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Pre-match reading
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There are no surprises in either team, with various star players returning after being rested in the week. It looks like a diamond midfield for United and the usual 3-4-3 for Arsenal. Saka v Wan-Bissaka should be fun.
Man Utd (4-D-2) de Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Shaw; McTominay; Fred, Pogba; Fernandes; Rashford, Greenwood.
Substitutes: Henderson, Williams, Tuanzebe, Mata, Matic, van de Beek, Cavani.
Hello and welcome to Manchester United v Arsenal, a fixture that lives in the there and then. Whenever these teams meet, we get a new montage or a feature on the good old days of Keane and Vieira. It’s becoming a bit embarrassing. Not because that nine-year rivalry is overhyped – it was the greatest in English football history – but because it was so long ago. It’s like putting a picture from 2005 on your dating profile.
The problem is that this grand old fixture has let itself go a bit. Most of the games in the last decade have been forgettable. There was the 8-2 in 2011, a decent FA Cup quarter-final in 2015, Marcus Rashford’s famous league debut in 2016 and a pulsating game at the Emirates a year later, but not much else. And none of the matches were a means of determining the best team in England.
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