

It wasn’t good enough from us. It’s hard to tell exactly [what went wrong], we need some time to analyse it. The performance wasn’t good enough but it’s time to stick together, even more, and to just bounce back.

We were the better team in the first half. We scored the goal and had control, but we had a lot of giveaways during the game that created dangerous moments. In the second half the momentum changed a bit.

[Was there a nervousness today?] No, I don’t think so. We were well prepared for the game and started strongly.

It was never gonna be easy in the league, we know that. We’re still top of the league. We have to stick together, keep going and bounce back straight away.

“What a bonkers game this is Rob,” writes Steve Bradfield. “A few weeks ago Man U were in crisis, last week it was City, this morning it was Liverpool and now it’ll be Arsenal.”

Harry Maguire (the player of the match)

It’s absolutely massive. One-off results can happen in a derby so we had to back it up today. Arsenal ask a lot of questions of you, so to have a late setback and still get the win… it’s a magnificent performance.

Michael’s been brilliant with us. He’s brought fresh energy and galvanised the group. Two tough games, so to win both is magnificent.

We’ve got a bigger squad now with the lads back from Afcon, and we’ve got players like Matheus to come on. I’m sure he’s not happy being on the bench, I know what he’s like, but I must say he’s made the difference for us in both games.

They started the game really well, but after 20 minutes I felt we got a grip on the game and started being braver on the ball. I think we were comfortable in the second half. Their biggest threat was set-plays, they managed to score one – it was a scrappy goal and something we’d have to look at. But like I said, we have quality that can hurt teams and we managed to do that today.

[The fans are still singing behind you…] It’s been a tough few years for them. Results like last week, and like tonight, are what they deserve.

Matheus Cunha (the matchwinner)

[Is it your best moment for United so far?] 100 per cent. These are the games you dream of playing in; the games you watch on television and want to be part of. It means everything.

[On being sub] Everyone wants to play, everyone has the quality to play, but the first thing is to give everything to help this team. We did it well today.

Michael Carrick walks over to the away fans, waves for them to make more noise and then clenches his fist in triumph. That is a helluva win for Manchester United. They weren’t as dominant as last week, but they were never going to be away to Arsenal. In some ways – their response to adversity, the quality of the goals – this was more impressive.

Arsenal are beaten at home for the first time this season, and their new year wobble is in danger of becoming something more serious. Eight days ago they had the chance to go nine points clear at the top; now they lead Man City and Aston Villa by four with 15 games to play.

Oh, and Manchester United are up to fourth after winning a Premier League game at the Emirates for the first time since 2017. A flawed but fascinating game was settled by a barnstorming late goal from the substitute Matheus Cunha.

90+8 min Gyokeres fouls the last defender Martinez. The referee allows play to continue, just in case, and Gyokeres’s shot is blocked by Lammens anyway.

90+6 min Martinez makes an important lunging challenge on Saka in the area. The own goal aside, Martinez has been excellent.

90+4 min A loose square pass from Saliba runs across to Fernandes, who tries to score from the halfway line with Raya out of his area, never mind his goal. He gets it all wrong and the ball flies miles wide.

Can you call it a chance when it’s from the halfway line? For a player of Fernandes’s class I think it was, certainly with Raya so far out.

90+4 min Arsenal move the ball left, then right, then left again. They’ve created very little in open play, though Man Utd deserve a lot of credit for their defending as well.

90+3 min “Forest fan, zero love for Arsenal, happy Manyoo are starting to play well,” says Mark Turner. “How that Dorgu goal was allowed to stand is beyond my ken.”

We’ll hear plenty about it I’m sure.

90+1 min Rice’s corner is punched away well by Lammens. Cunha tries to break and is pulled back by Eze; he’s booked.

90 min Arsenal win another corner, this time on the left. There will be seven minutes of added time.

89 min: Man Utd substitution Noussair Mazraoui is on for Amad Diallo, which means a switch to 5-4-1/9-0–1.

What a goal from Matheus Cunha! Unbelievable stuff. He received a cute little pass from Mainoo on the half turn, veered from left to right at an angle and flashed a curling shot around Gabriel from 25 yards. Raya had no chance and it flew into the bottom corner. It shouldn’t be possible to hit a ball that hard with the side of the foot.

Pick that sucker out!

Saka clipped another seriously awkward corner under the crossbar. Lammens tried to come through the crowd but mistimed a punch towards his own goal*. Cunha cleared it off the line and Merino followed up to score. The ball just crossed the line before Sesko lumped it away. For a split second time stood still… until the referee looked at his watch and gave the goal.

* I think it was Lammens but there were so many bodies in there; it may have come off somebody’s head.

Arsenal score from a corner for the 971st time this season !

83 min Saka, on the right side of the area, tries to catch Lammens out with a disguised shot through the legs of Casemiro. Lammens gets down to push it round the near post.

82 min Sesko, just on the field, takes a Bruno Fernandes pass straight in the face and is a bit dazed for 30 the next 30 seconds.

82 min: Man Utd substitution Benjamin Sesko replaces Patrick Dorgu, a strikingly/riskily attacking change in the circumstances. Cunha will move to the left wing.

81 min United are playing on with 10 men for now. Saka’s cross is headed over by Gyokeres, though he thought it should have been a corner. Difficult chance either way.

79 min Dorgu fouls White, loses his balance and then feels his right hamstring while down. I don’t think he’ll be able to continue.

78 min Senne Lammens has had only one routine to save since the 18th minute. It’s a bit of a headscratcher.

77 min “My feeling is that if you were to make a time-lapse video of Arsenal’s momentum over the season, you’d see the pendulum slowly stop and (around now) start to move backwards,” writes Joe Johnson. “They’ve been expending a lot of energy in recent weeks huffing and puffing without blowing teams away, winning by the odd goal, drawing — hanging on, basically, in way that’s not sustainable.”

I know what you mean, though I’m not sure I’d go that far. And I still think they’ll win the league.

75 min: Arsenal substitution Noni Madueke replaces Leandro Trossard. Bukayo Saka has moved across to the left wing.

73 min A decent spell of possession for United until Martinez overhits a pass through to Raya.

72 min Dorgu controls a ball into the area and tries to tee up Mainoo with a backheel. White does well to get in front and clear. Moments later Cunha’s dangerous cross is cut out at the near post by Saka.

71 min Merino’s shot from the edge of the area deflects off the falling Maguire and is saved comfortably by Lammens. It hit Maguire’s hand, in fact, but he was on his way to ground, not dissimilar to Martin Odegaard at Anfield the other year.

69 min: Man Utd substitution Matheus Cunha replaces Bryan Mbeumo, whose equaliser, scored with a resting heart rate, was the turning point of the game. Well, the first three-quarters of the game.

68 min White overhits a tricky but still relatively simple return pass to Saka in the area. Saka was the wrong side of Dorgu and would have had a shooting chance with a better ball.

65 min Rice shoots over from distance. Arsenal, though they are on top at the moment, still look very self-conscious.