A rising header from Robin Van Persie enabled Manchester United to beat a shabby looking Arsenal side by the thinnest of margins at Old Trafford here on Sunday night. Arsenal would be disappointed with their performance, specially in their first half, they were a lot better in the second period however couldn’t find the equaliser as United stood firm to a resilient victory, much to the dismay of Arsene Wenger’s boys.

Player Ratings

Manchester United

De Gea 6.5 –  Rarely had anything to save today but commanded his air space well.

Smalling 8 – Defended brilliantly throughout the game. Top performance.

Vidic 6.5 – Played solid but subbed due to a feared head injury.

Evans 8 – Rock solid game. Made some crucial interceptions and blocks.

Evra 7 – Balanced game from the French Left back. Made lot of overlapping runs in attack also helped in defense when Arsenal pressed hard in the second half.

Valencia 6 – Not much of an attacking threat but tracked back well to help the defenders.

Jones 9 – TOP OF THE MATCH – What a performance from the versatile defender. Played as a midfield destroyer in the first half and moved back to central defense after Vidic was subbed. Played well in both the positions.

Carrick 7 – As usual, calm and collective in the midfield. kept things ticking for the Red Devils.

Kagawa 6.5 – Decent game for the Japanese international.

Rooney 8.5 – Energetic 90 mins from United’s top man. But missed an half chance in the second half.

Van Persie 7.5 – Not involved much but scored a stunning header by taking advantage of Arsenal’s zonal marking.

Subs

Cleverley 6

Giggs 6

Fellaini N/A

Arsenal

Wojciech Szczesny 6 – Could have done almost nothing for the goal, apart from that had very little to do, but his distribution was extremely poor. Moreover he got a knock from Phil Jones’ face in the first half which could have ended his game.

Bacary Sagna 7 – Produced many great crosses but sadly there was no one to finish those curlers.

Laurent Koscielny 5.5 – Did a decent job with some good blocks and clearances.

Thomas Vermaelen 5 – It was his first game in a long time. Vermaelen didn’t have the best of games, but didn’t make too much of mistakes either.

Kieran Gibbs 5 – Was good at moving forward, but didn’t overlap at times when required, had a bulging shot which parried into De Gea’s hands. Though he did his job, wasn’t responsible however for the goal.

Mathieu Flamini 4 – FLOP OF THE GAME – lot of misplaced passes, poor positioning and looked totally out of sorts today.

Mikel Arteta 5 – Had a poor game at the office given his standards, did almost nothing throughout the match as Arsenal consistently lost the midfield battle.

Aaron Ramsey 4.5-  Didn’t look the kind of the player who has been in a hot scoring streak so far this campaign. Did try to push late on, but failed to make an impact

Mesut Ozil 4.5 – For a big name star, you are expected to perform on the big stage, but didn’t show his true Class. Had some passes going astray which is hardly expected from the German.

Santi Cazorla 4.5 – Poor game by his standards. Offered zero creativity. Played too narrow and hardly had an impact.

Olivier Giroud 4.5 – Totally isolated by United defense. He couldn’t hold up the ball, which he normally does. He did the get the balls but couldn’t do anything from those. Hardly had a shot on goal.

Subs:

Jack Wilshere 5

Nicklas Bendtner 3 – Poor game missed an easy chance to score during the closing stages of the game.

Serge Gnabry N/A

Highlights