Arsenal’s suffer hard luck defeat at Manchester United

There was a distinct sense of optimism heading into a notoriously tricky fixture on Sunday afternoon. In stark contrast to last season, the Gunners were flying and had won all five of their previous matches.

However, coming to Old Trafford was going to be the biggest test for this young team, and unfortunately, after dominating the game, Arsenal returned to north London with their tails between their legs.

The Gunners were the better side, having more shots on goal and dominating possession (60.5%), but were undone twice by devastating United transitions.

The defeat is brutal to swallow for Arsenal as VAR again caused controversy after ruling out Gabriel Martinelli’s opener as Martin Odegaard was adjudged to have fouled Christian Eriksen, to which United then scored against the run of play 11 minutes later.

While the result is not what the club wanted, they are still top of the league after six games which any supporter would have taken at the start of the year. Up next, Arsenal kick off their Europa League campaign away to FC Zurich on Thursday.